FOOD SECURITY , an optical illusion or a concrete path..

Amidst all the uproar of the Lokpal in this Winter session of the Parliament, we saw the tabling of the much talked about Food security bill , which many of the reviewers criticized in terms of difficulties of implementation.

But I'm afraid I'm against the bill in principle, because of a lot of reasons, out of which the major and my burden of proof would be;
When the economic policy of the nation turns to pitying the poor rather than empowering them, the economy is bound to take a down turn.

What I mean by this is, for those who have studied economics will know, for those who have not , the basic point is people earn so that they can feed themselves and their family, by providing them such a subsidy , the government is also providing them a disincentive to work, or to empower themselves through work.
It has been a much agreed fact, that the growth of entrepreneurship in an economy is also related to the poverty level. Consider it like this , low income level (poor) people develop micro or macro entreprise to raise their well being and standard of living (of course this is not true for all individuals , the few who do it out of interest) , elimination of poverty diminishes the incentive for entrepreneurship; and provision of subsidies gives a disincentive to work This is just a comparison to outline the principle flaw in the bill.

Realizing I'm talking at extreme end, I admit there are some sections of people who can't afford to buy at the present rate of disproportionate food inflation; and I of all the people realize this , cause I am never able to forget every time there has been a child begging in front of me ,telling me he is hungry ; I say, I would have liked to agree on the bill , had it come at some other time , but coming at a time when the fiscal deficit is only growing ,and the economy already being in the downturn, the bill might do more harm than good; and then its only a short term solution to the hunger problem.

In addition, the outreach would  be imperfect because of the unavoidable corruption, and that I can say with surety because of having the privilege to talk with people working on field. Another major flaw as pointed out by critics is suppose if you are providing grains at subsidized rates to a person earning 10 rupees a day, are you going to deny it to the one earning 11 rupees a day.
This in conjunction with the policy of giving grains to other classes above BPL also at subsidized rates, dear government you are ruining the working of economy by not letting the market forces operate where the people have purchasing power; and once again to emphasize a burgeoning fiscal deficit does good to none.

Now, you might question me, that, then how do I propose to see to the well being of poor.
I, in principle have always supported economic inclusion of the poor but through financial inclusion and not by giving subsidies on long term, Subsidies have never have been, and never can be , a long term solution.
If you really care about the poor, please grant them a long term solution and do not fool or appease them for the sake of upcoming elections.
Empower them.
The good thing is atleast the principle of financial inclusion of poor (especially women) is already in place , with the concept of Microfinance, first born in 1992; but its hard to say how much of financial inclusion of poor we have been able to achieve, because like all other noble initiatives, this also falls prey to corruption in some areas save south; where other problems like commercialization by the likes of SKS MFI blemished the scenario.

What my idea is , that the government should focus on completing this movement of empowering the poor, rather than coming up with another less practical and difficult to implement scheme, just to increase its vote bank (I know that is a stupid utopian idea that crossed my mind, nevertheless).

To conclude, an observation that came across in a short discussion with my grandfather ; a consequence of the implementation of MGNREGA was reduction in the supply of agricultural labour, because in case of NREGA , most of the workers would go for merely 2 hours work to mark their presence , while the agriculture labour demanded more and paid less. Obviously most of the people chose to work less and earn more through NREGA,  which led to small farmers not having enough labour, because they can't pay more than the government
And I can't doubt government's intent on NREGA; but the crux is consequence of subsidies on a long term has never been tangible.
The failure of the scheme has only made more prominent the fact that subsidies and short cuts are not the best solution and only decrease the size of national corpus.
Hoping that the government realizes this and comes up with more concrete and long term solutions, with the strong team of economists that they have, I henceforth conclude.

                     

                        Developing , are we..?

It definitely feels good to know that your country is one of the most developing nations, the world singing glories of your leaps in technology, increased HR index, rising social ventures etc. ,

But when I look at the complete picture I wonder, can u really call this all complete development, and for that matter can u call India a developing nation.

Or is like everything else the definition of economic development also glamorized…?

Of course in Maths when you talk about a limit to exist , it must exist from all directions at that point, and for development to exist, it must be multi dimensional, but I’m afraid that’s not quite the scene regarding India’s development presently.

Whenever we talk of India’s development, I’m afraid all of us including me think of the burgeoning IT sector , the boom in real state, the promising banking sector, new metros in Delhi etc. , but do we ever talk about what have been the development in agricultural sector , if I’m right that is one segment that has been static since the green revolution, or do we think how much we have been able to eradicate child labour or reduced the amount of beggars on streets, or reduced human trafikking for that matter, and tho I’m not a feminist, still can today women live without fear in the society.

Though it feels good, and in fact I’m proud of the development that has taken place in urban India , in that matter my own home town Lucknow which looks nothing less than a US city at some places, but I js wish I could say the same for our villages. There’s an entirely different way to handle rural economy and the present progress and contribution to the same is highly disappointing.

What disturbs me more is that the definition of development or rather economic development is indeed glamorized. We say a city or a country is getting developed, if it has more malls or multiplexes or neon street lights than before. But will anyone try to tell me what about the villages, which give shelter to an overwhelmingly large amount of Indian population.

And somebody has to explain to me , why on earth literacy rate in any country should be anything but less than 100%, why shouldn’t a child get an opportunity to learn about the world around him and decide for himself. Are we really living in a society of equal opportunities…..? Is the government even trying to shape into existence what we call a welfare state(our constitutional aim) if not of equal status but of equal opportunity.

Now someone might probably say, the answer to the problem of equal opportunity is reservations, but I’ll say “Come on give me a break, are you really blind enough to see that its apparently of no positive consequences atleast in today’s world, I’ll agree it was very much required when our country got independent, but with the gay rights being legalized I’m not sure we continue to be a conservative country still, but that ofcourse doesn’t mean we are Americanized.

But what I mean to say is, thanks to our lazy politicians, who’d do anything but work for the country, some very necessary modifications in the political and legal system have not been made.

{At least for that matter I find INC much more sensible than BJP. I mean at times I imagine BJP and RSS having a conversation during evening tea “Yaar, party me kuch karne ko nahi hai , bor ho rahe hain baithe-baithe” Another party worker: “Haan yaar sahi keh rahe ho, aisa karte hain Babri masjid gira aate hain, mazaa aaega.” Didn’t they have nething better to do…?? ; but then they were more interested in creating political unrest rather than catering to what people actually needed. }

Besides reservation just serve the purpose for those who have the access to education, what about those who don’t..??

Its time when we start focusing on solutions rather than problems.

The politicians just wanna use the existing laws and policies to make their own ends meet. 

Even if you say reservations are fine, and that issue is undebatable, they serve the purpose only to those who can manage to reach upto the level of giving entrance and job examinations, but what about those who have been denied the opportunity to education simply because they are poor.

When will the government ever realize that changes and positive changes happen only by transforming things at root level, but The sorrow of the day is nobody is quite ready to take up the responsibility.

(Even in our EDS class presenters going for ventures on rural transformation are discouraged by saying that it wont work )

And I’m afraid policies like NREGA won’t help until government creates concrete employment opportunities for rural people, and trust me with a overwhelmingly large rural population you can not even imagine reaching the level of a developed nation unless you transform the rural economy.

 Though service sector is  by far the largest, manufacturing has recently grown, but the growth of agricultural sector is still the least.

I don’t expect the government to give it more importance than manufacturing  and services, but there’s at least a need to organize it ,  the direct consequence of an unorganized agricultural sector is the unregulated food prices and week supply chain. But what really is my concern is that because of the glamorization of the urbanization, people are not much interested in farming anymore, selling off the land gives much more than selling crops grown on it, farming is considered as the most risky business these days, and the sons and grandsons of farmers want to run to cities. In such a situation proper education and awareness is called for. Here of course I’m not saying that a ruralite may not be allowed to go to city and study , and be forced to practise farming, but there is a need to maintain a balance.

Whats most important right now, atleast if the government claims India is a democracy, is the implementation and not just talk of inclusive growth.

The long and short of  what I wanted to convey is, its high time we start developing like India and on our strengths, and focus on our local needs apart from enhancing our global strengths and growing international recognition; and I’m sure that then no external factor will be able to shake India’s development and economy.

SPIC n SPAN..... :P

Convocation Hall: 9:40 p.m. (SPIC MACAY’s event )

Background: Music of Santoor and Tabla

Person sitting beside me: let’s say X

                                                                                                                           X   : Do u have any idea when will this programme get over?

Me:  No, sorry, I’m here for the  Kathak show.

Me:  Are you from outside IITR?

X   : No I’m 1st year IITR, you?

Me:  I’m 3^rd year IITR.

X  : Oh..!!

After 5 minutes.

Me:  So well, if you don’t like classical music, how come you are here ?

X  : Well, I had to cover the event for WONA.

Me: K, Did u not apply for Kshitij ?

X  : Well, I was out of Roorkee  when Kshitij recruitments were     taking place .

 Are you from Kshitij?

Me:  Well, yeah , I’m the Kshitij Vice President.

X  : Oh..!!

After 5 minutes:

X  : So, according to you, the programme was good.

Me: Yup.

X  : So you like classical music?

Me: Basically I like Classical dance, but, ya, I love the table beats.

X  :  And Santoor?

Me:  Well, thats decent, I relate music to dance, therefore prefer the table beats.

X  :  So you are a dancer ?

Me: Well, yeah I’m in Choreography and dance section.

X  : Oh..!!

Music programme gets over.

X  :  Well, I guess I should leave before the next begins.

Me:  Your wish :P

X  :  K, I’ll leave then, you enjoy.

Me:  Yup, thnx.. J                                                                                                                                                                               

                                                                                                                                                            After some time I’m joined by Kshitij juniors and the Kathak programme begins, and here my blog ends.

Btw the Kathak performance by Monisa Nayak was simply breathtaking.

                                                                                                                                                              PS:  Random observation:  Percussion musical instruments stimulate your left cerebral hemisphere , while the stringed instruments stimulate the right one.

A (BEAUTIFUL) MORNING.....

A breaking dawn…

A sleepy yawn…

The tinkling drizzle…

The blushing sky….

The morning scent…

The humming breeze…

The dancing leaves….

The mysterious nature…

The mesmerized me…..!

A DARK MORNING....

I woke up, to find myself in crushing darkness. Something made my heart collapse; it was the dream, the disruption from the dream or the sudden darkness, I can’t say. But before I could resolve this, I noticed my throat was choked in an attempt to imprison the scream that was wrestling to come out and vomit the sudden strange and overpowering pain I had just encountered. The next instant I was scared, which is strange because since childhood I’ve never been scotophobic.

But this was only one of the things that had changed in my life…

I remembered that it was some pain my dream that had triggered my sudden awakening in search of light, but the blinding darkness left me numb. I had nothing to fight that excruciating pain now, which started to possess me again, now stronger than it was in my trance rendering me incapable even to contain myself physically ,forcing me to curl myself up in defense as I usually do.

Its intensity could have killed me had I not had a desire to stay alive.

As the haziness in my mind cleared out, and I tried to figure what exactly it was that woke me up, I got the most obvious answer. The stimulus was not a dream, but the same haunting memory that attacks my consciousness each time I can’t contain myself. A memory so powerful that in spite of being rusted by time, it was able to cause me enough pain; even in subconscious.

I didn’t want to remember the pain I felt when I had encountered the memory’s blueprint.

Its strange how there always existed a light inside me that shielded me from every emotional turmoil in life, the light which enabled me never to be afraid of darkness, even as a child. But then my childhood was secure from handling this emotion. It’s strange how one person can devastate you without using a bullet. The light inside me had extinguished.

A part of me was dead.

The darkness kept me engulfed for a time that would have seemed infinite; but the sunlight filtered through the window, dissolving the numbness, fighting the darkness that was crushing me, injecting strength in me that was just enough to keep me alive for a day, but also giving me hope to find back the light in me;

To conquer the darkness and be alive again.

PS : Power cut in the hostel at 4 o' clock in morning can be dangerous.

       The first and last lines are absolutely true, rest is 50% imagination.

My experiments with cooking………….. :( :) !!

Now from the vast pool of important and trivial activities around the world that interest my crazy mind……cooking probably occupies the second last number , than swimming……..otherwise you’ll find my hand flirting with almost every damn thing (in dat case I’m a big flirt u see J)………from sketching and painting to photography and designing to playing basket ball and badminton to styling and fashion designing to reading and creative writing ……besides most importantly of course academics and social service……….a recent addition to this huge list has been financing or in other words fooling the corporate and local sponsors to make my ends meet….which is the reason I can be found in the finance cell of virtually every section.

Neway not digressing from the topic…….lets talk about cooking: tho I havnt done much of it, but somehow whenever I do it I come up with a wonderful taste each time, and perfect addition of salt and spices by approximation , and sometimes I feel maybe this was another field I could have successfully ventured in, could have done a degree from cordon bleau….got a job in most popular European restaurant…..nd enjoyed life…..but then that’s not what was destined.

Alfred nobel discovered (or invented) dynamite….

It were winters……My poor little stomach was feeling hungry…..and I surrendered to the best possible solution that most of us recede to for fastest eatable item in such challenging times…..bread and better…. I therefore opened the refrigerator……..but all I could take out was bread (nd the whole wheat one…mine is a diet conscious family u see) , coz butter had been consumed by the household unfortunately, I therefore decided to cook the bread in ghee……and as u all know in winters ghee solidifies to a (delicious) white mass, scanning the kitchen volume for a solidified white mass , my eyes found one in a bowl kept adjacent to the gas stove….I fetched the lighter , turned on the gas, added some ghee to the pan..when it melted I placed bread on it….nd in few minutes I was ready with a decent item to satisfy my stomach…..

Without delaying a second I took a bite……but the taste was like none at all I had tasted before….it wasn’t good or bad , sweet or spicy , hot or sour, but strange…..i was wondering bread ka taste badal gaya hai market me ya ghee ka..??.....as I was trying to figure out this million dollar anomaly, my smelling senses sensed smell of coconut oil…..now again I was sure (nariyal tel to maine lagaya nahi baalon me aaj..)…nd then all of a sudden it dawned upon my intelligent brain…..that I had used coconut oil instead of ghee to cook my bread……..

Now u must be finding it funny, but at that time I was irritated like hell…..boys can understand it better I’m sure…..the emotion u feel when u r terribly hungry and such a thing happens…….neway even I couldn’t avoid a laughter at that time …as I went straight to mom, narrated her the incident and asked for some help in the form of something good to eat now..

Now this was nowhere near in comparison to the atrocity which dad committed on his junior colleague once when he was home.

It so happened that one of his junior colleague came home for some work during afternoon from some far off place out of Lucknow.

Being a considerate family, we offered him lunch…..finding lack of salt in which, he asked dad to give him some, and dad in his overconfidence in the misnomer that he is a master in the kitchen area ; went and gave him the bottle of salt….without asking me or mom.

When the colleague had left the home…….and I was setting the drawing room for the next visitor we were expecting….I wondered y the bottle of baking soda was kept in the centre table…??.....and then that was it…I’m sure u can guess the fault in the whole incident here…J!!

Somehow, after two years of JEE preparation I’ve got used to adopting objective methods in making worldly decision, like I chose my dresses while shopping through option elimination , and at times I do cooking by hit and trial.

Once again I was hungry, and my taste buds had a restricted demand this time…the only thing I wanted to eat was poha….

Actions should immediately accompany thoughts…..i therefore took a frying pan…..added refined oil (minimizing the quantity ofcourse), when it was hot I added cut onions and tomatoes, when onions were a little pink, I added cut potatoes…..so that by the time potatoes will be fried onions will be golden brown…….but I realized potatoes were taking longer, and if I waited for them to be completely cooked; onions will be burnt. Now I remembered potatoes take longer than onions to be cooked, nd the formula is the one that takes longer has to be added to the oil first. Being in no mood to do everything all over again I weighed my options ………clicked..!! I sprinkled a lil water over the potatoes nd covered the pan with a lid, so the steam will soften them and they’ll be fried faster……….succeeded…..now I’m not adding rest of the details…(as it is I’m not writin recipe of making poha)….and strangely what I made turned out to be even better than how my granny makes it.

Neway people don’t assume I’m so naïve at cooking, its js dat I don’t practice it much. Law and cooking are two professions that get better and better through practice ....!! :)

I can make absolutely round chapattis…… I cooked chhole bhature for dad on father’s day (Dad simply luvs it, was better than giving any gift), I have been making cake since 8^th….cooked chilly paneer for mom once(again by hit and trial but turned out to be delicious J), and pav bhaji in these hols when grandmother was home…..

Neway I’m getting bored now……..wait for a continuation of this blog wherein I’ll be telling you about me and my sisters experiments with maggi……nd I’ll tell u a recipe to make the best ever maggi u can in life…!!

Straight from mind and soul…….

Disclaimer

The content is strictly philosophical, only people with a philosophical bent of mind are advised to go through it.

Now my friends strictly advised me against writing this blog….nd therefore I’m advising you not to read it, coz its strictly philosophical…..but people who are completely vella rite now…………..trust me u’ll appreciate urself for reading this blog……….so go ahead…. J

Tho I’m not an atheist, I’m strictly against the concept of religions……or atleast how mankind has perceived it. It absolutely seers my eyes and tear my ears to listen about religious wars…..how can u even think of killing a God’s creation by your hand…….Muslim kill Hindus and Hindu kill Muslims coz Muslims worship Allah, and Hindus worship Krishna, but people doing this crap please, explain me: if your Allah is God, or if your Krishna is God in true terms, it implies the entire world and each person on this earth is His creation, whether he be Muslim , Hindu, Christian or sikh, and I don’t suppose any god gives you the right to kill his creations, and that too the absolutely innocent ones.

And even tho the Quran strictly opposes suicide as a sin, I hav no idea how do terrorists come up with the idea of suicide bombing on the grounds of religion..?? And tho thankfully these religious wars have reduced, they are still going on a scale large enough to poison the mankind. (Here again I don’t entirely blame the terrorists for this, a person is not born a terrorist, in most cases it’s the situation and the environment, the teachings one is brought up under, that makes a person terrorist through slow poisoning, neway I wont discuss it in detail here, mayb I’l come up with another blog on inception of terrorism… J)

The root cause of all this is illiteracy and ignorance. Therefore more than fruitlessly rubbing their heads over issues of overpopulation and civil wars, the politicians and diplomats across the world need to give more time and weightage to the problem of illiteracy, coz that is one thing that is eating up the world in true sense.

Another absolutely illogical thing is the piling up of nuclear arms and weapons by the nations: , now if we have a war , and these nuclear weapons are used, I’m sure u’ll agree that the world will almost come to an end, owing to the havoc caused by them. ( “One lesson we must learn from history and pray that the only arms the world uses are the ones to hug each other”.), and if we don’t use them the financial , manual and nuclear resources invested on them are an absolute waste………..so either way there is no point going for a nuclear race…but then that’s what happening, atleast lets hope we don’t fall in the first situation.

Now , talkin about the fashion of becoming atheist, that has recently come up in gen-x………..let me state it as a fact, there’s no concept of being an atheist and there never was, ……early civilizations worshipped sun, the later ones went on to idol worshipped,………..or rather personified the various forces of nature……..indra , pawan, usha ,vayu, jal , etc……….everyone(atheist or a theist) has a principle, a belief….GOD is that thing; the belief that is the fulcrum of your life…..it can be the purity of your heart(in my case…that’s what I perceive as god, nd yes I also feel that while dancing….it means sheer purity to me) , it can be positive energy flowing in the universe………for some it can be their parents…and then usually for others, it can still be Durga , Shiva, Vishnu, Nanak, Christ or Allah……….in neway all these are manifestations of one single entity which you can term as infinity….coz u can approach it, u can never reach it………it is the super power that has created this beautiful world, u nd me……the fluttering birds , the gurgling stream, the perpetually smiling flowers ………..nd everything that u see around…………it is the positive energy flowing inside you….

You don’t need to see above , in the idols or in the portraits……to seek God………..look within yourself, feel the purity , the positivity within you, nd trust me u’ll get Him, or even for those who call themselves as atheist, they’ll feel the existence of a power within them.

Once we discover this power within us , there’s nothing that we cant achieve……every person is blessed with one unique talent…..nd more than falsely worshippin God, He wants you to achieve excellence in that field………Achieving the highest state of yourself is achieving GOD in true sense……nd as I mentioned u can just approach infinity, u can never reach it……..but the purpose of life is achieved even if you reach the edge of your highest state…….which is not at all difficult owing to the existence of that power within you that is called GOD, its just a matter of realizing it….for which you want some level of purity, innocence, faith and trust.

So its never a question of this person is big , nd this is small…………..the one who realizes this power becomes big……the ones who remain ignorant remain small…………….but its within everyone’s realm to discover this power….so people , never , ever feel , that you are small or u r incapable…………its always within you.!!