An Unknown Story of a Known Face

Most of us will be familiar seeing a face staring from various buildings, houses, complex etc. You can also notice such figurines lurking in roadside waiting for some one to buy. Well, this is a common face in India known to everyone, especially in South. However, do we know there is a folk story of this face?

Well, if someone asks what is this or why it is placed on any buildings, the most common response we get is – it’s a “dristi bombe”. A doll kept scaring away the evil eyes.

From childhood most of us would have heard similar answer – it is a distract kept on top of any good, expensive building which will reduce the impact of any wicked senses, and keep such place safe, isn’t it? I was in assumption for many years and never bothered to find the details behind it until recently came across a mythological story related to it.

Yes, there is a story embedded in our famous classic Mahabharata…!!

Just before the start of Kurukshetra war, Krishna was thinking about the upcoming war and came across an archer who was practicing with great precise. Looking at his talent he spent some more time observing him and in one aim practice, archer shoots down all but 5 ½ leaves from a tree in a single arrow. Krishna was impressed at this talent but also curious to know why 5 ½ leaves was left and ask the archer.

Archer introduces himself as Urdhvaroma, son of Bheema and says when the Kurukshetra war happens, he will take side of Pandava’s and eliminate all others in the war. Thus those 5 leaves are of Pandava’s and ½ for Krishna.

Though Krishna is impressed with Urdhvaroma, he doesn’t want to these to happen, since his vision for the war was different and Urdhvaroma’ s presence will eliminate the very purpose of war. Krishna asks him to join him for further journey towards camp.

In the camp, Pandava’s were performing a Havan and as part of ritual they need to sacrifice a living creature.

Krishna entrusts this to Urdhvaroma, asking him to get a creature which has scary face and full of straightened hairs, without which Pandava’s can’t complete the Havan and may not be able to win the war.

Urdhvaroma having taken side of Pandava’s start searching for that description, but never to be found. Tired of roaming and thirsty, he goes to a pond for water. Just when he bends to gulp some water, his reflection is seen in pond and that gives a shock to him. Yes, his face is comparable to Krishna’s ask for sacrifice. He realizes, it is his life been asked for the victory of Pandava’s.

With sadness but determined, Urdhvaroma returns to the camp and lies down beneath a cloth, on the bench kept for the creature.

Krishna asks Bheema to sacrifice the creature beneath the cloth by chopping off the parts from toe onwards. Bheema follows the instructions, without realizing who is lying there.

Up on reaching neck, while the creature is still alive, Bheema feels awry and unveils the cloth, to see the horror of his son been chopped by him as sacrifice for war.

Too late to reversible, Bheema is disheartened by his act however needs to move forward.

Urdhvaroma seeks blessings from Bheema and ask Krishna if he can be alive till the war ends, which is granted and his head is kept in safe distance, to watch all 18 days war of Kurukshetra.

Not only that, for the great sacrifice Urdhvaroma did by offering his own life, he is also blessed that he will be remembered forever by keeping his head replica in front of all houses for generations to come and he will safeguard such places from evil eyes.

 

Note: This story may not appear in all the versions of the Mahabharata. However, there are so many stories and sub stories connected with this great classic and in one of such folk stories, came across this incident.

There can be various other versions of Urdhvaroma or Dristi Bombe concept. There are numerous stories around the arrow and conversation follows, however, this is an attempt to capture the stories read and heard from different sources. Have referred numerous articles, stories videos, plays, spoke to elders in family for information and got this created. If not for originality, you can treat this as a simple story on bravery and sacrifice.

 

A New Tax Reform –Benefit for All!!

Introduction:

As the preparation for the 2020 Budget will kick start in few weeks, proposing this idea to Government which might be useful not only to individual tax payers but also to the organizations and Administration.

One of the biggest challenge we are facing in any major Indian city is Traffic. We are spending hours while commuting to work, wasting manpower, burning fuels, creating pollution and ending up with frustration and ill-health.

The measures taken by authorities to improve the situation is only a small step. Major problem is how to involve all the stakeholders in addressing this issue.

With creation of new type jobs from late 90’s, the once so called luxury and dream purchase –two and four wheeler has become a common commodity.Cheap loans from banks is also pushing more vehicles in to road.

It is becoming very common to have one or two personal bike / car and not to depend on the public transport. With increasing salary it is also easy to afford and maintain as it is only a part of the income earned.

Peak hours traffic shows the above examples – big cars with single person driving occupies majority of jams and in between are numerous bikes trying to squeeze in, either on road or pavements. This is common especially in front of IT Parks and Industrial Areas.

Many of the companies are also providing bus facilities as part of their benefit schemes, however very few employees are using it. If we question what makes them not to use such facilities – most of them will talk about being independent and also to some extent social status.

This is not only creating chaos on the road but also causing India a big lose in terms of fuel import to keep feeding these vehicles.  Approximately India imports 82% of its oil need at a staggering cost of $ 112 Billion!!

No matter how much road expansion we keep doing, if there is no control on the number of vehicles on street, it will never solve the problem or rather we might end with only roads all over!! This obviously causes destruction of greenery, water-body and complete ecology resulting in deteriorated health.

Suggestion:

Mayor of Colombian capital Bogota once said “A developed country is not a place where the poor have cars. It's where the rich use public transport” we need to encourage more number of people to go for such modes.

With lakhs of employees commuting daily to their workplace, why don’t we encourage employers / organizations to provide Bus / Cab facilities to their employees and motivate employees to use it?

To boost this, as part of tax structure can we introduce below scheme:

• Individuals  using public transport / mass transit / company provided cabs or buses should be given tax rebate as part of their income tax rebates
• Companies which provides bus / cabs to their employees should be given corporate tax benefit while they are filling their annual returns.

General mindset of commoner is to save money whenever such offers are made from Government. If it is part of incomes tax rebates, sure more number of people will start subscribing for mass transport. Even companies will encourage it since they will also get tax benefits. 

Government will not be under loss due to such schemes, because it will be saving in millions by reduced fuel consumption resulting lower import of oil. Cost of expanding roads and environment destruction can also be avoided.

Yes, this might reduce demand in automotive industry for newer personal vehicles however it will create employment for trained drivers and mass vehicles.

This might be only a small suggestion, which will have challenges to implement, however, with tumbling environment condition, there is urgent steps to be taken by Corporate and Government to safeguard the larger interest. Let’s brainstorm them….

(Postscript - While writing this blog remembered about an article which I discarded without publishing in 2012-13, only to see it became a big news after few years and regret I didn’t publish.

Title was - Make in India vs Made in India..!!

Even now I am not sure if this proposal is best, however recording it here for any future reference, as there is need for alternative for sure)

Celebrating Democracy….. in India!!

We have come long way in being part of political and electoral process in just 10 years.

In 2009 when campaigning and asking people to vote (including statement – any one is ok, but please vote!!), many asked what the use is?!! They had lost hope,cynical and felt politics is not for educated, youngsters.I still remember spending my 100 SMS package promoting election and in that exhausting many messages,convincing people why they should vote!! Nevertheless,the interest level among them didn’t increase and rather I got advice to stay away from it.

Then came the silver lining in 2014 when large number of youths started attending political rallies,volunteers meet etc. especially for BJP,might be due to series of scams we had witnessed by than ruling government , fear of national security etc. promoted this change. In one of the meet in Bengaluru,first time I saw houseful attendance in a large convention hall.People from all background had come to register as volunteers.

2019 took things to different level.Same contacts who were not even interested to discuss in 2009 were promoting NAMO in a big way.Followed them and others in various social media and felt there is greater participation and interest this time by people.Many conclaves were conducted, in neighborhoods, addressing specific issues which would cater different sets of people.Tools like WatsApp and Facebook played bigger role in communicating the message.

Most of the volunteers I met were professionals, businessmen who were not member of any political party but joined together at their individual level & friends circle. No matter whom they supported, this kind of participation itself is great positive impact on our society.

Today, when the mandate was getting delivered,many called/sent messages wishing and congratulating the victory!! Felt like there is some festival and people are celebrating. Yes, indeed,it is "festival of democracy”, which many countries dream of having.I also came across people distributing sweets in neighborhood and some households preparing it for dinner. And yes, they were not part of any party politics but for sheer respect for a leader.

With this, it ends the first part, to vote and select. Next, let’s no matter whom we preferred,voted and will be ruling ( as the majority will get the power as per democratic process), it’s time to get involved in the governance, in whichever form and forum we get opportunity to participate... To make a stronger and secured India.  

Before I conclude, we always heard- Yatha Raaja, Thatha Prajaa (rough translation: like king, citizens behave)

Is it just coincidence, unlike past, citizens are also showing great interest in issues pertaining to country, being nationalist and saying “India first”??!! food for thought...

Jai Hind…!!

Can we afford another Accidental Prime Minister…?

As the battle of 2019 draws closer, it’s time to voice the opinion in forums. It has the risk of being called Bhakt but then it doesn’t matter, since it’s better than being a Chela of dynastic politics.

Though personally refrained from posting much of pro-government related info from many years, few incidents made to rethink.

Few months ago, saw a post saying King XYZ built Fort, Emperor ABC built Palace but Modi could build only toilets and few others saying he is fit for that only. Well people don’t realize, infrastructure is also of prime importance along with monuments. In 2014 the rural sanitation of India was 39% and today it has crossed 92%.

Irony was when the Statue of Unity got inaugurated and same people questioned on why to spend crores of money when India has so many other issues!!   

Well in democracy everyone has right to raise their opinion and it’s the beauty of system and I am not against it.

However, it is also phase where we need to share the positive work being done from past few years. Yes, I do agree there were few flaws but the schemes introduced outnumbered defects and that information need to be shared to the mass. There are hundreds of topics we can be proud of – from Udan to Generic Medical to Neem Coated Urea to National Security to River Port Systems.

Recently observed series of deleterious propaganda on various forums without giving a single appreciation to government with sole objective of creating negative opinion during elections.

It's time for people to shun the shyness and be open and accept that they support the government and talk for it. If we think anyways we don’t care such negative news over the actual good work done and ignore it, this will lead to catastrophic effect.

There are large number of people who are fence sitters with no awareness which side of the story to trust nor part of any ideology. If we don’t share the positive news, than sure we will lose them.

At this point of time we don’t have any other mass leader who can pull everyone together. We know what happened when a strong leader is not chosen, how small parties play their self-centered politics.

No sapling will become tree overnight, let’s give chance for the just sown seed to grow, after all we had patience for 60 years, and another few years should not be a problem.

Even after all this, if NDA loses in 2019, its ok, it is people opinion, but at least there will be no regret that common people should have joined hands to educate others on above factors.

At the end,the big question is -Is India ready for an Accidental Prime Minister in 2019 ..?

Tribute to a True Leader …

Sometime in 1996, laying on hospital bed, my grandfather wanted to know what happened to the just concluded General Election results. Someone said - BJP got more seats and might sworn-in.

Within short time, a TV was arranged with antenna connection (Since cable TV was not available) inside the ward and then moment arrived, next few days – Atal Bihari Vajpayee became PM for first time.

Being a RSS Volunteer and erstwhile Janasangh (now BJP) worker, grandfather felt delighted. Though he was in pain due to ongoing treatment, he was happy that there was a new era in Indian Politics.

Soon after, grandfather passed away, however, he left this impress memory in me on how a leader can bring in smile even in agony.

This was the time I was entering high school and my thought process was getting developed. Started following Politics and Current Affairs in details and identify my alignment on political system.

Between 1998-2004, Atalji ruled India for 6 years. In this tenure, we had examples of extending friendship through Lahore Bus and teaching treason a lesson through Kargil War. Courage of facing world through Nuclear Test and sanctions by super powers. A PM with Poet in him without losing firmness on the governance along with many best projects for India.

By 2004, being a student of history, had read glimpse of erstwhile rulers in Independent India and Atalji’s rule made me a restored Nationalist and have a clear view on politics.

He was true statesman, who stayed away from politics after losing unexpectedly in 2004, which only enhanced his stature.

His demise today, bought lots of fond memories and feeling of vacuum. True loss of a Ratna living with us in our Bharat. His life will be remembered for many generations to come… This is a tribute from a common man with ashrutharpana ….a rare for a politician. 

Maut Ki Umra Kya Hai…? Do Pal Bhi Nahi. ….. Zindagi Silsila, Aaj Kal Ki Nahi - ABV

x

Celebrate the Great Indian Marriage – a Different Perspective

When our state is busy preparing for an election season, when all the social groups, newspapers and TV channels are full of for and against discussions and turning every event in country in to politics, thought of giving a break to it and write something about another season in a different perspective – The Wedding Season.

Wedding Season!! Yes, the topic for this month blog is all about the great Indian Marriages and the economics behind it.

Our Indian culture gives a great importance to the marriage. It’s a celebrating moment, not only for groom and bride, but, it’s a festivity to their family, friends and extended circles too.  It’s months together planning, working for weeks and gathering for days in names of rituals, programs, and fun.

As Indian economy is growing, the celebration is also reaching different levels. Few years ago, if any marriage is happening in Palace Grounds (one of most prominent venue at Bengaluru), it used be talk of the town and if someone gets invite , it was a must attend program. However, now, it has become a common sight with many families able to spend crores for wedding of their daughter or son and there are regular invites for such grand events.

Nevertheless, whenever a grand wedding is happening, I have come across  debates among friends, relatives, even in Media about how and why the respective families are wasting money. There will be endless comments, mostly criticizing on food varieties, fireworks, musical events, richness etc.… however, it’s time to look at such programs in a different perspective and not be a critic.

If anyone is spending crores of money for such event, that means they can afford it and they are purposely conducting such marriage. Why should people be critical on it when the organizers are not anxious about it?  No one will spend exuberant if they don’t have money or can’t afford it.   

The most important note of such events is, how it helps in improving the Indian economy. Yes, the more such rich wedding happens, the more economy grows. How...?

When an affluent family spends more and more money for grand programs, the money accumulated in them will come out to market. They are removing money from their caskets and market will witness flow of cash.

Look at the economic impact. A grand event results in creating jobs to hundreds of people. Starting from security guards, housekeeping, entertainers, caterers etc. otherwise they would have ended up in unemployment, indirectly even their family is benefited.

It also helps numerous industries. Take any event for example and recall the elements it had. From paper cups to popcorns to garments, from photographers to drones, from tissues to cab services there is a direct demand created across manufacturing and service sectors. Don’t forget the grandiose silk sarees and jewelry business which runs mostly on such occasions.  Any such increased production & services also helps in overall growth of industry with back and front end chains getting activated for supplying raw materials , logistics etc. With all this, tax collection for Government will see steady increases.

It doesn’t end here.  The most important benefit will be for Farmers!! From humble banana leaves to hundreds of kilos of vegetables, pulses and grains, fruits, flowers for decorations there is a chain of demand created across sectors.

With so many benefits, no matter if we can’t afford for such grand celebration or not, next time, when you get an invite, don’t heed to the critics and their comments, instead, do attend, bless the couple, enjoy the ambiances, meet people, have royal food, feel proud of our heritage and at end, have gratitude that some more cash is out in market and you supported economy and employment..!!

Crackers, Cars and Celebrations ……

Bijili -  3 packets, Flower Pot – 1 , Parachute Rocket – 1 Box, Vishnu Chakra – 1 Box, Train – 1 , Lakshmi – 3 packets…………… the list goes on.

What is this list? This use to be prepared by me, during my school days, weeks before Deepavali. In other words, it was my demand list for the festival. I am sure, this was not only my nostalgic, but every kid of that age in those days used to do this.

This was not only about bursting crackers, it was celebrations, fun, get together with family and friends.

Infact, every Indian Festival, irrespective of religion, region, and languages – it has that basic essences which is required for human beings – care, fun, nature, family, friends, light, colour, water, culture, dance , songs etc. along with spirituality which is essential to keep the body and mind in good shape.

We in India celebrated every festival for thousands of years. We are known for it across the world. Every festivities feels like entire society is gearing up, irrespective of their connection with that particular festival.

 

Fast Forward – After Twenty years….

In recent years, suddenly there is inflow of messages in smart phones & Medias, on how every festival which was celebrated for centuries is creating pollution and endangering humans.  How water, air is getting destroyed by us in name of festivities. Take pledge and make children to take pledges, create awareness ….…..

Is it not irony that, most of these messages are created by same people, who were celebrating it when they were kids?! . When they wanted to enjoy they did so and now for the next generation they are preaching not to do so.

Well, if bursting crackers is worrying them, what measures they have taken to reduce air pollution caused by thousands of cars driven every day for commuting to office.  Is it not true, we see every day that most of this cars are single driven.

The major cause of air pollution this days is burning of fossil fuels, especially in Metros. It is also leading to huge traffic jams.  Hours together we sit in car, switch on AC, and curse the system but we don’t realise we are polluting air that time.

How many households have installed rain water harvesting to improve the water table, even after repeated appeal by various authorities? How many of us have seen lakes being destroyed by encroachers and keep our eyes closed.

Is it not we who cut down the trees in front of our sites, because it will spoil the look of the building?

Come to Bengaluru, we have public transport like BMTC, Metro, Taxis, Local Trains , car pool apps etc. in addition, many of the companies are giving cab services to its employees . How many of us make use of it?

If people are so much concerned about Deepavali pollution of three days , appreciated, however, it will be much better if they start using above system and protect world from pollution, traffic jams which will also save time , money and valuable foreign exchange to India ( by reducing fuel imports). There is one saying – the richness of a country is not measured by number of people travel by car, but how many use public transport.

In foreign countries when they do a massive firework show, we enjoy it in forwarded WhatsApp video, appreciate their enthusiasm in doing it, dreamt of going there one day, meanwhile back at home,  when an entire country of billion people gears up for such celebrations, criticisms will start to flow.

Well, this article is not about criticising the concerns people have about world, but also to highlight the hypocrisy we have in society where we don’t do - walk the talk.

Let us stop looking everything in lenses of negativity. We are having a rich heritage of celebration, let us continue it. Otherwise after few years, we will be celebrating everything in smart phones, a device which connects mobile numbers but not hearts and souls.

It may also happen one day, we will tell children – Once up on a time, in India we celebrated Deepavali... Festival of Light... We celebrated Holi... Festival of Colours which we stopped due to……….

Dasera Dasappa of Mandya & Dignified Coolies of India…

Scene 1:

Dasera Dasappa is a character in one of the famous books by Mr. H.L. Nagegowda. In his book “Nannuru” the author gives a detailed description of his village in a remote corner of Mandya in Karnataka. It revolves around the social situation of 60’s & 70’s

Throughout the novel, we find many such people who are economically poor, but rich in culture & heritage, with high regards to well-being of fellow people, lively,by finding happiness in even small things.

One Such character is Dasappa, whose ultimate dream is to visit Mysore during Dasera and watch the procession live with his wife & two sons. For this purpose, he saves his life earnings, collects resources from neighbours, plans day by day itinerary and when he starts his journey to Mysore, entire village assembles to wish them safe journey. Some of them even give their wish list to get from the city.

On reaching city, he and his family feel proud of achieving their aim of life but also felt lost in that richness and crowd. In one episode, they visit a restaurant and order masala dosa’s for entire family and when the bill arrives they are shocked, since it takes away lot of money from their kitty which they never imagined in their small world.  Similar funny events are recorded when they get stuck while crossing the traffic, or buying of clothes,or watching Dasera procession.  

Even in their insufficiency, the family stays together, enjoys the journey in different aspects and takes the reader to the timeline of what would have been the simple life of such people.

There was no money, social media, TV or mobile. But there was more values in life, affections in family, in person connect with nature, friends and relatives...

Scene 2:

Some weeks ago, happened to be in a lecturer session, where an intellectual was speaking on individual wellness. He used one word which I felt very interesting and haunting – the current generation is more inclined to become “Dignified Coolies of India”. Am I also one?  The answer was surely - Yes!!

No doubt, the IT ITES revolution has brought in sea changes to our country in terms of employment opportunities and revenue to all sectors. But at what cost?

Today if any country in Americas or Europe sneezes, we will shiver. If they cough we drink water, is it required to be so over dependent on foreign countries economy to run our own country?

Look at China, even they have huge population, but they are not entirely dependent on the particular industry. They are dominating in most of the manufacturing sectors, and mostly running their economy on own,by encouraging exports.

In the name of technical advance, most of us have forgotten the basic requirements of life. We are glued to system for hours together, followed by virtual friends. Lost interest in our festivals but eagerly interested in different types of days what foreigners celebrate. We have acquired that negative feeling which says our culture, religion; customs are inferior compared to foreign countries.

Remember those days when we played on sand, on roads with tops, on terrace with kites, nothing happened to us. But why is that sudden change in our attitude. With advance of technology, we have side-lined our traditional games and sports, not introducing such things to our kids but make them addicted to tabs at young age? Is it next gen coolies getting ready for serving foreign soil? 

We are becoming too complicated, due to the impact of corporate culture in personal life as well. We are losing sensitivity towards our own society in the race of making more dollars. In a way, our life is getting billed by someone else for every hour we are alive!!

I am not saying we should not work for others, but we should not give away our life for some other country like this. We have our capabilities to become entrepreneurs, business initiatives and try exploring it.

Even if we work, we should not give away our Indianness from our life. No matter how beautiful the neighbouring house is, end of the day, we sleep comfortable only in our house..Similarly no matter how good other country might be, for us, India is ultimate. We need to keep that in mind. If something is not correct here, let’s use try to change it instead of always criticizing it.

Let’s dedicate some time in our routine to society, family, and friends. At end no one will remember how many assignments I have closed for some client, but what matters is, how we spent time with family, and what was my contribution to fellow people and country is.

There are many opportunities we can find these days to distress ourselves from the hectic life, we need to show some interest and start identifying such chance which connects us back to our roots.  Try doing this and see the change...

Why AAP should not be Hamara Choice, at least this time!!

Before becoming critic on the AAP, let us also take this opportunity to congratulate them for creating interest on politics in Indian youth. When politics was actually becoming playground for some scam stars and unfaithful leaders, AAP created buzz among us on the political beliefs and drew substantial crowd in to it.

But its stops there…!!

Let us review some points on why this time voting for AAP may not be the right choice for Hum (we).

1. Ideology Factor – what is the belief of this party? Is it right, centre or left. Are they conservative, liberal? No one is sure what they want to achieve. Yes corruption is one of the biggest evil in India but one word “corruption” can’t be an ideology for long run. Any party in the world participating in democratic process will have some principals, but this is missing in AAP.

During the rule of 49 days, how many “U turns” they took?  We might have lost count. This happens with parties who are not sure what they should achieve for the people.  

When asked, they didn’t have idea on foreign relations and how we can expect them to run a country like India with multiple borders.

It seems they are more eager to contest parliament election and become rulers of the country, and how it’s possible to get 272 seats without aligning with any fronts? Isn’t it overzealous?

2. Failure to run government – no matter what reasons this party leaders give, it’s evident that they actually abandoned the government in 49 days and came back to election mode. They had golden opportunity to run, prove themselves in administration but they let down their own supporters by escapism.

They are propagating of not supporting or take support of any fronts, and is it possible to win power without support of others? Every vote we cast will go waste; since it’s sure they will not come to power on their own and might repeat the Delhi story again even if they get few seats.

3. Tie up with Congress – after fighting congress in Delhi resentfully, what was the need for tying up with them again. Isn’t it like accepting your enemy as friend just for the sake of power? When the mandate came, it was not for AAP but BJP leading and second large was they. Congress was routed to third position that means it was clear anti incumbency. In such a scenario tying up with congress is nothing but opportunistic politics or is it supporting the rumors that they are “B team” of congress, given birth to divide anti congress votes, keeping BJP/NDA away from power?

4. Street Dramas – being a CM of a state, is like taking responsibility of the affairs and well being of citizens, but this might be a rare incident of CM sitting Dharana demanding few things? Isn’t it anarchy or trying to hide from responsibilities in name of Dharana?

One of their ministers was involved in a raid , mid of the night , in the name of controlling crimes , what kind of administration we can expect from such minster’s who try to take law in to their hands and create lawlessness. Let’s not forget, this incident could have affected our international relations with other countries.

5  5. Targeting Particular Party - time and again it was rumored the AAP is a B Team of Congress, helping them to retain power, though it was not proved with evidence. But the conduct of party in the lokhsabha elections, is pointing towards that direction.

Why AAP is interested in fighting only Modi, and forgotten the incumbent congress? Are they not finding any scams? Or is tactical deafness to keep away from them?

It’s really comical to see, a person who couldn’t govern for 49 days keep criticizing an opponent who has run government for more than 10 years and even more funnier when he keeps quiet of congress/UPA governance.

Let them start governing local bodies, corporations and slowly get in to bigger ring after proving their governance.

Dear Friends, think twice before voting this time, every vote is valuable. We are in verge of writing history, if we make mistake of voting wrong people, with doubtful intentions, we will regret later. Spread the message; let’s be part of making history.

The time is ripped, flower is ready to bloom, let’s not swipe it with hand!! 

Our Rulers and Missing Priorities

Those who are following current affairs and policy decisions in India, may always wonder what is our need of the hour and on what we need to give priority.

Most of the schemes announced by our rulers are drawn by the popular word “Vote Bank”. For sake of getting their votes secured, the larger interest of the nation has been mismanaged. 

Driving in the roads of Bengaluru has become one of the best games you can play in real time. Potholes (or we should say craters) are filled all around. Sometimes I wonder if this is purposely done to encourage rain water harvesting through those craters for improving the depleting water level beneath.

Though food inflation is rising day by day, will our farmers get benefit of higher profit? I doubt and if it happens,I don’t mind paying little more for our poor farmers efforts. But, most of the higher prices we are paying will be swallowed down by “n” number of middlemen’s looting both producers and consumers.

In rural areas, those who are in to farming know the difficulty in getting laborers for their agro work. Migration has increased and people tend to live in cities with mere salary than being in village. What is that required to encourage this people to get in to agriculture, tiny & village industries , folk artists etc , back in village and avoid this mad rush to cities. 

These are some of the action points requiring urgent attention of our rulers... BUT.... in reality?

Look at the recent verdict Honorable court ruled against Akhilesh’s Govt. in UP. Though thousands of people of all community were affected due to unfortunate riots, he declared compensation for only members of a community and others were ignored.  What will be the impact of this decision on two neighbours of different communities, lived friends for hundred years; now, one gets support and other is ignored. What will happen to their psychology towards each other and faith?

In Karnataka, our government has announced a scheme of giving Rs. 50,000 and some material for selected economically weak bride of particular religion as wedding gift. Good, but why is this apathy done towards others?  Are there no poor girls among other religions? And if only selected brides are given than what about thousands of other poor girls? And most important question is why wasting public money in this kind of schemes? After uproar, from all sectors including those who belong to the benefited group, now government is planning to extend it to others, however the damage is already done.

I don’t know if you have noticed hoardings in many part of Bengaluru on a scheme called “Ksheera Bhaghya” (meaning Milk Scheme – giving free milk to school children). No doubt this is good initiative, helps both farmers and children in schools, but if you observe the hoardings, it clearly shows children being differentiated based on religion, and our leaders trying to project how much secular they are. There was also an initiative to introduce tour to selected children from government schools. These selections was based on their background and imagine what impact it will have on kids mind when some classmates are sent for trips and they are ignore because they belong to some other communities. Luckily due to public outcry, it was stopped.

No one can question others faith and religion. India is known for its wonderful fabrication of so many religions, culture, faiths followed by crores of people. Recently, in Karnataka a new controversy was stirred when they tried to bring law to stop some of these practices. Yes, we need to ban superstitious and horrifying practices done but it can’t be targeted at particular religion and ignore others. Also many practices are in individual’s interest. If it’s not harming any one, why unnecessary create issue of nothing.

Role of a government should be to encourage overall development, through education, security & safety, employment. If government announces that people will be given rice for 1 rupee per KG, those working hard will stop their efforts. It will also lead to mass corruption of selling away these commodities in black market. 

Instead of doing all this gimmicks, we need leaders who will strength our people with required trainings for their skills, generate employment by encouraging small scale and village industries, mitigate migration and help our agriculture sector. If they do such things, automatically people will start earning and will be able to buy their own commodities at actual price.

Vote bank politics will be existing until people are not united. We need to understand, our rulers are trying to divide us in name of religion for continuing to rule us... Spread the message among our network on what is required to make India strong and what we are facing.

Hope ... one day... our rulers will get some sense... before it’s too late.

We the Indians and the Economy

Looking at the news that Government is contemplating of taking the help of gold deposit / treasure in temples across country to overcome current crisis, felt where our economy and financial security is heading. I am not an economist and yes my knowledge about fiscal, macro economy etc is limited. But still thought of sharing few thoughts of mine which might help us to rethink our indulge in spending money and help our country, in whatever little way we could.

We might think, why should we worry about the situation, our government will take care. But at the rate of achieving the number of scams, there can be little hope our rulers will do anything drastic. 

It was shocking to see that, the total amount of scams done by our government runs in to lacs of crores rupees!! It can be in-below earth (coal mines), in air (chopper), waves (2 G Spectrum),wherever possible we have been cheated in name of democracy and development.If we had not faced these scams,we may not have not faced this crisis of taking the help of temple gold to save economy.

With Rupee falling every day, it’s an alarming thing for all of us. One of the major reason why we our rupee is losing value to $ is we are Importing more and our Export has fallen drastically.

Yes, with globalization, it’s not possible to restrict our imports, but we have to find methods where our value of imports will come down and exports / in-house production will go up. This will help us to save billions of dollars in foreign exchange.

In current scenario, most of our import is in Crude Oil / Mineral Fuels (Approx. 35 % of total imports) and other major important category can be classified as Gold/Precious metals etc.

With raising income of Indians, demand for automobiles and thus petroleum products has gone up in past few years. But we have ended up paying more and more towards the oil imports. Same applies for gold with investment buying being done.

In this scenario what we can do, to save our foreign exchange and stop country being harmed with financial difficult times?

1.  Reduce usage of petroleum products:  Every day we use cars / bikes for various purposes, especially commuting to office.  For sake of country, let’s start using public transport more and more. If not public transport, at least we can opt for pool in vehicles and company provided cabs/vehicles.

Imagine, if 5 employees are driving in their respective cars from Basavanagudi surrounding areas to Manyata Tech Park and back, we need approx. 3 liters of petrol per car , 15 liters for 5 cars and financially it costs around 15* 81 = Rs. 1215 per day.

If they had opted for car pool in, we could save the additional 12 liters of oil being imported per day (Multiple these by thousands of cars across India). If not car pool in, let’s go for mass transportation, company cabs, all will equally support in reducing import of oil.

Same way, if we are going nearby place, let’s start going by walk / cycle. Two wheelers might give good mileage, but lacs of two wheelers drinking petrol all over country, this has major impact. By reducing the number of vehicles on road, we have another advantage; it will reduce traffic jams, and thus save our fuel consumption as well.

Certainly, many of us think, using public transportation is against our social prestige. But remember we are supporting our country in our own way, and that prestige should be more than driving a car. 

As famous quote from Mr.Enrique Penalosa,Bogota Mayor (Columbia) says - 

“A developed country is not a place where the poor have cars, it’s where the rich use public transportation”, let’s forget our ego/social prestige for sake of country, remember, it’s not what country gives to us, it’s always, what is our contribution towards country.

2.  Reduce the usage of gold: India was once upon a time, the leader in gold production in the world. But not anymore, we have become leader in gold consumption (864 tonnes in 2012, 25 % of world consumption) and we are importing this gold from abroad (in 2012, it was 400 tonnes), thus losing foreign exchange for this. The speculative buying and perceived as safe investment option for most Indians, the demand for gold is ever increasing.

Let’s stop purchasing gold for investment purpose. For every buy we make, government has to spend in $ for importing gold from abroad.   

3.  Encourage Indigenous Products:  This is little difficult due to globalization, but not impossible to reduce the quantity and source of import. The best example can be importing products from China. We all know how China is intruding in to our territory and exchanging unpleasant feeling with our military. Knowing this also, why  should we encourage consuming Chinese products? Is it because it’s cheaper in price? But cheaper in what cost. They have intruded many times, supporting Pakistan, occupying Aksai Chin area in Kashmir illegally and how can we trust such neighbor and lose our foreign exchange for importing their products?

Let’s start reducing consumption of such country’s products; at least it will help our local production units, give employment to Indians and save our currency from being exchanged in dollars.

All of us talk big while commenting on the situation of nation and very few think what we can do to change it. As the famous quote says – Be the change you want to see in the world, let’s start thinking in what way we can help country, to come over the crisis and march towards prosperity and equality.

( Note: Bibliography to Google and Business Websites for data..!! )