Unforgettable..

 

 

"Today my journey back home seems longer than usual. Work was always drab, but nothing that a little music and a little solvent wouldn’t help dissolve. No, it wasn’t that. Today is the day I started hating my subconscious. Imagine the hate you have for the worst person you have known, now multiply that by a zillion times and you might be able to understand the hate I am feeling right now.

It is really ironical how some faces from the past get glued to our subconscious. Do you have that one face that haunts you in everything you do? As if parental critique wasn’t enough all your life as a kid, that once face that makes everything seem not good enough. When on certain mornings you wake up with a dream about this person, and you can’t face the mirror without the thought of shattering it several times. I have a good family, a loving wife, two adorable kids, then why does this face from the past haunt me?

It could not be that I’m not happy with my life, because I am. It is something else entirely. Someone has to find a way to switch off dreams because my mind is bordering on the psychotic. She is practically dead to me, she passed on a long while back, or so I believed. When was the last time you woke up with a dream that you were sure would come true? When was the last time you felt fear in each of your actions? I feel that every single day.  My workspace, my family, my morning jog, the evening mug – nothing is sacred anymore. She has taken over them all.

Dreams. They are said to be mind’s way of unwinding into a state resembling normality. Normal. That word does not even mean much for me anymore. I would gladly settle for ‘depressed’ right now. On my ride home, street lights pass me by with a constant tempo, sounds similar to a baseball bat hovering over my head. I am gripped with fear each time the bus stops, fearing a strong blow to my head. Maybe I should deal with it. A blow to the head is probably what I need.

Going home each day, I face my family with a smile so fake, it pains me to even bring it on. Years have passed, and I have slipped deeper and deeper into this dungeon of mine. No ray of hope, no voice to reassure me. Darkness shrouds me, darkness embraces me…"

 

…

P.s: This is a fictional write up! A similar post is here. A movie set me on a thought process and I ended up imagining this. Do tell me what you make of it – problem, solution, criticism, anything.

Budget!!

 

 

I know, I know.. Why would a site on thoughts need a post on the Budget? Well firstly, it is important to understand the impact of government decisions on Mango-people, and secondly, I was making notes all through the budget day, so I’m not letting that go waste!  : )

Pranab Mukherjee is like Chunni babu from Devdas- non-committal, ever-smiling (with surprising seriousness), and trying to woo Paro (Fiscal Deficit) somehow. Well in this regard, common man should rightly be Devdas, because he’s been given money and fame, but ends up paying for much more. Confused?? Actually, me too.. So I’ll just cut to the chase.

Our FM, Mr.PM (Ironical!) closed his speech with the words, “This is an aam aadmi’s budget. I will not say much more, but leave everything to the people of India.” Truly, that is what has been done, on the surface at least.

Tax slabs are now changed.

New Income category	Old Category	Taxation	Savings (approx)
Upto 1.6L	Upto 1.5L	Nil	-
1.6 – 5L	1.5 – 3L	10%	Rs.20,600
5 - 8L	3 – 5L	20%	Rs.41,200
8L upwards	5L upwards	30%	Rs.52,000

 

What the new slabs do?

No technicalities, but the new slabs puts more spending power into the middle class’s hands. By expanding the slabs to accommodate higher avg. salaries in the previous slabs, FM is putting a considerable savings (for guaranteed expenses!). At the moment, it is one method to help the middle and lower income classes fight inflation.

 

The Good +/-

1. This year Fiscal Deficit (FD) was maintained at 6.8-6.9% (as promised in the previous budget), the coming year FD is targeted at 5.5% , further to 4.8 or lower for FY’11 (68%).

2. 25% allocation to rural infrastructure; about 25 km of highways each day.

3. Revenue tax gain Rs.20,500 Cr this year.

4. Service tax contributes 60% to the coffers, but service tax rates retained at 10% taking a hit on direct taxes. To counter this, he makes changes to indirect taxes, which is projected to put Rs.46,500 Cr in gains.

5. Agri delight-

• Farmer loan credit raised to 3.75 L.
• Banks for all villages with 2000 population.
• Support to retail trade in agricultural sector.
• 2% subsidy to farmer loans, extend farm loan payment by 6 months.

6. Partial cutback on stimulus to auto industry.

7. Big allocations –

• 31,000 Cr for education
• Social sector outlay is at 1.38 L Cr.
• Urban devpt allocation : 61,000 Cr
• UID gets 1900 Cr.
• Renewable energy outlook raised to 1000 Cr

8. Increasing health insurance for the poor by adding NREGA families.

 

 

The Bad +/-

1. VAT incr from 15 to 18% ; Excise duty up, so everything will cost more.

2. No numbers specified for RT Education act or Food security act, but general measures for Food security mentioned. No statement for higher education and not much for skill development.

3. IT will be hit, nearly 10,000 jobs this year affected as foreign companies are not getting the same tax benefits for companies as in other countries like Mexico,Brazil.

4. Too many sector based concessions, not so good in today’s context.

5. Net gain from indirect tax will be 46,500 Cr, but if that does not happen (due to market downtime, 3G auction not living up to expectations, FDI speed breakers) may make Fiscal target difficult.

6. Being a non-election year, he could have pushed more, but played safe with reforms.

 

 

The hopeful +/-

1. Setup a body for macro supervision of big companies

2. Setup a financial stability council to establish mechanism in case of financial turmoil.

3. Financial regulations are very old ; Legislative reforms commission(LRC) setup to improve this on a regular basis.

4. Govt. had been giving incentives to petroleum companies to supply fuel at subsidized rates, due to which a majority of them are in loss. International petrol prices are much lower now than before when they were more than 1000 dollars/barrel, so these companies can absorb the increase in the prices of petrol, diesel. Hopefully, they will come out of the loss stage eventually.

5. GST and direct tax code by April 2011.

6. Lots of incentives to NRIs for investment, return on Indian equities over past year has been around 87.4%. Hopefully, things will remain good over the coming year.

 

So, that ends my wrap up of Budget 2010. Till next time.. : )

< I got a little newsreader like vibe>

The art used above was painted by Vidita Jain, a class VII student of St.Thomas’ at Delhi. Ideally, this picture represents the change India needs (Sorry Obama) in the coming decade. Tackling global warming, peace, and sustained progress. Here’s to hoping we come close to making it happen. And kudos Vidita!

V.

  

 

Well, it’s that time of the year again. When some extremist Hindu factions indulge in “slapgate” occurrences into the love lives of hundreds of ‘innocent’ lovebirds. Pink chaddis, police protection, exorbitant rose prices, card shops recovering losses incurred in the past year, hotels and clubs offering special parties for jodi-birdies (stags sit and brood), and so on. You get the idea.

 

I’m not going into a detailed description of the history and evolution of Valentine’s day. (Phew!) It is ironical to me though, that one day every year, people queue up at hundreds of thousands of places around the world to express their love. What sets it apart from the other days, excluding the fact that it’s probably marked in pink on Rama Sena’s party calendar.

 

The whole idea of greeting cards has probably evaded my understanding. Why oh why would you spend so much time, (and so much money) on a card that expresses something you can probably say yourself? It isn’t that difficult, really. You can probably write something on a note with your choicest of words, make it rhyme and make it sentimental as well. Point being, if you take a note  with a poem on it to you gal/guy and say “Happy valentine’s day, honey”, I’m pretty sure it isn’t going to be a pretty sight. I guess that’s why we play safe, and get a mushy card anyway.

 

Secondly, we arrive at roses. Even St.Valentine wasn’t much of a rose giver, so why did this tradition begin anyway? What would stop someone from getting a bunch of lilies, daisies or gerberas instead of a bunch of roses? Would the fear of being a non-conformist make you buy roses instead?

 

I personally love valentine’s day. All said and done, it boils down to love for your ‘loved’ ones. Each year, some special plan cocoons in my head as well. I just want to ask all of you to be a non-conformist this year. Try it, there’s a weird fun in involving in a little rebellion, indicative of our once glorious teenage. Go beyond the cliché symbols and the mushy tag types. A day for declaration of love? Nah, make it the first day of a year for declaration of love. (No, that doesn’t mean you declare love to a new person everyday of the year!) Write a corny song and sing it in your besura voice. Shun cards, share notes. Not just one day, but whenever possible. Go crazy!

And to all fellow hopeless romantics out there, Happy Valentine’s day!

Come, peep in..

 

I believe it was MK Gandhi who once said, “Show me your  friends and I will tell you who you are.” Luckily for him, Facebook and Twitter weren’t available back then, and this statement made some sense.

It has taken us many ‘smart’ developments to get us to where we are right now. People spend hours using their organizers, mail clients, and even their phones, to improve their work efficiency which would definitely improve without these distractions in the first place. Keeping in touch has become literal at times, with e-pokes being sent across FB networks! It has become routine for me to login to FB atleast once a day to check out what’s happening with the people I know. (Shame, shame to me too!)

The great thing about it is the ease with which we can network, regardless of the distance or the time elapsed. Though some good has come out of this new development, the meaning of the word ‘privacy’ has been obliterated. Stars tweet their schedules, including time spent in the loo and fans lap it all up. It took Tiger Woods just a single message on his website to communicate that he was taking a break from golf to repair his home tottering under his infidelity (-read many many-), and the whole world was made aware of his decision from just that source.

It is not only the technologically inclined who can keep track of these things. Media (newspapers, tv channels) have developed a knack for taking tweets and pics and painting them in an entirely new hue. Some time ago, a certain bootilicious  ‘Basu’ and a footsy ‘Ronaldo’  were purported to have been in a lip lock when the pics only showed them approaching a casual cheek peck. A little simmer time and the rumour had become the headlines on most news channels. Certain news channels who encourage viewers to ‘think about the impact’ came up with ‘What will happen to John now? Will they break up? Stay tuned to find out more.’

Our mental faculties have begun to degenerate, think of yourself in today’s context as opposed to say, 7-8 years back. There is a deterioration associated with age, but it has begun reducing the starting age. Kids in school cannot find enough stimulation today. Each day they get bored about something or the other, and something new draws their attention away from their activities. Forget studies, how many kids go out to play in the evenings anymore? There used to be a time when gully cricket formed an important entertainment for localities, where passersby would stand and bear witness to the cheers and appeals from budding gully cricketers. Now, kids return from tuitions (for even 2nd and 3rd std), and spend hours on Facebook or Orkut. There are only mechanisms for measuring our GDP growth and our inflation, but there seems to be no way of finding out the deterioration that our country is undergoing every day. “Our future lies with our youth” they say. Considering where we are headed as a generation, I sure hope the future does not rest with us.

We have progressed a lot as a nation, but it seems funny that we haven’t emerged as leaders yet. How will we ever lead, if all we do is follow trends and technology from other nations?  There hasn’t been a single startup that has managed to inspire people on the lines of Infosys, while several startups emerge in the developed nations, especially during the economic crisis (which they think is over, btw). We have used Twitter, Facebook, the i-gadgets (iPod, iPhone, iTouch and now the iPad!) for a long time now, but no progress has been made to emulate their success in a grand manner. It has partly to do with the lack of support from our government, but aren’t we to blame too? 

It’s time we pull up our socks. I don’t know how many people are actually reading this, and if any of you have actually thought about the deterioration that we are facing. Think about it. And then Do something about it.

 

 

Any suggestions are welcome.

 

…

The year to come…

 

This post is delayed by quite a few days, my apologies. With my exams behind me, I can now get back to the more important things! :)

Starting off, TV and print media in general make a big hullaballoo about the year that was. Frankly, I never could bring myself to like these shows (no matter how much Ma prods me). So, I decided to write about the year that is here now.

To each his own, but the few things unfolding this year that will intrigue me are-

1. Ratan Tata finding his successor!!

2. My ‘Chotu’ sisters wedding.

  

3. Hybrid cars and concessions for them! (Please, please)

4. Average Number of curses a day for the Online CAT organizers.

 

5. India taking  a firm stand against racist attacks in Australia. (God giveth guts!)

6. Some pic hunting with my brand new cam.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

7. Cadbury’s takeover or sell.

8. A few movies this year – The Book of Eli, Prince of Persia and more..

9. Finally getting started on my web comics blog or design a image carousel for this blog. Started drawing, nothing spectacular. Yet.

<No images yet!>

 

10. Wolfram Alpha coming out of its dormant phase and making some headway.

11. Cloud computing power to people like me!

12. 3G auction here. Also, want to know if telecom industry will survive or become the new airline industry.. Hehe.. (Cryptic alva?)

13. A road trip with my buddies!

  

 

This was my list, numbered up to 13. Unlucky or not, we’ll see. As for now, tell me your list. What are you looking forward to this year? Any new resolutions? Interests?

Looking forward to hearing from you guys as well. Maybe that should be #14 on this list!

 

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