Side-effects of a year in consulting

Had a dream last night ... Met a girl in a shopping mall. We went for dinner together (turnaround time is quite less in dreams) ... had some cosy conversations ... then she said.. "lets go for drinks" ... I looked at my watch ... 12:30 ... my response ... "I have to reach office early tomorrow ... have a client deliverable" .. and i got up.

Convocation : President or Parents?

One complete year of high, President will be at our convocation. When got the news for the first time, it was like a dream. Oh man, I am gonna get my degree from the president. When I came down from the cloud 9 to the hard ground of reality, things were no more delicious anymore. President has been invited as the chief guest and she will give the degrees to only the toppers (I hope this is the last time when CPI matters). Khair, never mind she is coming as a chief guest is in itself quite elating. In our schools when the district collector used to come as chief guest for the annual function (that usually happened bi-annually) , we raised our collar in before every friend.

But the main problem is "But". But there is a problem. A mention in the convocation invitation/warning letter there is a line:
"Due to enhanced security arrangements, there is limited seating inside the Convocation Hall.
We have therefore made additional seating arrangements with live web-cast of the
Convocation proceedings in the following areas to accommodate parents, who wish to attend
this function"
Now president will be attending my convocation and my parents will not. My parents were gonna come here, all the way from Bikaner just to see me receiving the degree. As of live telecast, they would have preferred a recording, so that they don't need to travel.

Security question may be and is right at its place. But the question do we want in the place for the President to attend our convocation on the cost of our Parents watching it live in LT (like we did with the IPL)

Equality

Today I went to Gurudwara, occasion was Guru Arjun Dev Shahidi divas. The atmosphere there was great with the sound of prayers in the milieu. There was a speaker, who told in detail the story of Guru Arjun Dev's martyrdom. It was not the first time I was listening to it, but the experience was no less superb than the first time.

He then came to end by stating that Guruji has given us message of equality, he was same for both Hindus and Muslims, and he finally devoted his life for the welfare of the society. The speaker then stated that, "We are disparaging his efforts by not following the religion, by distinguishing among ourselves and ............... by cutting our hair". A smile suddenly dwelt on my lips. It was not that the comment was unexpected, but it made the whole environment inhospitable for me. His statement was to realize me that I have done something wrong. The respect that was build for the speaker suddenly debilitated. I then thought that the speaker was right, "We were not following the path of equality shown by Guru Arjun Dev, at least the speaker is not".

Are we ready to go on roller coaster ride?

There was a farmer who worked by sweat of his brow. Albeit he was was hardworking, he could manage only pennies. But he was satisfied with what he earned and same was the case with his dependents. One day luck came to his door and he found a piece of diamond in his field. Exuberant farmer sold that diamond and in reward got Dollars. His life style changed, expectations of his family members heightened. He started living a lavish life. Slowly and slowly the money started evaporating. All the money was gone, but the demands, the change in life style was permanent. He had to finally sell all of his belongings and the rest of the story is not of interest. Precipitous growth was the cause of his failure. His development was not sustainable.

Though a bit exaggerated but his a picture quite resembling our nation. We are developing at the rate of 9% for the last three years. I have no intentions to be called as skeptical, but we (our economists, politicians) should mull over this high pace of our growth. When one is at the height he needs to be more careful. Do we meet up the requirements of being called as a developed nation (which we aim at)? is the question to be asked.

Crude oil hike is the global problem. The rates hike was inevitable. But, the way country has reacted to it, raises questions about the sustainability of our development. Suddenly people were on the roads. Bandh was called on in West Bengal. Opposition party (they follow this term literally and oppose every thing), is demanding for the resignation of PM (who was once the governor of RBI and deserves our confidence). The growing up inflation is causing incessant furore in the people. Our "economic ship" is not able to withstand this little turbulence. How can we expect it to sail over the choppy sea of development? People, in our country seek for the reasons to come on road. They block trains for 15 days to demand for reservation. They forcefully organize bandhs, burn buses, if some one mutilates the shrine of some minister's wife. They burn trains, kill thousands in riots over religious and lingual differences.

Envisage a condition, that India has grown up to the levels of United States, and faces something like sub prime crises, recession as in US. Would we able come out of that. Do the people of India have that mental strength to keep their cool in such situations. The ranking of India in the literacy rate chart is 147 out of 170 listed nations. We have a literacy rate of 60%. Among other BRIC nations, Brazil has 80% and China and Russia with 90% each. The point is not that we should slow our pace of growth, but it is that we should increase our infrastructure to meet up with that. Frivolous to this, our government has further reduced the percentage of money to be spent on educational purposes. A large portion of the youth is suffered from diseases. Our dependence on imported crude is quite high and is growing tremendously. These are not the the signs of sustainable growth.

We should give some importance to these issues that will pave the future of our development. A sustainable development can take us to the heights and a "farmer diamond" can simply act as cataclysmic for us.

It's an important rule in kite flying that, weak kite should be flown at lower altitudes, as wind is strong at heights and the kite would not be able to bear that. Same was the case with the farmer of the above story, and same is the case with us.

Tackling inflation and rising crude prices... economist way or political way?

Should the oil prices be hiked? Is the question, and by how much? is the important question. Oil is the lifeline of our industrial development. Power is what we call it. It rose to 135$ per barrel (158 lt), and now settled at 128$. Goldman Sachs predicts that by the end of the year it would at whopping heights, about 200$ per barrel, more than 50% increase.

It along with inflation is acting as a dirty spot on otherwise white garment of the UPA government, who would have highly wished this all to delay just by a single year. But this has hit them where it hits hard. Voters of our nation are blessed with a volatile memory, so this is exactly the time that makes impact on the upcoming elections. However, let's leave this political view point for a time being and look at the problem at hand.

The problem is quite clear, oil is a scarce resource, scientists kept on buzzing this all the time and we have realized it now. The prices of crude are rising and will probably continue with this one directional motion. Some sustainable steps are thus to taken to tackle this problem.

Government has taken several steps to curb inflation, increasing duties on exports acting as a disincentive for the steel manufacturing companies. Same is the case with rice and others cereals exports. This strategy however not seems to be working as inflation has touched 45 month high at 8.1%. The route taken by government has faced criticism even before the failure. The economists feel that this not a way of controlling inflation, it's just a way of delaying it. Moreover, it can badly affect the trade of the country. A famous saying comes into picture regarding this, "It takes years to make a costumer and only a single day to lose him". The nations that we are depriving of rice, steel etc, are our loyal customers and we are losing them.

However, there are many other things that economists don't feel. These are the things esoteric enough to be only understood by the elite class of politicians only. Elections are by the door, and if government is not able to curb (or for that matter delay) the inflation than it will effect adversely the elections. May be after that if the same party gets the opportunity to form the government, it can take some better methods which are time consuming but are more effective.

Now we come to the crude oil problem. There were many solutions suggested to tackle this problem. One is to increase the Petrol prices and not to tamper much with the diesel and LPG. The intention is quite clear, combat the rising deficit of the oil companies with the help of the petrol prices and also not act as deterrent in the growth of industry and agriculture. By keeping LPG costs about the same government wants to ensure that common man is not hurt by the hike in prices. The side benefits of this can also be thought of as drop in the number of vehicles on the roads decreasing pollution and traffic. However the problem with this is that the motor drivers can be more inclined to use cheap fuels or even diesel with even though more efficient than petrol are more polluting.

Another solution given is to apply geographic distribution to prices of oil. Metros etc, where the problem of traffic and pollution are alarming fuel prices should be more as the people using private vehicles can afford the increased price and the small cities and the villages along with for the industrial purposes fuel provided should be subsidized. When I read this solution for the first time, it appealed me the most. The problem however which was given was the in this kind of solution the black marketing, etc will be a big problem to control.

Now the solution which government is considering with utmost priority is to drop the duties and levies on the import of crude. It's worth mentioning here that fuel tax is the biggest contributor in the tax income of the government. This is a solution is certainly not sustainable. How long can the government substantiate the flow of fuel in the nation? The global prices of crude show no chance what so ever of tickling down. One problem with this solution which I feel is that the growth will keep its pace unaffected from the growth of fuel prices. Government would not be holding the pressure on it and one day all this load be over the general public all at once. This is the worst thing to happen. Rather slowly and steadily the effect of rising crude should passed on to the public, so that they adjust to the growing rates and set their spending according to that. Subsidizing petrol may seem to as providing the bird with the ample space to fly and then suddenly throwing him to the cage. But increasing the fuel prices to much high will be a suicide attempt by the government.

General public will only look the rising fuel prices; they won't be able to look deep into the matter that the crude prices are growing globally. That's why government would be looking for a politically best fitted solution rather than going for an economically bets solution.

Whose food is being cooked over this fire?

Was reading the most buzzing news of the time. A particular sect of people have realized that their forefathers were deprived of some opportunities, so they are claiming them now(and what a way to ask for the rights...). I just heard a comment by their so called leader, "We will prove that we are backward in each and every aspect" (What a thing to be proud of). An honorable judge made a comment, "India is probably the only nation in the world, where people fight to be called as backward".

The backward and weak section of the society in India has the power to destroy the state peace for 6 long days. They have the strength to stop 76 trains daily. They can face the police force easily. They think that they can snatch their right(!) . They are backward. Just wait for the well developed sects of the nation to come front and we will witness a nation of our dreams. We are really lucky to be in such a nation.

When I look at the whole scenario it seems to me like a herd of sheep following blindly their master, unaware of the fact whether he is going to feed them or butcher them all. Actually, it does not matter to the master, he will gain out of it anyways. He has tossed a coin which has "Head" on both. I don't know about the figures, but I don't think there would be any middle class or rich society people in the mob, who in fact are the real beneficiaries of any SC or ST class. More than 30 people died in the agitation last year and there are comparable figures this time too. Leader has announced that this time it will be big. This means that there are many more yet to be killed.

I wish I had the courage enough to go those who call themselves as fighters of the sect, what are they hoping to come out of this all. What does the father thinks who has the dead body of his son in front of his eyes and is not able to do the last rituals. Their best case as seems to me is nothing. Even if they are given the reservation of 6% that they are demanding, what will be the effect of that on the people involved in the agitation. People who are not educated enough to read and write. The actual benefit, if they get reservation, will be riped by those who are sitting safe and secure in their beds enjoying the hot summer in their air conditioners and not by those who are forced to sit on the railway line for 6 days. It is like the game of chess where pawns sacrifice for the welfare or the king. The difference is only that these pawn are not even paid.

Now there is another angle of the triangle. The most wise and cunning of them all, The Leader. He has played a game in which he is sure of victory. He has recently announced, "We will form our own party, and then we will get our rights", whose right? Is the question to be asked, Leader will surely get the returns of his hard work. State government has completed about four years, and so what a good time to go for the "Andolan"(!).

But its actually not the leader who is to be blamed, its the mob. When you are careless enough to leave your 500 rupee note on the road, you have no right to curse the one who takes it. We are required to use our basic intelligence and if we falter at that also, then we are wrong at complaining about the one who cheated us.

Ants

There was a small ant hill, small for humans, huge for ants for there were many ants that had never gone to all of its corners. It was a complete society of ants. There was each sort of ants here. Some ants were big, others were small. Some were intelligent, others dumb. Some were pretty, others were ugly. Some had gained much in their life, others had been mere spectators. Some had all the superior qualities, others none. The superior ones used to make fun of the inferior one, same as humans do.

One day, there was heavy rain and the hill broke. They were all drowning, big ants, small ants, rich ants, poor ants, intelligent ants, dumb ants, superior ants, inferior ants.