Prior to my visiting the Taj last year, Prince Roy had been there and while posting on the same, remarked about how foreigners are literally forced to pay exhorbitant entrance fees. Here's a pic that I took subsequently, when I visited the place. Its good reason to get extremely upset about.  Where is Rs 10/- for Indian Citizens and Rs 250/- for foreigners????

The more I think about it, I just cannot reconcile myself what could be the rationale behind the diffrentiation. Could it just be the following?

Is it because they are "foreigners" and by extension, richer than us & therefore, they must pay more? Heck, some of them visit India on shoe-string  budgets and are as price conscious as us. Moreover, by coming all the way from their country - wherever - to visit us and our 'monuments', it is they who are doing us a favour. Shouldn't we be the ones who should be welcoming them with customary Indian 'hospitality' - a smile and a garland? Besides, I'd wager many of them are more aware of heritage preservation & conservation management; while an overwhelmingly large population of Indians give two hoots while scratching their declarations of undying love on the walls!

Is it because they are given some special treatment at the monument? Heck, other than the customary stares not even decent toilets are provided to them.

Is it because this price diffrentiation thingy is practiced in their countries too and we are merely aping the practice? At the risk of being found ignorant, I don't think so.

So, what accounts for this short sightedness, a speciality with us?

It was with glee when I read yesterday that our current flame & neighbour - Pakistan - also follows this asinine policy. We do have company, folks, and it makes one wonder who has copied from whom.

Unfortunately, we Indians are clubbed into the 'foreigner' category as Mrs. Sudha Murthy found to her chagrin and carefully couched angry article!

Anyway.

It was so good to read Colin Todhunter's view on the paradox that Chennai..er, India is, in yesterdays Sunday Express! Read all about it here!  Its so true -  " You can't change India, India changes you! " !!

:)

Perhaps you've heard or read about the blog-storm recently that Indra Nooyi's ( of the worldwide Pepsi Ungal choice fame! ) speech to the graduating class of Columbia Business School has raised. Its a bit of old hat now but what the hell...its a fine Saturday, this earl grey tea is so good and I'm in a nostalgic mood...

Perhaps Indra Nooyi did not see the effect of her speech...the 'hand'writing on the wall, in a manner of speaking. (BTW, I'm tempted to say Namma Indra, as she IS from Chennai!)

On hindsight ( which she acknowledges in her speech ) she would have found it 'handy' to run her speech past a couple PR guys...they would have told her the potential it hand er, had for damage! But then, she's almost the BIG BOSS ( aka. President & CFO ) boyo, and who said that such speeches have to be checked for damage control?

Now that the damage has been done, the spin doctors are left 'handling' the baby er, speech and boy, did it shriek or what? Not even a public ( if on the internet, does it become worldwide? ) apology from namma amma did the trick.

Perhaps  Indra Nooyi got a wee bit carried away, thinking she was part of and among the boys, so to speak. No doubt, she was trying to be truly creative while addressing all these brilliant guys and making sure they remembered all her lines. Too bad for her, they missed the fine details and opted instead, to choose her (not too manicured!) fingers. Ahem, one in particular. If you go through her speech, it starts off very well but somewhere in the middle (!!) it meanders. And badly. So much so that merely reading it, I had to cringe. The fatal mistakes happen when she dwells in depth on the middle finger and its profundity ( "....unfortunately, I think this is how the rest of the world looks at the U.S. right now.  Not as a part of the hand --giving strength and purpose to the rest of the fingers-- but, instead, scratching our nose and sending a far different signal.") as well as when she brings in a live example of crassness in the form of her compatriot - another U.S businesswoman!! If you preach cultural sensitivity, lady, make sure you practice it!

The truly unfortunate part is elsewhere. In the reaction of the contributors to the now famous blog and all the media reports, the allegations, the finger-pointing, the....whatever. Personally and very simplisitically, I wonder if all this 'hand-wringing' reflects a larger issue for the U.S. One that has been its bane since and unfortunately, 9/11. One that it is still in growing pains to accept - a sudden insecurity for itself on the grand world stage. ( Not to mention their airports.....did you folks read how they treated 76 year old and 68 year old Mrs & Mr. Venkataratnam? Thanks, Hemanth!) That of not being given their dues for all the good that they do, for this lousy, messy world. Yeah, us ungrateful ingrates. Don't you know they've liberated Afghanistan and Iraq, just to name two. Go figure! Yeah, and here's more:

".............What's missing from this? How about any positive statement about what America does for the world, from liberating Afghanistan and Iraq to billions in tsunami relief?  How about pouring AIDs relief into Africa and sending products, services, technology and trade round the globe. How about a full-throated defense of the country that analogizes it not to the middle finger but to the shoulders and spine of the planet, the last best hope of mankind??"

Thats right.....mankind, he said! Anyway, all this has taught me a lesson. I'm going to be very, very careful while attributing any body parts to the U.S. I mean, imagine if I referred to them as the vital nose - for its breathing - function and I promptly got buggered for indirectly meaning 'a bunch of nosepickers'. Or, if I referred to them as that vital, most important organ (the brain, you dummy!) in the body and get myself traumatised for meaning 'brainless' or 'braindead'! Or, or, if I said (after proper evaluation of statistics, what else?) that proctologists are the among the single largest speciality field amongst the medical profession there and someone read between the lines to implicate me for calling them a land of practising 'A$$holes'!

Gosh! These days, subtlety lies is keeping my hand over my mouth to keep it shut!! No less, no more!

:)

Update: Here's another read  ( Big thanks to Mani, a commenter on Suman's Yak Pad! ) on this issue by the inimitable Bachi Karkaria, in her 'Erratica' column, TOI.

Seems like this is fast becoming a season for dedicating one's posts; at the least, mine!

Having said that, I would never have come across this site, were it not a link on Shyam's blog. To add to her considerable repetoire of skills, she's started another new blog dedicated to what else - eating....er, food!!! Proof, if any, that she's certainly not b(l)ogged down!

The objective behind the "world's healthiest food" site is all about guiding you to cook food that's quick, easy, good for your health and aiding overall healthy living. Can anybody, I repeat - anybody not want such tips?

Me, certainly. My enthusiasm on discovering this site made me try out their recipe of this week - fresh minted garbanzo(chick peas) salad! Its so easy to make (except for getting that romaine lettuce!), so scrumptious that between me and my better half, we polished it all off! The kiddos never got to taste it, let alone see it! Ignore the chilli...thats only for effect! If you are a foodie, I urge you to check it out!

Hmmmmm...one of the good things about Chennai was the assured power supply here as against the umpteen scheduled and un-scheduled power-cuts in Bangalore - beautifully and descriptively called 'load-shedding'!!!! As of today, Chennai is fast loosing its advantage what with the breakdowns happening, day and night. At this rate, not only are many reporting to work, all bleary eyed and foul temper to match, some I guess will be out of work with their fancy handiwork - the bureau  thief!

Ok. Serious now. HackerWatch is a community and collection point for Internet users to report and share information to block and catch 'hackers' and other unwanted traffic such as unwanted spyware, adware and malware. Run this simple, easy test from the good folks at Hackerwatch to determine whether your computer ports are open or closed thereby allowing/preventing these pests from gaining entry, albeit a 'backdoor' one! How beautifully euphemistic can I get too, eh? 
 
;)

I must thank Narayanan for this post. Its genesis is in that one word - corruption - in his comment to my previous post.

Similarly, I must thank Lakshmi - my latest blogrolling friend - for doing a very dispassionate comparision & review on the differences between India and the US. She too talks about corruption as an impeding factor for our progress or rather, lack of it!!

Corruption in India is all pervasive. There is no activity of the nation which is totally free from this malaise. The World Economic Forum ranked India 45th out of 49 countries on the honesty of its officials. These are not my thoughts...it is merely a foreword to an article from here.

Here's my say. ( Ahem...finally! ;) Ed ) I'm a party to this as well since I silently condone corruption; I know and accept it as a systemic problem. One that will take years to remove and since none of us have neither the time or the inclination or the willpower, it will stay and continue to do its job insidiously.

Transparency International is doing its bit promoting coalitions to fight against corruption and for Good Governance but unless citizens accept it wholeheartedly and give it their full fledged support, nothing concrete can really be done! They have ranked India 90th out of 146 countries, clubbing us with - get this -  countries like Gambia, Malawi, Mozambique, Nepal, Russia and Tanzania! This should make us cringe with embarassment since we make all those tall claims about being world class in software and bio-tech and comic book design et al but all the while being lumped with countries whose index of development is nowhere near ours! Ha Ha Ha...if it weren't so funny, I'd cry. Have you guys seen grown men cry? Don't !!

Perhaps there is hope. But I'm hungry, this heat is driving me crazy and why do I feel so despondent reading the following comment (to the question : Do you think Indian blogs can change anything anywhere, especially in India?) from the winner of the 2004 Indibloggies Award for the best Indiblog? Ans: " Blogs change India? Are you kidding! Nothing can change India, least of all a bunch of stupid blogs that are written by a bunch of people who need to get themselves a life and read by those who desperately need to get out more often....... "

That does it. I'm off to the RTO office in Jaffarkhanpet for getting my licence. Boy, should anybody ask me for 'pocket money'....they are gonna get a fist from me. Should that happen, hope to see at least one of you bailing me out from jail? Don't forget to take care of Constable Veeraswamy...

;)

The FM ie. namma P. Chidambaram avargal, clearly means business, according to this report.

Ignoring the macro issues, my petty mind can only think of the one issue that rankles every year, come budget time. Services that are brought under the services tax net to collect revenues to meet paying debt that the govt. has so wondrously taken on. As the Indian economy has shifted progressively from a manufacturing to services industry,  contributing over 50% of the GDP, his mandarins are licking their chops figuring out more and more services to squeeze citizens out of money.

Sample these facts:

3 services initially brought under the services next in 1994-1995
3 more added in 1996, 9 in 1997/1998, 11 in 1998-1999
14 more in 2001, 10 in 2002-2003, 7 in 2003-2004
The rate of Service Tax has been raised to 8%  ( Greedy, greedy! )
10 additional services in 2004-2005
The rate of Service Tax has been raised to 10.2% ( greedy is an understatement here )
9 (or is it 13) more sectors to be included in the service tax net in 2005-2006, which include transport of goods by road (by a goods transport agency). God help me when I shift from Chennai back to Bangalore or wherever!

And what are the revenues we are talking about here? From Rs 2,000 crore (Rs 20 billion) in 2000 to Rs 8,300 crore (Rs 83 billion) in 2004. Budget estimate for 2005-2006 is Rs 17,500 crores! The target could very well be Rs 50,000 crore in 2 or 3 years time. Get this - at a rate that will go from 10.2% to 16% !!

All the above figures gave me a sleepless night y'day. With all that productive time available, here are my recommendations to the FM about services that he can still tax and get me to pay more to the government.

1.0 For buying provisions from my kirana-wallah
2.0 For getting my clothes ironed
3.0 For getting our bhai to clean our house
4.0 For getting my kids to be dropped to school by the autowallah
5.0 For getting our daily bread / milk, seedais & murukkus delivered home
6.0 For buying water ah, water from private water suppliers

Dont laugh you guys! Things do move from the realm of fantasy to reality, you know. And those of you who might consider running away to the Himalayas to escape this all-consuming tax net, I believe there's a proposal to tax you for that clean, green, life giving air!

:)

If Bangaloreans can have a much publicised meet, can't Chennaites do a smaller one, in the nick of time and without much fanfare? ;) Of course we can and my apologies to more friends who could not be called in time.

Venue : Barista, GN Chetty Road, T-Nagar! Saturday, 5 - 7 p.m

From left to right:....

Seated, Ladies & Gentlemen, is Hari.  Unanimously voted, yet again, as the most heartfelt blogger in the whole of blogosphere. 

Standing behind him is Vikki a.k.a Vikram a.k.a Markiv ...the surprise guest for the meet..coming all the way from Bangalore! Might I say we bonded instantly? What's the mystique about Bangaloreans or even, even Chennaites settled in Bangalore, I wonder...... :) LOL

See the smart guy in the colour co-ordinated attire and mobile? He's as punctual as they come; vending dreams is his speciality but his true forte lies in drumming up surprises. He can do this with a straight face while maha mischief could be lurking large upstairs..

Next is the one who's guaranteed to give you an adrenalin rush - thats Chikuado a.k.a ___ Ha Ha....that would be telling and I'm afraid she'd beat me up. Goes nineteen to the dozen when she talks, the most totally animated expressions line her face and boy, the way her hands fly in sync with her animated way of talking, somebody seated close to her could get hurt! A certified 'dubakoor' to her friends maybe, but someday, she's going to break some guy's heart, this girl! Meanwhile, I've invited myself to her wedding, next April...... :)

To the extreme right is Sophia. A Phd in Chemistry no less but she's keen on biology right now - the 'intimate discovery' type!! If you read her latest post, that is. Hmmph...why do I feel like a whole lorry load of bricks are gonna rain on me anytime now.. Aaarrrggghhh, here it comes *ravi dives for cover*

:)

One surefire way to lift sagging spirits and morale is to loose oneself in/to music. For me, a day's highlight would mean listening to or coming across - by sheer serendipity - a compilation of hits of fav. singers.

Ankhon mein bassee ho
Par door ho kaheen
Dil ke kareeb ho
Yeh mujhko hai yakeen
O Sanam tere pyar ki kasam

But if you want someone more desi in the Indipop variety, you should end your search with none other than Lucky Ali. And so, it was certainly my lucky day when I chanced upon, recently, the Best of Lucky Ali, a VCD containing a mix of his sombre and upbeat songs accompanied by great visuals & superb camera-work.

Jaane kya doondtha hai yeh mera dil

Tujhko kya chahiye zindagi