Ask…and thou shall not receive

I acknowledge my mothers visits to religious preaching for the following writing.

How many times does one fulfill the wishes of our children. Consider this scenario. Your child might ask you for chocolates on day 1. You will certainly buy it out for him/her. Day 2 again the demand will be fulfilled. Day 3 again, but then there might some thoughts in the mind. Day 4 onwards you might or might not buy it out.

Now consider this……People pray to God daily…asking for fulfillments of wishes. Will God fulfill those wishes daily????

And yet like small children we will ask God for fulfillments of wishes daily and then crib that God is not listening to us.

Worth thinking about:)

The way Indian mind works….

My visit to the bank manager and casual discussion enlightened me to some amazing systems run by a group of passengers on suburban trains running in Mumbai. A monthly pass costs around Rs.255 to a daily traveler. What has been informed to me is an amazing trick played by commuters for travelling ticketless. A group of 50 people is formed. Every month this group pays Rs. 100 to the group leader, and all these 50 people travel without ticket or pass. If they are caught, they have to shell out Rs. 250 as a penalty. On producing the paid penalty receipt to the group leader, they are reimbursed the penalty amount from the kitty. At the end of the year, whatever amount is remaining in the kitty is divided and returned back equally amongst all the 50 people.

Considering that 50 people give 100 rupees for 12 months, then the annual collection amounts to Rs. 60000/-. On a rough edge, even if an average 5 people are caught per month(the probability is in the favour of not being caught, with 2 million people using the trains daily), the total outgoing per month is Rs. 1250, ie. Rs. 15000. By the end of the year, the amount in the kitty is 60000 less 15000, ie. Rs. 45000. So each person gets back Rs. 900. If he would have purchased a monthly pass his expense would have been Rs. 3060 in a year, whereas here he has to pay only Rs. 300 in the entire year, i.e less than 10%. Amazing. But works wonderfully. Incredible the way minds of certain people work.

The ageing tiger

Mumbai has been seen as cowering under the tigers roar upto mid 90’s. This tiger goes by the name of Balasaheb Thakeray. He fought for the common man and common man supported him. But with age his roar has lost the touch. Yesterdays protests against Shah Rukh Khan’s movie have shown just that.

Yesterdays protests were a different ball game after a long time. Most of the active Shiv Sainiks have become too old to echo in to the Tigers roar or have quit Sena to join other parties. What is left in Sena is what I would like to describe as Hyenas. People who preyed on the leftover, after the stalwarts had created their damage. These hyenas dont scare the Mumbaikars anymore.

One more thing to note was the 24x7 New channels have come into picture only since the last 5 odd years. In Sena’s heydays, only a clarion call by Sena mouthpiece, that the protest has been successful was enough for people to believe it. Nowadays, the new channels are everywhere, showing that normal life is unaffected. People are more open about their criticism, unlike before, and this too is telecast openly. So everybody is aware of the real situation.

I feel pity for the ageing tiger, but unfortunately he has missed out on one point in his life, that inspite of being so many years into politics, his party has always been confined to being a regional party and never a national party. When you are protesting against a National Hero(sic) like SRK you need support from the Nation, not just from your state.

One more point of note in yesterdays protests was the adequate policing by our Police Department. Kudos to it. But it also makes me wonder, where was their active policing when Raj Thakeray’s MNS people were running riot on the Mumbai street. There seems to be more of political will over active policing over here that meets the eye. The State Government wasnt that keen at that time to rein in MNS then, as they were yesterday. Wonder why…..

SRK has sided the Pakistani Players over IPL. He is loved by Pakistanis for his movies, and for his moves. But those he have the GUTS to protest against the various attacks Pakistan has carried on India? If called for , will he lodge a protest about these attacks. He says he loves India. He should be asked to do it.

Not eating sugar wont kill you

These words by our Agricultural minister Mr. Sharad Pawar, reminded me of a lesson in History. It has been a myth that the French Revolution got more push after the Queen on knowing that people cant afford bread had said….”If they cant eat bread, then let them eat cake”.

The price of sugar has almost trebled over the past two months. Frankly everybody knows that its just not the inflation or bad climatic conditions. Our agricultural minister is involved in the major sugar lobby of India , and that is a know fact. Hoarding of sugar during festival seasons is nothing new in India.

Yet people never complain. They buy at whatever rate it is available. So nothing wrong with our minister again saying that “People’s purchasing power has fueled the price rise”.

We Indians wont complain about the price rise. We will only complain to our bosses to increase the salaries, to face the price rise. The boss will increase the price of his products to cover the increase in salaries paid by him and to also pay for his own purchases. The cycle will just continue, and we will say…oh sugar used to be 1/3 of the price of what it is today…….

Save the tiger

Mufasa: You see, Simba. Everything you see exists together in a delicate balance. As king, you need to understand that balance and respect all the creatures, from the crawling ant to the leaping antelope.

Simba: But dad, don't we eat the antelope?

Mufasa: Yes, Simba, but let me explain. When we die, our bodies become the grass, and the antelope eat the grass. And so we are all connected in the great Circle of Life.

I start off with this dialogue from the movie The Lion King. Yesterday while watching Tv, I happened to see an commercial by a cellular company, which was informing us that there are only around 1400 odd tigers left in India. We have to save them.

My head had only one question in it……WHY???? I mean why should we save the tiger? How is it going to be helpful to us. What does the Tiger do for us?

Surprisingly the same question was also going on in my sons head, and he finally popped it to me and my wife.

I wont deny that even I would like to know why the tiger is to be saved? Just because it is our National Animal?

Frankly I wonder how many people care a damn. Deforestation is a priority today, jungles are being destroyed to make way for the Concrete jungle. So these last 1400 odd tigers need to be saved for what …..to be kept in the Zoo?

Priority should be given to save the forests, the trees, our nature. If the natural habitat is destroyed then what is the use of saving the tiger. Sadly no one is looking at that angle.