Kaveri Dispute - Need Water or Conservation?

Just when all the cricket fans across India and the world over are bracing for another festive cricketing season of IPL, there were shallow calls and protests on Kaveri river water sharing issue during first home game for CSK. The protest turned so ugly that shoes were hurled at players. A South African player even took to Twitter and pleaded with folded hands. This, by all means, is a political hijack of layman's perception before he even ponders over a meak issue. A demand to setup water sharing board that will soon grow its thick skin of corruption in the name of a holy river that feeds millions living across three states of India - Kerala, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. 

The agony of Indians is that an agenda is always setup by opportunist politicians without the grossest knowledge of the issues whatsoever. This soon transcends into a show of strength on streets with protests by people for and against the issues. Memes and jokes get circulated over whatsapp, Facebook and Twitter. The reach is completed. People start falling for perceptions. Media fuels it by brazen and repeated loud shouts. The objective of the issue is nowhere to be seen and it will sadly rest in peace. Tragedy strikes once again on those poor souls who otherwise could have earned their daily bread only by the end of a hard-toiled day unlike the white and day scholars who anyway get a pay check on the month ends. Thus, the hijack is complete.

Thankfully but shamelessly, BCCI is so powerful and rich that it hardly gives two hoots to such hyped up melodrama. At Godspeed it even managed to shift all CSK matches to Pune and clearly asserting BCCI is the Boss. 

What then is the issue? 

Answer - Setting up of a Central Board for sharing Kaveri River Water. A board the objectives of which even the protesters won't know about for sure. It is a board to amicably share river's water across the states she runs through and that too when enough committees are already munching tax payers money. 

It has been a tragedy before, a tragedy now and continues to be so for nobody cares to ask where is the water to share?

What have the state governments done to conserve and sustain the river water?

Running up to Higher courts during a water crises is a big time fool thuggery practiced by either of the state governments. None of them cared for the river until then. The travesty of it all is such that they even engineered riots on their very own people on either side of the states. I just wish that karma serves them up the coldest. 

And yet much can still be done before things span out of control and war of the waters descend upon the innocents. There are few practical approaches that can be adopted and realised. 

First, the hard one, an unbiased data sharing of water resources to the tune of need and not greed. Meanwhile, all the states can take numerous river rejuvenation steps like afforestation along the river and rivulet catchment areas. Strict urbanisation controls along the river.

Second, the harder one, Interlinking of rivers, although scientifically well researched this one needs a boldest leaders across the states to implement. This too like many other shallow issues is hijacked by lobbying groups and agenda setting activists with their all "profitable" NGOs.

Third, the hardest one, Desalination units along the coastal lines. All southern states have lengthy coastlines. Desalination is yet the easiest of the earlier two solutions. All that each state can do is "give up" the money that that loot in one scan and seriously use it to set up these ambitious desalination units along the coastlines. The tech that comes up is no doubt alarmingly advanced but at the same time expensive plus the maintenance. But there is lot of money, much more money with states that they can definitely invest on one such good cause project. 

Sooner the realisation better the future. Hope the good virtues will dawn on our politicians. 

Budget and The Curious Case of The Salaried Class

I keenly followed the Budget Speech by our Finance Minister Sri Arun Jaitley on Feb 01, 2017 for two things.  Firstly, as an honest tax payer, it is my right to know how the government is spending the money it collected as tax on my income.  Secondly, it is also my right to know what benefits are in store from the Government’s Budget as a citizen, in particular as a middle class tax payer. The Budget is a broader term as far as the Nation is concerned. Expectations from her citizens relatively run high during every budget in a country as large and as diverse as India, which for most of the decades after her independence remained economically oppressed by divisive and dynastic politics.

Since the end of the Budget Day Speech my cell phone is buzzing with WhatsApp forwards and SMSs  most of which were insensible jokes on Budget with insensible numbers and illogical judgements. This has certainly made me dig further about the claims that floating in the social like “Government fools middle class”, “middle class pays tax but gets nothing in the budget”. It is understandable that some sections of the society will never be happy with this budget but seriously it is my own feeling that this is a landmark budget that the Government has ever made.

But then it does not yet answer my two expectations. Let me take a look at the second question first because I belong to that middle class paying tax ‘honestly’.

In a nutshell, the expectations of middle and salaried class from any budget are lesser tax on their income.

Has ‘this Government’ addressed it?

Well, I will not believe in and go by the rhetoric, so I’ll try to consolidate the data points “because that is how salaried class appraisals are also evaluated”. So let us recap and do the due diligence on budgets since 2014. Here is a quick summary before I put the details

Year 2014-15, the first budget of ‘this government’

1. The basic exemption slab raised to 2.5 lakhs. This was 1.8 lakhs up until 2014.
2.  Section 80C limit raised to 1 Lakh. This was 1 Lakh up until 2014.
3.  Home Loan Deduction Limit raised to 2 Lakhs.

Year 2015-16,

1. Additional Deduction of up to 50,000 for investments in NPS schemes. This was 0 up until 2015.
2. Wealth Tax removed. Have you heard any government removing a tax such as this?
3. Medical Insurance Premium deduction raised to 60,000. This was 40,000.
4. The ‘rich’ who earned above 1 Crores had to pay a surcharge of up to 12 %. You see now the rich have to pay more tax (sit tight you are still middle class).

Year 2016-17,

1. Not much was there in this budget for salaried class except that rebate hiked to 5000 for a salaried class earning up to 5 lakhs; which is nothing but the government would pay back in case you have paid more tax.
2. Again the ‘rich’ who earned above 1 Crores had to pay a surcharge of up to 15%. This was 12% previous year. So more tax paid by the ‘rich’ (Remember, you are middle class still).

Year 2017-18,

1. New slabs introduced 5% 20% and 30%. Most of the people who come in the career span of 3-4 years squarely fall in the 5 % bracket.

Year 2018-19,

1.  Standard deduction of 40,000 introduced and no more medical bills to claim medical expenses which many salaried classes claimed with fake bills. No offense to those who produced genuine bills.
2. Education Cess increased from 3 to 4 %. This will be applied on the taxable income after all exemptions and investments.

So when I think of all these budget points for salaried class since 2014, I saved more by investing to avail the budget provisions meant for exemption and paid less in tax. Is it not curious enough to ponder why the salaried class should term this year’s budget as “bad” while enjoying the benefits year over year including this year.  Doing the math should be easy provided now you have all the data points at your disposal. Did you save more money or did you pay more tax?

Now coming to my first expectation, what is the government doing with the money I paid in the form of tax whether it is direct or indirect?

If one hears out the budget in summary, the government has diligently touched upon every section of the society with no trace of appeasement or populism in whatever form unlike yester years regimes. The government has stuck to basics and allocated the money for the betterment of poor and the weaker sections of India which are largely deprived of necessities even as basic as sanitation, education and healthcare. It is both unfortunate and tragic to hear the slogans such as “Gareebi Hatao” and various “Bhagyas” did nothing up until this budget which has attempted to practically address such sloganeering. The National Health Care Scheme is a remarkable announcement for the poor who had little or no access to basic health care.

So the answer to my expectation is that my bucks are safe and they are empowering the poor in terms of their quality of life, education and healthcare. 

Two Thoughts on Nostalgia

  Two Thoughts on Nostalgia

Of late I am coming across many nostalgic articles, pics and videos of those good old vintage years back in 80s and 90s. Too many but they are indeed nostalgic, certainly giving goose bumps and make you not to shrug off those days from the memory in the midst of current revolution of mobile and smart devices. Truly so, kids born in 80s and 90s have witnessed almost every technological inventions and innovations right from the heavy 12-channel cathode ray TV sets to the remote controlled lucid LED screens. Not just technology, it is also in the manner how we have been receptive of those inevitable changes going on around us. Majority of them were trend setters, weren’t they? Take a trivial case of men’s trousers itself. First were the star-look bell bottoms, then came the formal parallels, next came the official slim-fits and tapers. And not to forget, that our generation was the first owners of denim jeans apparels.

Every other horizon you were or are acquainted with has perpetually presented those trends which ultimately moved many a thing out of fashion; be it a video game, a TV serial, a sport or sometimes people themselves. Yes, Sports too. And that has been the sole point in my mind all along while nagging about nostalgia.

Though hailing from a small town, I would rather consider myself lucky playing many outdoor sports in those days. I’ve come across both, popular ones like cricket, football and badminton and less popular ones like Kho-Kho, Kabaddi and Volleyball. I’ve a very genuine reason to draw the line between popular and less popular. And by all means less popular does not imply they are unpopular; they are popular but relatively in much lesser degree than the mainstream popular ones. Some of you may disagree on this observation which is humbly acceptable. Nevertheless, these sports are officially recognized by institutions all around and they will sustain even if they keep shrinking in their popularity amidst all the onslaught of computer and video games.

Parallel to these, there are or were many outdoor games which have become so rare to be seen among the current generation kids. There was this gilli-danda and there was that Lagori. There were marbles, there were tops and then there were kites. Indeed, they’ve become so rare except in few rural parts, children of this generation are surely oblivion to these traditional games. These are the very games that still make me feel nostalgic and bring back those childhood memories of the bloody injuries, unforgettable escapes and hilarious jokes.

I can still recount the incident which brought upon a scar on my forehead while playing the Top. Those free falls off the tree while trying to free the kite from its branches. And on one occasion, unawares to my senses my palms were covered with bloody scratches in the process of coating kite’s thread using some glue amalgamated with glass powder.

Sometimes, when we are discussing these games and the memories that one has about them are so refreshing and rejuvenating. They quietly make you feel elated and for once your complex problems look simpler and sometimes seem irrelevant. Unlike the mainstream and scholastic games which are either too popular or officially recognized, the games of folklore are highly traditional with no rule books and word of mouth has been the lonely means of publicity for them. The lesser this generation knows about them the lesser its next generation will be aware of such games. May be a decade or two from now, it looks quite imminent that these games would just be stories and disappear or dissolve into the unwritten pages of the folklore. Hoping against hope that they will sustain just like the less popular games and that they continue to spawn their charm among the young and the future generations.

Shantaram

Shantaram who? Or atleast how does the name sounds? i guess most of you could think of the name for a swamy or a saint or for a religious chanting. Well, let me keep it for myself for a while , but not too long jus before i finish this blog.

Many of you must have read sensational, thrillin, mind-blowin, romantic, hard-to-put-down, suspense, heart-throbbin.... oh man, will i jus runout of words to club all kinda categories from the world of novels? i should guess so. Whatsoever, every book has its own literature to unveil at expose! exaggeratin the art of thought-to-hand.

But this one novel i finished turnin pages recently had it all, all the stuff that could be enjoyed in all the categories of books, i mentioned before, put together. A stubborn classic work of literature, and i mean the word stubborn with intensity.

Moreover, what surprises about this book is its an autobiography of a criminal elaboratin deep aspects of his life. The chronology of events is so acutely recollected from the memory banks which makes the book look more fictional, infact some part of it is, than non-fictional.

Nevertheless, its a complete capture of emotions right through a smile to laugh, anxiety to rage, scary to horrible, pale to sorrow, sobbin to outcry, like to love, foe to friends, sick to worse, betray to promise, owe to favor, fate to luck.... oh my god! thats infinite but worth mentionin. So much more to each and every character, that appear inline to the story.

Theres so much enough and voluminous wisdom all along the book, in every page, with well-tailored reality and philosophy. And let me put it straight that, its not like any philosophical volume penned by someone like Paulo coelho.

The guy then was a freakin criminal ( did wrong things for right reasons ) and now a philanthropist who along with his wife and others has set up charity in the name of "Heart For India", heartforindia.org, to serve the destitutes of the country he loves and owes so much, thats India. And to add more, one of its center is in Mylapore, Chennai.

Above all the book deals most of the time answerin "How to move on?" and i bet u'll certainly find an answer to atleast one of the difficult questions of ur life. Its a damn dashin read, you jus could not resist yourself to miss a word.Well, i cannot further reveal the insights of the beauty of this remarkably impressive autobiography. I dont either expect critics or force you to read the book.

All i can say, about the book, is "You would love to be a criminal after readin this book."

Explore it yourself! its kinda "must-read" or precisely "dont-miss" category.

Veg-Non-veg

Before i scribble anything further, i just want to stay out of taking sides, neither  Vegetarian nor Non-vegetarian  columns.  More than taking sides, i do not imply anything  about my likes and dislikes.

Since childhood, I have been constantly spectating debates on  veg and non-veg  and often ended up with a dilemma like “whether the egg came first or the hen?”.  Well nothing can be changed as of now, its footprinted in the minds  of people.  Yes, let me have the definitions first,

Herbivorous ,  generally called the vegetarians are a class of people/animals who depend upon  the  “natural food” stuff  (intentionally quoted ).

Carnivorous, the “flesh eaters” (again, intentionally quoted) with prefix tag of Non to vegetarian. And last but not least, the omnivorous class, i just zip it out of discussion.

Ok now, i would like to mention our very own Indian scientist, Sir J C Bose who made a startling discovery of this mysterious nature; that each and every plant on this earth respire, more simply put they too breathe like humans.

 And by all means, correct me if the following interpretation is wrong:  Breathing certainly defines life and none of you would miss the missing piece, i.e, a plant is ultimately “natural flesh”.  Now i seriously don’t have clue where in the world the words veg and non-veg emerged from, probably from vegetables i guess!.

Those who eat  “natural flesh” would still be skeptic of the above and definitely compel a debate. Frankly,  I’ve nothing personal to their sentiments. Its just  my opinion about this long running debate “veg- non-veg”. Also for those who eat “literal flesh”, nothing personal again.

No idea how to conclude?, but one thing is for sure, if there is this debate out in the open then atleast one layman from the first class of people will wave the banner “SAVE ANIMALS” and as to apply Newton’s third law, atleast one layman from the latter class of people will wave the banner “SAVE TREES”.

Save trees or save animals, both are an integral part of this nature maintaining the thin wire of ecological balance and we are well aware of the fact since our school science. Professionaly speaking, you do have to provide a lot of documented proof to enable and convey something like the one in the picture, so i kinda pulled it from Veg-Non-Veg dumb stuff and drag it to "Save the planet".  Sounds ridiculous, like this or not, critics most welcome.