Make Hay while the Sun shines

The abnormal spurt in the prices of veggies has propelled the Budget of the Indian households into a disarray. The Common man on the street is struggling to make his ends meet by trying all sorts of Permutation and Combination before deciding the menu on his plate. The lower middle Class which forms a substantial part of the Population has found that their disposable Income has dwindled by a huge margin akin to a Cut in salary, as their monthly budget has gone for a toss .
The Sub continent has witnessed a huge turnaround in the Climatic conditions in the past year when rains simply refused to relent even in the month of November. Some Crops like Onion and Grapes were badly affected because of the Prolonged deluge.
The states of Maharashtra and Gujarat which account for almost 20% of the total Onion's Produced in the Country bore the brunt of the Nature’s fury but certainly the Price rise doesn’t match the fall in Production which certainly is the handiwork of the middlemen involved and the Agriculture Minister who time and again puts his foot in his mouth by blurting out some illogical and misleading comments.
Even today the Lasalgaon market is flooded with Onions where the farmer makes only Rs.4/- Per KG which is later on sold for Rs.80/- Per KG after the same is ‘‘mishandled’’ by the growing bunch of scrupulous middlemen in the guise of traders.
The bureaucrats relaxing in their plush Govt suites cum offices got a rude jolt when the Citizens along with some of the reliable vigilant media in tow went hammer and tongs at their inaction against the hoarding of essential commodities which is the root cause of this fiasco.
The CAG should take stock of the situation and raid the govt controlled FCI Godowns which is stocked with agricultural products with hardly any honest steps being attempted to release them in times of hoarding which gives ample time to the perpetrators to wriggle out of such situations.
The PMO (Prime Minister’s office) too awakened from its slumber after the huge public outcry and initiated steps to arrest the abnormal price rise. The result was evident and the whole sale prices have started to slide South ward.
The retail prices though would take its own sweet time as many fruit sellers and routine road side pedlars have resorted to this new- found TRADE ( being a vegetable vendor) which is giving huge returns – as high as 500% on their investment in the shortest possible time.
The comments of our astrologer cum agriculture minister cum ICC Chief too fuelled the Price rise as he predicted that the Prices will stay till March 2010.
The common man is happy that his prediction turned out to be as accurate as that of our Weather bureaus churning out their routine forecast.
The fund collected during the Lok sabha Elections have to be refunded to these Mafia and this is one way of repaying them without raising any suspicion blaming the unseasonal rains and the unpredictable weather.
I vaguely remember the poem learnt during my childhood- Make Hay while the Sun Shines by Stewart Gideon which emphasises that you have to make optimum use of resources available at your disposal in the current scenario so as to avoid the disadvantages that might set in at a latter stage.
Here the middlemen are hell bent to extract the maximum out of the current situation which might fizzle out once the Govt steps in to stem the rot that has set in.

Measuring Inflation- A Step most foul

The ritual comes as a soothing effect to a disturbed and uncanny mind when it is announced diabolically that the Inflation has dropped to single digit and testing the 11 month low mark.
Time and again the Govt has tried to ward off the people’s wrath against the ever rising prices by implementing this fraud of measuring Inflation.
The Wholesale Price Index or the more popular abbreviation – (WPI) has been in use since a long time and is used primarily to measure the changes in the prices of goods on an average in the wholesale market.
The WPI has about 676 items on its list and includes manufactured articles lke machinery, transport equipment, base metal and alloys, Rubber and plastic Products, Chemicals, fuels, consumer durables like washing machines, TV’s, Dish-antenna’s and food products etc.
The articles in the prescribed list includes those Products which the Common man does not necessarily need them for everyday use or rather deferment in the usage/purchase won’t trigger any issues.
All the Products mentioned above are assigned weights and the average of all the items are taken into consideration to measure the relative impact on inflation.
Hence if the prices of manufactured goods tumble due to competition or adoption of new technology, availability of cheaper substitutes as raw materials etc the inflation rate comes down despite an adverse rise in food products as the weightage of the food products has a negligible impact on the weekly or fortnightly inflation rate.
The Govt tries to pat its own back by declaring/flashing a rigged inflation rate and is often heralded as an achievement in the media which in turn publishes it without reasoning or verifying the suppressed facts.
It’s time that the learned economists with Support from the Govt. take a more realistic measuring tool like the RPI- retail Price Index giving appropriate weightage to basic necessities like foodgrains, vegetables and edibles which can effectively churn out a near perfect way to measure inflation which nowadays has become the butt of ridicule due to utter failure to detect the abnormal price rise in the recent months.

Sex,Lies & Radia tape

We all agree that the growth of Journalism has been tremendous over the past century particularly in India. The fact that democracy which has existed since the Country’s inception helped it to nurture & nourish through its most turbulent and trying circumstances.
Barring the emergency period in 1975 when the Indira Govt. had gagged them the Indian Journalism has always acted as a feeder between the intelligent thinkers, the policy makers, the economists & the common People.
Circa 2010 the media has made significant progress and is always on the move to seek and expose wily politicians, evil mongers in the society, even hailing any significant efforts or acheivements of individuals who have outperformed and outdone all tangible barriers etc.
The Wikileaks and the corresponding repercussions it had on the USA and its allies made the news very amusing. The USA was embarrassed by the startling revelations as it clearly showed the hollowness and its wily and mala fide intentions by asking its diplomats to spy on certain countries.Leaked cables have suggested that the US clearly laughed and opposed at the Indian Claims to the United Nations Security Council seat.However on his recent Visit to India Obama cleverly feigned ignorance and backed his support for the Permanent seat at the United Nations revealed the double standards.
The US admn and its stooges like Britain and France tried their very best to break the back of Wikileaks by charging the Co’s CEO with some outrageous charges like sexual assault etc plus succeeding in blocking the donations receivable through internet options like PAYPAL.
Last reports have mentioned that wikileaks is alive and kicking in a safe heaven at an undisclosed destination somewhere in Switzerland.
The whole world knows the true colours of this Chameleon called USA which has time and again poked its head in the internal affairs of other Countries ranging from Vietnam in 1968 to Afghanistan in 2007.
Similar disclosures were leaked by Nira Radia which has raised a question mark over the dubious roles portrayed by esteemed journalists like Barkha Dutt and Vir Sanghvi.
It is a Catch-22 situation.There should be some decency over the right to privacy as rightly pointed out by an equally indignant Mr.Ratan Tata who was unnecessarily dragged into this Controversy who unlike the Journalists did not fall to the bait of Radia.
Lot of people who had held Barkha Dutt in high esteem suddenly got wind of this over-ambitious lady who went a wee bit over the top by hobnobbing with the bespectacled crook Karunanidhi in the allotment of Cabinet berths for his Party MP’s during his alignment with the Present Congress big wigs.
The Public should be grateful to some extent to Ms.Nira Radia and other close associates for letting us know the truth about this over ambitious Ms.Dutt & Vir Sanghvi.

It is easy to see the nexus between the Congress Govt which awarded the Padma Bhushan to this wily Journalist cum agent of the age old Political Party.
In their over eagerness to have the best talent amongst their clan,TV Channels Promote these Star rated(over rated???) journalists by producing Programmes to boost the TRP’s and give impression to the gullible people following them that these guys work in the National Interest.

The moral of the story is every one wants to make big bucks at all costs in the minimum possible time frame shedding all sense of shame and morality.

Readers are welcome to go and search for bit of the News on Google and You Tube well before they are siphoned off/distorted/doctored by the Govt Authorities and find out the truth for themselves.

Life of a Trucker- Never Ending Journey of Misery

The Qualifications are not very rosy - Illiterate, Low self- esteem, addicted to drugs, struggling to cope up with deprived sleep, Long hours of labour coupled with a thankless Job and confined to a 4 feet x 2 feet Cubicle aptly describes the job of a trucker.
The truck driver has his job well defined and cut out to carry the cargo safely to its pre-determined location always vying with the limited time frame that has been allocated to him.
The Trucker has very little say in arguing with his bosses while determining the load to be carried in
his dilapidated ,outdated and un-serviced vehicle which often results in accidents most of which are fatal. The irony is further deepened with the fact that though the merchandise is insured to the hilt the trucker and his family are left at large to fend for themselves and seldom get any compensation.
The trucker is subject to the mercy of the portly cops who mercilessly beat them at the earliest available opportunity at secluded corners if they refuse bribes at check-posts.
The quality of roads available in the country is mediocre at most places which is one of the prime reasons for delays in goods reaching the final destination and on most occasions it is the trucker who has to bear the brunt of ire for no fault of his.
Driving on long monotonous routes these drivers have no one for company except for his obsolete Radio blaring on songs at full volume to keep him awake from the potential danger of any collisions Many of them are also addicted to cocaine as it prevents them from falling asleep and in the long run due to the prolonged use it causes multiple ailments often culminating in death.Further hobnobbing in red light areas to ease their tension and release the pent up sexual urges thrusts them into the fangs of HIV/STD's shortening their already reduced life span.

The Truckers dilemma and their plight was well highlighted and shown on Discovery Channel a few days back and made me change the age old perception rooted in my mind.
I wish to thank the DISCOVERY CHANNEL for opening my eyes to the grim reality of the truckers.
We seldom recognise the efforts of these unsung truckers and often use cuss words when they cross our paths on the roads especially when we are in a hurry.
What we don’t understand is that they too have a job on their hands which is very energy sapping and thankless and they are the life-line or distributors of the products we need to run everyday life in a smooth manner.
Despite the odds heavily staked against him the sheer resilience and the will to survive amidst all the misery and the penury stands out and my heart beats out to this fella.