ELECTIONS 2009

As always I was very clear on who will definitely not get my vote in these elections. My decision was the same as last time. It will probably remain the same for my lifetime. I don't think the right to vote matters a lot to people & i understand Why. I think INDIA is a country where everybody has a set mind& its' not easy to change anyone. However i do feel at the same time that URBAN voting percentage has significantly gone up in last 10 years & It's rising in every elections. But the sad part is that the same is going down in rural INDIA. 

Anyways, This is not the issue i want to talk about here. I just want to discuss my Post election experience when i started asking my friends about their choice of party or candidates with reasons. This is what i got as answers (Please be informed that answers are not word to word true as they were communicated orally so these are based on my memory & language has been changed to English from HINDI)

1. One of my friends said while laughing "Yr, i wanted to vote for BJP, But everybody around was voting for Congress so i thought why to be different from others. I voted for Congress"

2. Another of my friend said "God !! how can somebody even think of voting for BJP. oh shit !! i can't believe it, you actually asked me. It was so obvious. Congress." I liked her confidence & i asked why congress was so obvious. She replied "Aah !! I don't know. But why not."

3. Third friend said "Yr i actually wanted to vote for BJP. I like their policies & the way they work. I specially appreciate MODI for his shrewdness. But just 10 days back one of the congress leader did me a favor taking a very small amount of money & BJP guy was not actually showing any interest. I have always been supporter of BJP but if they don't work for me then why i shall vote them in."

When i asked about Reservation in schools/colleges proposed by Congress & the Nuclear deal. This guy said "Hmm.. I have never thought so far. What matters more to me is my financial gain & congress leader helped me with that. It is not possible to increase reservation from here i think. I don't know a thing about Nuclear deal"

4. Another one said "Congress candidate was younger than BJP candidate so i voted for Congress"

5. One more said "I want Advani or Modi to be prime minister of INDIA. But i voted for Congress because their candidate is Younger than opponent.

6. One said "Manmohan is highly qualified so he will be a good leader." I counter questioned by saying "Was bhagat singh highly qualified & do you actually think Manmohan singh was running the government? Moreover Advani is also well qualified" He replied "I agree Man-mohan is just a puppet but then at least he is educated"

In all, I feel Congress is going to form the government even if the Public actually doesn't want them to be in center. Either Youth of this country is not brainy enough to think about the Pros & Cons of wrong voting or they are just voting for someone without actually knowing whom to vote for. There are chances that some of these might have lied to avoid counter questioning. I am not allergic to Congress but since Congress was in center during these Polls, I will like to put up some highlights of their Rule

• It was difficult to recognize the actual Prime Minister during past five years. I wonder if he knew what he has to say on the Mic
• A Huge land selling scam happened in the name of SEZ. It was widely discussed that some of the congress leaders have taken money & given away the land literally at no cost. Nothing can be Proved, Never. Big Guns will never let it happen.
• Bofors accused were set free in a mysterious way with an unethical mis-use of CBI
• Terrorist attacks have gone up in different parts of the country.
• Country is facing an economic slowdown. Though the slowdown is global but nothing concrete has been done as yet to improve the conditon
• No big infrastructure improvement in last five years such as the golden quadrilateral project by previous government under PMBJP scheme.
• Reservation %age increased significantly & the same was implemented in Colleges like IIMs &IITs too. Students were beaten up on roads like dogs & supreme court was used in an illegal & unethical manner to convince the students & put them on the back foot.
• Congress & some of their allies now talk about banning English in private schools, implementing reservations in Public as well as private schools/colleges & institutes. This is completely unacceptable. Are we going to have reservations in PLAY-WAYS & nursery schools too. 
• I do not oppose them too much on Nuclear deal. This was probably needed but i am sure they could have negotiated it much better.
• I specially hate it when Gandhis ask for votes in the name of those who are dead. Priyanka wearing Indira's saaree was the cheapest act ever produced before the public of INDIA & comparing the nose to Indira. Rahul's resemblance to Rajeev during elections was a sick drama. I wonder if they will join hands with prabhakaran of LTTE if he could someday help them form a government at center

I do not at all intend to say that BJP is better than Congress but CONGRESS SURELY DOESN'T DESERVE TO FORM THE GOVERNMENT BECAUSE THEY ARE ADOPTING 'DIVIDE & RULE' Policy to rule the country. They are dividing the country on the basis of caste by bringing in reservation at every step. 

The Inflation Fuss...

I see people talking about Inflation all day & i wonder why there is so much of fuss about it. Too much of inflation may not be good but it's always better than deflation. Isn't it? Imagine you bought a piece of land for Rs.50 Million & the market value comes down to Rs. 40 Milion next year. that is delfation. Nobody talks about how much did they earn with rise in land prices, but costlier petrol takes their breath away.

Why is the government so concerned about rising prices? Yes, An individual may be worried about it because the government is spoiling every industry by keeping Rupee strong against USD & Prices are on an uptrend. But how much does that matter? How much will it matter if the Gas Cylinder price goes up to Rs.350/- from Rs.300/-. I think it doesn't change anyone's budget by more than .01%. Don't you get an increment every year in your salary? Every employee, either in private or public sector company, earns in black in addition to his regular income.

Those who spend Rs.50/- on PEPSI in a hotel shouldn't even talk about rising prices & inflation. Anyone who gives inflation more than required hype or importance is yet to learn what it is all about & he is yet know that its not inflation... it's called "POLITICS"

What causes prices to rise? An addition in money supply in National money market will rise prices to go up. So with a lot of investment taking place in india from abroad money supply is bound to rise.To control that Govt tightens the money supply by bringing in various FOREX, monetary & fiscal policies. for example the govt may raise CRR (I took this example because the layman will easily understand this, you know everyone watches CNBC now a days irrespective of their level of understanding). Otherwise the govt may issue short or mid term bonds with RBI to stop inflow of funds in market. Anyways, With rise in CRR cost of funds for Banks will go up & they will normally increase Loan interest rates at a rate more than the increase in cost of funds. Well however i believe this impact will directly not have a large impact on the prices of consumer goods.

Think, what makes India such an interesting venue for investment? A week Rupee against foreign currencies. WHy? One dollar of investment by an american gives them an investment of Rs.45 in india. They can do much more with Rs.45 in india than what they can do with 1$. So the govt will try to strengthen rupee & bring it up to Rs.40/- or even Rs.38/- to limit the inflow of funds.

When the Rupee going up to Rs.38/- & Chinese/Bangladesh's money pegged to $ at much weeker rate, this certainly is going to hamper Indian exports. I could make a luxury pen for Rs. 40/- & i was exporting it for (1$ for buyer) Rs.45/-. But Now my has gone up to Rs.40.50 (INcrease in labour & Material cost) but buyer is willing to buy it for 1$ which will yield only Rs.38. That gives me a net loss of Rs.2.50/- per piece. Rise in cost inputs wouldn't have mattered much for me if the $ had stayed at Rs. 45 or a more favorable rate, but now its killing me.

But it's ok, i am a good company & i can plan to launch my pen in Indian domestic market. So i am going to sell the pen in indian market for Rs.45/- (Mind it, I am not going to get any duty drawback on this). My expenses will certainly go up since i will need to hire a marketing team but anyhow i can manage to forget it. But hey what is this?? Chinese people are selling their pen in india for Rs.38/-. How? They were earlier offering their pen for 1$ (Lets not get into the Yuan exchange rate as that will make example comlicated) which meant Rs.45 for indian importer, But now Indian importer will only need to pay Rs.40/- to make 1$. So that means MORE IMPORTS & LESS EXPORT business. It will hit the domestic industry & industry will find it difficult to survive.

Domesitc industry could be taken to new heights if the $ was equal to Rs.55/- or more. Imagine the profits, industry will multiply & so will the employment opportunities, Income, Tax collections & standard of living of the common man. Government could keep FOREX policies more organised to stop inflow of temporary funds which can hamper long term growth prospects of country. Organised doesn't mean tight here. Foreign investment shall be welcome to speed up the growth prospects of country but policies could be framed to stop sudden outflow of funds to save country from a crisis similar to SOUTH ASIAN CRISIS.

Inflow of funds, industrial growth will certainly mean rise in inflation which may go up to 10-14% but whats the problem if income goes up by a higher level. Those who talk about rising inflation today simply forget the fact that change in Income Tax slabs make them pay lesser tax than before & if they will compare savings with increase in expenses they will find themselves very comfortable.

Yes, those who are very poor & are just hand to mouth. Well they are not much affected by rise in petrol/diesel or Gas cylinder price & there income too has gone up significantly. For example daily wage of basic labour has gone up to 150-200 Rs. I was paying Rs.1800 pm + overtime to basic labour a year back & within one year it has gone upto 2600+overtime. I am sure inflation is less than that. People just dont accept the fact that increase in their salaries & incomes add to the cost of product & causes a rise in price, thus inflation.

So stop worrying about inflation if you got a 5-10% rise in your salary in last one year & in case you haven't got the rise... change your job. Get a hike & push inflation further....

;-)

Your country is growing. Govt is hurting industry by making extra ordinary effort to keep inflation under control.INFLATION IS NOT SO BAD & ITS BETTER THAN DEFLATION. दाग अच्छे हैं

In nutshell, SHUT UP & GET BACK TO WORK.

Slow India

I was just wondering one fine day why are we so slow in everything. It takes me almost more than half an hour to reach my office & the distance is merely 12km. I wouldn't mind to travel even an hour if my office was 60km far from my place but half hour for 12km is too much. It gets me irritated when my foot touches break more than accelerator. I know there are some who would say "half hour for 12km is very fast. It takes us 1 hour atleast." But then your being even slower doesn't make me fast. It just shows you are slower than me.

I live in Ludhiana (Punjab). The city is changing its face at a speed now. It's getting commercialized... Malls, Malls & Malls everywhere with no parking spaces. No parking boards everywhere & few cars parked under those boards. Punjab govt started making a road bridge some 6-8 years back which was supposed to connect some 5-6 major areas of the city. Everybody thought this would change the entire road infrastructure of the city & government was doing just fine to solve the upcoming traffic problems. The project faced more than few problems & finally the bridge was ready in some 6-8 years after many work halts. Everybody just wanted to ride their car on the bridge but what the hell.....

The Road bridge takes off from some places in the city but is nowhere joining the bridge. The bridge just couldn't be executed as planned due to some planning mistakes. This is just the first hand Punjabi experience & you are yet to see more. The bridge which was finally made doesn't divert even 2% of traffic. Bridge roads are as empty as water taps in drought area. The bridge passes through a very narrow area the road is almost touching many houses & their windows. Side walls are too small to be called safe & I have myself seen a bike slipping & biker falling down from bridge. Another major work that was undertaken gets into great words of appreciation. One needs to take a U turn & go on wrong side to get to the FOCAL POINT Road bridge. The great execution of this projects are golden words for congress government that was recently kicked out in assembly election. To fullfil their remaining dreams, Akali govt has decided to start METRO RAIL Project. Oh God, save us.

What makes me even happier is that everyday when i go to office or come back home, i see one car, truck standing just in the middle of the road & hindering the entire traffic. I wnoder why their cars always stop just in the middle of the road. Why can't they just park it on road side, even if there is some problem.

Many traffic lights in our city turn red to indicate they are working. They never signal green due to fused bulbs. there is so much of infrastructure problem that sometimes it seems to me as if the government is trying to slow down each & every person. As if the govt is stopping us by working against the common man

What is Time Machine ?

Well, A lot of us have heard about Time Machines. We have seen the concept repeatedly in hollywood movies also. But hardly anyone of us would have ever tried to understand What a Time Machine actually is or can be. Mostly we are shown in movies that a person from future goes back in time to change things that should not have happened or something similar. But i seriously doubt if Time Machine could actually make it happen.

I think Time Machine can only make you see what has happened in past but i really doubt the possibilities of changing past. Now you must be thinking what a shit i am talking about. Rite... Open your mind & think with me, what a Time Machine actually means.

How do we measure time ? We measure it with Sun & Sunlight. Light doesn't always end, it gets reflected at times & it just passes your vision ability at times. Your ability to see depends upon light. To simplify the concept i will present it with a very simple example.

Light takes approximately 8 minutes to reach earth from sun. So if a blast takes place on Sun, we on earth will get to see it 8 minutes later. That means something that happens on sun will be seen on earth when Light carrying images of that blast reaches earth 8 minutes later. If you find it difficult to understand, please read last 2 lines at least twice again.

Continuing with same example lets think further...

A blast takes place on Sun & We see it 8 minutes later on earth. Just when we get to see it, We move to Pluto at a speed higher than speed of light. We reach pluto & we get to see the same blast once again there. Same way, if we keep running at speed more than that of light, than we can at any time stop & manage to see the blast again. Also note if you run at light speed, that image will become still for you & you will only be able to see one image of the blast since next image will reach you only when you slow down. That also means that if I start running from my house to a particular place faster than light & stop after sometime, then i will see myself running towards me, simply because ability to see depends upon light & i have simply crossed the light & my images are just behind me.

Going with the same concept if we run at speed of light for 10 years starting in 2010 & we stop in year 2020, then we will be able to see in year 2020, the happenings of January 2011. & the concept is very clear in itself that we just cannot manage the happening of the event. We can only see it & the event has already taken place.

Same way, we could run at 5 times the speed of light & 10 years later we will manage to see what happened 40 years back. So now with a Time Machine you can see what actually hitler, gandhi, bhagat singh or even King Asoka did. But i dont think you can change it since the event has already taken place.

Before i end with time machine concept, i will add one more thing that could take place while using time machine. When you run/move at the speed of light or even faster than that, below given things may happen

• You may grow older at normal pace
• you may grow older at a faster pace
• you may not grow older at all. Your age may become stable
• You may put your life in reverse gear. Possibility is, when you will get out of time machine 10 years later... you will be younger by 10 or lesser years

Time machine is a fantasy, that has scientific possibilities.

Is it possible the other way !!

I was just wondering why human created everything which uses not so bad things to run & leaves behind the worst part as residual. For example, We wouldn't have needed to extract oil, had we concentrated more on refining solar energy. While Solar energy could have kept the earth clean & green, Oil extraction & Petroleum products Pollute both water & air.

I was just sitting at home when i came to know that a cold drink glass bottle changed its shape & broke up because someone forgot to take it out of freezer. The shape changed significantly. I thought why Humans dont use the Cold temprature, Gas power & ice to change the shape of glass while manufacturing glass products. By using heat process causes global warming & pollution. I am not an expert & i dont know if proposed idea is possible, or it may be too costly to follow. But then, what is not possible? Everything you can think of is possible if you desire to make it possible. A sincere effort is required.

Imagine a world, where electricity is only produced using Hydel, wind power or Solar power. I can't say muc about the nuclear thing though. Things will be amazingly great if we could transmit the same wirelessly. Oh!! that would make all cars & jets run on electricity & they will run on power with batteries for backup in case of power failure. No chemicals were used to make most of the things of daily routine, Plastic banned. Wireless internet shall become the backbone of the world to reduce the paper consumption & ofcourse the ink could also be developed in eco-friendly manner. Ofcourse the same inks/dyes could be used in fashion industry also to reduce toxic wastes.

Aah !! the temprature will automatically come down in some 10-20 years & you wont need AC as much then, which in turn will reduce power consumption, thus dependency on pollutant activities.

Think again...

Why didn't we try to develop a fully transparent non-tearable paper which could be used as transparent packing material for so many things.

Why didn't we invent condoms some 100 years back ?

Why we kept on inventing medicines for new infections & ailments, without solving the reasons for such problems.. while we teach our kids in class-3 "Precaution is better than cure"

Why did we keep inventing the machines which throw out a lot of pollutant gases. Why didn't we try to invent something which will throw out O2 as waste. That would have kept the system in balance.

Why do we make plastic body computers & not wooden. So atleast we could re-use the body elsewhere when is engine is junk.

Why didn't we ever try to make a soup which after cleaning the body goes down in the gutter with water & cleans that place also. :-)

Why we all kept writing & did nothing constructively & thought... i am not an expert. Somebody will have to do it for all of us.

:-] Yes, I am just like 600 million other ppl in this world

Why are we unable to find out what holds the pyramids stably for so long. Why are we making so much of cement everyday when we could have made something better?

Why do you drink only filtered/purified water at home & in hotels while you are not worried about quality of water with water-balls (GOL GAPPA(hindi) & Puchka(bengali) & paani-pudi(MUMBAI))

Why do we get angry at our kids when they throw away things at home, didn't we teach them this only by throwing a candy wrapper or an empty coke-can on roads.

Why do we like a rubber slipper which looks like a wooden one. Why don't we actually use a wooden slipper?

There are so many WHYs in this world that any one of us is unable to bring them into limelight or answer. Each one of US has to think about it.

Think big, see far

Today me & my brother were just discussing how a scooter is used as a mini-van in vietnam & ofcourse in india. How 5-6 people can ride on scooter. Then i started thinking about why is this a phenomena in india or other developing/underdeveloped countries. Well i think it's a circle actually. Your country is highly populated so there is lack of facilities & ofcourse there is poverty, which in turn causes illiteracy. How is one supposed to send his kids to school when he can't afford to feed them. Illiteracy as a result causes lack of job opportunities, thus poverty. Illiteracy also causes lack of knowledge, awareness, ability to think big & fair which results in many social problems. For example, a large part of population in india plans a big family thinking that more earning hands in future will collectively generate more income & thus they will achieve what we call "Economies of scale" in management terms. But they are rarely able to see the quality of life they will provide to each child & how much each one of them will earn finally. They are unable to see how they are actually going to feed 3-4-5-6-7 kids till even the first one starts working at the age of 7 & infact how many of them are going to survive till that time.

I hear people proudly saying in India, we are such a large population which has made india one of the biggest consumer markets, which is bringing all the foreign companies in here to do business & which as a result is bringing an economic boom. Excuse me, US doesn't have the largest of populations but they have been the largest consumer for most of the commodities for so long. Quality of life is often sacrificed for quantity of lives, which becomes a problem not only for a particular family but for other people & the entire nation also.

Do you remember the Indian family planning advertisement some 35 years back? If you remember than you have already come across a picture in your mind "PARENTS WITH THREE KIDS". That was the inability to see the future by Family planning commission. Some 25 odd years back they changed it to "PARENTS WITH TWO KIDS" & some 15 years back they changed it to "PARENTS WITH ONE KID". Fair enough, we cannot ask anyone not to have kids so ONE is fair enough. May be after 20 years we will see an advertisement where government will request you to share one kid with neighbours. Sounds funny? ofcourse it does.

We, the Indians (Part-1)

I have not been to many places, neither have i met people belonging to different cultures & countries.. But i think there is something wrong with us. We, the indians, just don't have an atitude to make our life & lifestyle better. Now a days, going foreign for a vacation is not a big deal & all those indians who go out on vacations will not throw away the wrappers/empty Coke-cans on roads while out of india (After all some countries are so clean, one doesn't even think of throwing things here & there.) But as soon as they are back to homeland, they slide the car window down & throw away the remains of fruits/empty water bottles etc. I do not intend to highlight this particular habbit alone. I want to take up a larger issue.

I was coming back from delhi yesterday & i kept on discussing this issue with my brother that indians have closed minds & they just don't want to try or learn something new. Undoubtedly our car driver was listening to this stuff whole day but he jumped red light. I asked him not to do it again. some 15 minutes later, he pushed the accelerator down to jump another traffic light when we all knew it was impossible to cross it in time. As a result he had to stop in the middle of the road & then reverse the car. I scolded him for being such a deaf. While i am saying that people of this country must realize that, only they can make it better.. he is at time also behaving like just another indian. Same evening, he opened the window & threw some papers out. For god's sake please someone tell me how can i make him see that i am keeping an empty pepsi bottle, two used disposable glasses & some toffee wrappers in the car so i will throw them when i will find appropriate bin. If it is so difficult to change one indian, i can well imagine that the country will never change.

Eating a pizza with a fork & knife, wearing clean clothes, speaking english doens't make anyone of you educated or civilized. A civilized person is one who knows his social responsibilities & takes care of them, who knows how to behave in public places.

INDIA will never become a developed nation if Indians wouldn't learn to work. Do you know why India is unable to compete with China in manufacturing or export business. We need 5 to 8 people to complete a job in india, which is done by 1-2 Chinese labour Men. Further, those 5-8 indians will take atleast 3 breaks in an eight hour shift apart from Watering their mouth & visiting the washrooms (& that too in groups). Our efficiency is not even 25% when compared to a chinese. We are atleast 200 times more corrupt than 90% of developed/developing nations.

Why don't we want to change ourselves. I wrote in my last post that one shall think with an open mind. All indians must try to change themselsves, Atleast those who read this post