churnings

Wow, i havent posted anything on my blog in 2 weeks. That is sad, and considering I am the only one who actually reads this thing, I owe an apology to myself!

Quite a few things happened the past two weeks. The thing is politics is that there are so many different events that occur, and with the media's half-assed and biased coverage, its very hard to judge what was important and what wasnt.

For example, Prakash Karat said that BJP was enemy number one, and that they were building a third front. You know, many might think this is important news. The fact is that this news is very worthy of ending up under a pile of dung. Firstly, the commies have always hated the BJP. I mean would I be a small person, or a rabid Hindu fundamentalist to say that the commies hate the BJP because the former makes no bones about how much they hate Hinduism, and naturally, BJP is the political face of that, apparently.

As for the third front, some spoofs on some media channel was right to point out that its only a threat to the Congress government, because the commies know that the Congress is a very spineless government, that is given to bending over backwards to minority vote banks, and enemies of the state. Quite a serious allegation huh? If you concentrate hard enough, you can almost see the froth coming out of my rabid Hindu mouth.

I think the one thing that seems to be affecting me is now ineffective India is in dealing with our neighbors. They all are inconsequential states on the global stage, are dependent on Indian support and yet they all seem to be ready to pick fights with us without any fear at all. I mean, look at Nepal, and damn us, we can't keep the only Hindu nation in the world on our side!

Secularism is such a convenient word. The Commies are out wooing the minority votebanks because they need to win after many people are beginning to see through their treachery. Yet their number one priority is to fight the BJP so that there is a secular government. What is secularism? Its nothing, its just a political word thats been raped so many times that its unrecognizable now. The congress is afraid to try traitors and enemies of the country in court because they are afraid they will anger the minorities. Apparently the minorities in the country side with our enemies. I am not saying it, but those who have sense should be able to see through the government's actions and their mindset.

The stock market crashed today, and some stocks are cheaper by more than 60 percent. You know, i would have loved to buy them, because given our young and fickle market, I am sure they will grow again. But the unfortunate news is that I have no money. Ahh, the pain. I mean, heres a stock which was 2000 bucks for example, and its down to 500, and even if it gets to 1000, its still a 100% profit for me! And that's why i am so sad that i have no money to do this.

India won the Perth test, and ideally, the series should have been tied at 1-1 and the Sydney test a draw. Aussies are poor losers. People justify it by saying that they are not used to losing, and so dont know the feeling. Ah, its hard to come across stinkier crap than this.
I really hope we win the next test. Man, I am such a fan on Jumbo bhai. The man is sophistication personified, and a freakin mountain of a personality.

Sania's in all sorts of controversies. I suppose the fundamentalists just can't digest the fact that a single, young Muslim woman is doing so good, who is so modern and so progressive. I am sure it gets their beards in knots they didn't know existed. I didn't really pay much attention to Sania before, but I must say, I am with her all the way on this. Which leads me to ponder that I think its only a recent phenomena that fundamentalists of all kinds are ruling our country, and the only reason why this is, is because our political parties are only too happy to cheer along in the hope of getting their votes. I really hope the middle class wakes up.

And the media's tendency to hype 'news' and sensationalize every juicy non-news is just sad, its just sad. And in my mind, whats even sadder is that so many people lap this stew up. This decade has seen a death of ideas, a death of free speech in our country. And all the money in the world can't replace a person's right to justice and a life of dignity.

Delhi Metro

I got to ride the Delhi Metro last week. I am so happy for that shitty city that it finally has something world class, and even more importantly, treats it as such. What surprised me most was the relative decency which most people showed at the stations and in the trains. For one, I saw nobody littering. No graffiti, which in Indian context stands for some cheapskate etching his and/or his girlfriend's name on the glass. The Delhi Metro has just crossed 5 years of operations, and its still going great guns. In fact, they plan to add a lot more routes before the Commonwealth games in 2010.

There are some things that are still missing though when it comes to Metro etiquette. For one, and the most important was leaving the seats for women, the aged and the disabled. Sure, some women might actually prefer to be treated without any special considerations in this women's lib world, but I did see a lot of inconsideration for the aged in the metro trains. The second thing I noticed was that when there is a crowd, people lose their patience. They still havent learnt to let the inside passengers out before letting themselves in. They just rush into the thing without even noticing that some people are trying to get out. But hopefully that will change too, with time. 5 years are too little to change a society's psyche and its lifestyle.

I just wanted to post this nice map of the metro, with its tentative 2010 spread. Picked it up from the skyscrapercity.com forum, and its made by a fellow forumer. Thanks bud!

happy new year

Happy New Year, world.

Oil's going strong at a hundred bucks a barrel, and the government is finally considering if its okay to raise the oil prices now. The oil companies have already taken a hit of thousands of crores of rupees and are under the threat of going belly up, but hey, the common man must not suffer. The government is planning to issue oil bonds to the oil companies for taking such a heavy hit, but these bonds will not cover their losses, and are only adding to the government's own fiscal deficit. Their unwillingness to raise prices is very dangerous.

I am watching the PHL on tv, and while I love the games, its really unfortunate that even after 4 seasons, the IHF does not seem to be doing anything to make it grow further. I do it a favor by calling it a season. While it is called a league, it is run exactly like a tournament. It lasts only 4 weeks, and thats just not enough time for it to settle down into the people's psyche. People need to be exposed to an idea or an activity for way longer than a month for any hope of it making a lasting impression on their minds. I mean, the next season is 11 months away, and all the fun and excitement of this season will probably be forgotten by all.

Bollywood has clouded everything else in the national media today. Hindi media seems to be stuck in a rut of substandard, tabloid-style journalism which they can't, or don't want to, get out of. Its just painful to see them spend hours following a Bollywood actor or spend their primetime news on what transpired between which warring actors. They have taken an additional liking to delving into other people's personal lives. I think there is a huge difference between something immoral and something that is somebody's private matter. The Hindi media makes no distinction. I hope this new year will show them the light and bring them back.

some more soundbites about the Puppets

So Narendra Modi has won his third term in office as the Chief Minister of India's new golden state, Gujarat. Most saw it coming, but most probably did not see coming the absolute majority with which he would win. True, the BJP has ten less seats than 2002 this time, at 117, and Congress has gained around the same number, but after all the hoopla that the Congress and the BJP rebels in the state, including biggie Keshubhai Patel, raised about the impending doom for Modi, has forced all these people to go into hiding after the rout.

Communists hate religion. I think thats a stereotype in today's world. The fact is that they only hate Hinduism right now, because they need the minority votes to survive. Thus when they see Modi has won, they choose to overlook the fact that the people of Gujarat have voted for him. They instead twist it and say communalism has won. The fact that those who voted for him are sane individuals of the state does not matter. Modi won because he is a wizard who has put a spell on them.

Modi needed to win and I hope his win is stop these agenda-less minority appeasers to stop and do a rethink. When it comes to appeasing the minorities for their votes, there is no limit for the Congress. Spineless that it is, it is even less concerned about things such as sovereignty and secularism, something which it carries on its sleeve. Its a hypocritical world we live in, and the sooner the people of India realize that they need to act if they have to get ahead in this world, the better it is. I hope they realize the grave danger this country came under by bringing the Communists into the national government.

The last four years have had nothing new. Congress proposes, Chinese Puppet deposes. The Prime Minister has done three things best - explain, explain and explain. The Communists have done three things best - threaten, bully and blackmail.

I have the new India Today with me, for the week of December 24, 2007. Its main article is about Prakash Karat, the CPI head. It has some nice tidbits about what the Communists are doing to the country. I have already posted about how they stopped Rajiv Gandhi from modernizing India's banks, and now here are some more crimes they are committing against the country.

"CPI (M), which lives in a time warp, continues to believe that the state knows best. Neither empirical evidence nor experience to the contrary matters. And thanks to their 60-plus strength in the Lok Sabha, the comrades have effectively played spoilsport in critical reforms, the worst hit being the financial sector. India's lumbering bureaucracy costs a packet in terms of salary, but it will cost much more in pension. Moving to a new pension system is imperative both for the Government and the employees, who will earn barely 8 percent this yeawr even as the Sensex has risen over 43 percent. The ones to be denied the dividends of growth are the very sections that the Left professes to protect.

Take banking sector reforms, which Manmohan promised as early as September 2004, but hasn't been able to deliver. The Government needs to fork out almost Rs. 40,000 crore to beef up the capital of public sector banks. It should bring down its equity and make a public offering, thereby bringing in capital while continuing to own majority shares. But the Left disagrees. The issue of privatisation, steeped in barefaced duplicity, is worse. The Left parties practice economics in Kolkata and politics and Delhi. They find nothing wrong in selling the landmark Great Eastern Hotel in Kolkata to a private chain, but stubbornly resist the sale of the rotting Ashoka Hotel in the national capital. Since May 2004, the Left has arm twisted the Government to fund sick PSU's to the extent of over Rs. 10,000 crore through investment and bailouts. Of the 48 central PSU's, only nine posted profits while 27 are making losses and 12 have shut shop.

More mysterious is the Left's stand on big retail. It has been proved the world over that retail chains provide opportunity for creation of logistics and supply chain networks, which in turn enables perishables to be stocked and helps curb both wastage and inflationary tendencies. Every year, food worth Rs. 59,000 crore is wasted and much of this loss is borne by farmers. It is also a fact that retain chains create employment and various levels and control migration from villages to cities. And of course, the chains bring affordability to consumers by bringing down prices. It should ideally form part of the Left manifesto, but they would have none of it.

The hypocrisy is just as obvious in the case of Special Economic Zones (SEZ's). The communists chose to stay silent till the farmers in West Bengal began protesting against land acquisition. Clearly, the state government is desperate for investments, which would create employment and generate revenue to pay for the ever-enlarging bureaucracy. Even on the issue of land for industry, CPI (M) has double standards. Outside Bengal, they don't want anyone to talk concession, yet thought nothing of promising land virtually free to Indonesia's Salim Group. Even when they did get on to the anti-SEZ bandwagon thanks to dissent within UPA, CPI(M) restricted itself to land acquisition and kept silent on the contentious issue of tax exemption, which could cost the Government over Rs. 1,00,000 crore ($25 Billion) by 2009. Ditto with the issue of tax concessions to industry, ranging from the exemption from long-term capital gains tax to dividend tax exemptions and tax holidays for big business that cost the government as much as Rs. 2,88,000 crore ($72 Billion). Exasperated, Manmohan once asked ""if we were promoting crony capitalism."" The Left kept quiet."

while still on retail...

I came across this article by Gurcharan Das, a retired businessman and now a columnist. Its about the Left's stand for the small retailer in this great churn that India's retail industry is witnessing.

Very interesting, and some already known facts, but he gives one example which again reconfirms the traitors that the Indian Left is. The Left do not have permanent stands, as we all know. Friends will become foes, and foes will become friends as long as it suits their gameplan.

Tearfully yours, Bania Ji

India is a land of ironies. Even so, the prospect of the Left shedding crocodile tears for the petty trader is truly bizarre. For 60 years the Left bashed the bania - every time food was short, it wanted to nationalise the grain trade and send the 'profiteer' to jail. In the early 1970s it almost succeeded. Now, when the nation has begun a historic transition from small, unorganised retailing to supermarkets, the Left wants to stop it in the name of the bania.

There is a legitimate concern, however - what will happen to the millions of jobs in the neighbourhood grocery stores as supermarkets like Reliance Fresh open across the country? The answer to that question has just come in.

Thomas Reardon, a world authority in retailing, and Ashok Gulati, India's premier agricultural economist, conclude in a recent study that the number of employees per square metre in organised and unorganised retail is almost the same. The difference is that employees of supermarkets are better paid, have pension benefits, are trained on computers, and have the opportunity to rise economically and socially. Hence, millions of youngsters are all set to benefit. With franchising, thousands of traders will also gain simultaneously.

This is not the first time that the Left has tried to stop history. When Rajiv Gandhi wanted to introduce computers in banks and railways, the unions went on massive strikes. This delayed our computer revolution by 15 years. A union leader confessed later that computers had actually increased jobs, not reduced them. The same virtuous circle will repeat itself in a bigger way in retailing as the benefits will touch the entire society. The farmer will get a higher price for his produce when he sells directly to supermarkets and is freed from the clutches of our corrupt mandi system. The housewife in the city will also pay a lower price at Reliance Fresh stores because the middlemen have been removed.

Yes, wholesalers and artiyas will lose, and they are the ones behind the current agitation in Uttar Pradesh, Bengal and Kerala. As often happens, the young, idealistic Leftist 'jhola-walla' has been captured by these vested interests and has ended on the wrong side. Politicians have also got into the act. If Mukesh Ambani hired and trained 10,000 Dalits for his Reliance Fresh outlets, he would get Mayavati on his side.

The epic, Mahabharata, seems to have been aware of our Indian ironies. It tells the story of Jajali, an arrogant Brahmin, and Tuladhara, a trader of spices in Varanasi. Jajali observes the shopkeeper as he weighs his spices disinterestedly, treats his customers alike, and lives 'like a piece of wood flowing in a stream'. Ian Proudfoot, the Sanskrit scholar, explains in Ahimsa and a Mahabharata Story that the trader, with multiple suppliers and buyers, doesn't depend upon anyone's favour. His gains and losses are the result of impersonal market forces. He pursues his own interest (like the stick) and this leads to the common good through the 'invisible hand' of the market (the stream, in this case). Tuladhara's life is in contrast to those who doggedly strive for social advancement and influence.

There is an ironic twist in a trader teaching a (Leftist?) Brahmin on how to live. The Mahabharata holds up a worldly merchant as model of detachment before an egoistic, forest dwelling ascetic. Is it the epic's way of telling the Leftist and RSS Brahmins that sometimes it is better to go with the flow, like a stick in the river, rather than impose your will on history? Think of an India without computers.