I have been so shocked and utterly distressed by the story in Austria that it is hard to come to terms with what really has happened. This is something which anyone and everyone possibly never wished to know in their lifetime, and even though cultures and geographical boundaries divide people around the world, people have witnessed the horror and the repulsiveness of the incident that is being flashed all around the newspapers.

A lot of questions emerge, people are angry at a possibility of only 15 years of confinement but this is such difficult to comprehend, the horror mixed with our questions about humanity that all of us are left without words.

If human race is going towards such crimes against humanity, against nature, then proper laws should be made and enforced in place for child abuse. This is a growing problem in India as well as in the rest of the world. Children getting raped and abused are stories which frequently happen in the country, and because of some prominent parts being played by political personalities they are getting shoved under the carpet. This needs to stop. This has to stop.

In case of the Austria incident though, this has gone beyond the child abuse in so many ways. This is a crime against nature and humanity, against so many people that the word punishment has stopped making sense. No punishment can be as harsh as the repercussions of the crime committed. It doesn’t matter if the sentence is of 15 years or 20 years or life term or even death. In fact, I believe death is but a very easy sentence to serve. Such retribution cannot mend the lives of these people and bring peace to them. Retribution cannot heal them.

A sentence can be passed to the human being who has committed the crime. Something which has defied all the features of humans…can a judgment be passed against it? Can a court of law hear it’s defence?

It is essential for me to begin by saying that I do not detest Shah Rukh Khan. We have had those coffee table conversations about him and his tendency to over-do things, be it in acting or in publicity and television shows. But my point of the argument (which is also a keen observation) is that when any personality attains a high enough position of unparalleled success, some people appreciate him, and some other sections of people become curious about such success. And such curiousity at the end of the day leads to pure loathing.

In spite of this, the news about Shah Rukh taking over a part of ownership of the Kolkata team in the cash rich cricket league seemed quite strange to me. He was more likely to take Mumbai - a place which is his own arena or the next likely Delhi. Why Kolkata?

Remember, and if you have been a follower of cricket you definitely will, that Kolkata has a huge history of crowd trouble. We are expert at throwing bottles when the game isn’t going to well. We have attained master’s degree in booing our very own team if Saurav Ganguly isn’t playing and the charge is actually led by our Chief Minister who is an ardent fan of Mr Ganguly, so much so that he supported South Africa when Saurav was dropped by the national selectors.

Anyway, past is past. While wondering about it for a while, I have realized that the reason why SRK has chosen Kolkata can be nothing except for the letter “K”. And he added one extra with “Knight” and that makes 1+1=2 Ks which should be enough to win the inaugural IPL. More on that later.

While most purists treat the IPL as “circus” the local media has been driven into frenzy. Sample the following excerpt after Sunday’s Match in Eden.

“The game itself never rose to expectations, but it had its little moments. What a sight it made, Adam Gilchrist in full throated appeal against Ricky Ponting, aghast at being given out leg before. Remember Christiano Ronaldo getting Michael Rooney thrown out of the world cup match on dubious foul claim? And then they went on to play happily for Manchester United“

This is the effect of SRK, his hysterics on the railings of the hospitality boxes, his continued acrobatic skills in full display and his marketing strategies which has made the media lose its mind. In fact the other day again in a local news channel when discussing about establishing loyalties, a certain celebrity remarked, “Its like the EPL. Why should there be a question of choosing? In the city of Manchester, there are two clubs, Manchester United and Manchester City, and a person may very well support both the teams at the same time!”

Thank you for that wonderful lesson of the day on EPL. Moving ahead, the team costume which is such a heated topic in every discussion board - be it in an Indian forum or the BBC- which has been designed by Manish Malhotra. Mr. Malhotra, who watched a live cricket match for the first time last Sunday has got out all the bling that there could be keeping the brand-SRK in mind. Though you and many of us think it is “hideous” and “right out of the yesteryears Indian mythological serials” it is very much fashionable (especially in the smouldering 42 degree heat in Calcutta) and also is in tune with Bengali sentiments, along with the classic adage “The Knights in Shining Armour”. See, black is taken right out of “Maa Kali” and gold signifies “pride”. To establish loyalties Saurav Ganguly has also been picked. I last saw him secretly being filmed by a news-less news channel haggling with a vegetable seller on the prices of cauliflowers. Anyway, his being the captain is a welcome change.

Lastly I would like to mention that SRK’s company Red chillies entertainment has been having a few disagreements with the CAB over proportion of profits of ticket prices which has linked to hints of sabotage on Eden horror pitch and light blackout. In my opinion, the move of inviting Rahul and Priyanka but not our honourable chief minister is a bad move on SRK’s part. He should understand to what extent the chief minister loves watching Saurav. And nothing should be taken away form the fact that a prominent part was played by the Bengal Government in changing the name of the city from Calcutta to Kolkata, a move without which SRK would never have bought this team. Also, when Hrithik Roshan performed in Salt Lake Stadium, he gave front row seats to Jyoti Basu and his entire family. There are more reasons why Buddha has been left sulking.

Looking ahead, Ricky Ponting and Brendan Mccullum are all going away for National duty. Shah Rukh Khan is going away for some International duty in Paris. So, I suppose we’ll have less of the dancing and more of the struggling.

A few days earlier, I had discovered something quite extra-ordinary which up until that time hadn’t really struck me as something extra-ordinary. It happened in a small restaurant, near the university where students like us go to grab a bite in between or after classes. The restaurant is quite cheap, it has a cyber café, a pool table etc and like all small restaurants in dingy places in Calcutta, it has its fair share of small cockroaches roaming around the tables much to our disgust.

Well, anyway, though most people would go without food rather than eat in that restaurant, we of course cannot afford to do that. The classes take away every ounce of energy that we can gather from the morning, and replenishment is a necessity and not a luxury. This particular day, sitting at the table T found a small cockroach “eyeing her dangerously” through the corner of the table. In trying to find a better table without cockroaches we moved into another one only to find another cockroach sitting peacefully in another corner of that table.

Obviously, this inevitably led to a conversation. In fact, T points out that women in particular move from conversation topic to another conversation topic so fast that men find it hard to keep up with them. Although that is not the point of discussion at the moment.

C was completely amazed at us being afraid of those small little creatures. “Oh, it’s a small one! You guys are afraid of this? I cannot believe it”.

I just had to chip in. “I am just scared of the big ones that fly during the night”

C: Yes, those scare me too.

Me: But come to think of it. I haven’t seen a flying cockroach since the early 1990’s in my house. You know, when we had Doordarshan, and brokers and investors in stock markets involved themselves in floor bidding?

C was looking at me amusingly. “What has flying cockroaches got to do with the stock market?”

Me: 1990’s always remind me of that. India’s growth rate was low, Banks weren’t nationalized and we had five year plans. Yes, we used to have flying cockroaches at that time.

Now we don’t. In fact, we can now draw an inverse relationship with India’s growth rate and appearances of flying cockroaches.

T just hit me while losing control on her glass. “Can’t you see I am drinking water?”

Me (patting myself on the back): Oh! M! You are too good!

C: I still don’t understand the joke. What has flying cockroaches got to do with India’s growth rate?

H: By your calculations, the flying cockroaches may make a return quite soon, then.

 I love the way how the entire country and its citizens are perpetually obsessed by numbers. It doesn’t limit itself to financial and economic arena, though. Just look at how we are so engulfed in questions like how many centuries has Sachin Tendulkar scored and how many thousand runs he has passed and how many test matches he has played etc. At the end of the day, in the moment of truth when we need to win the match, those numbers rarely bail us out.

Quite similar is this year’s Budget. Keeping in mind the elections and yes, the people who vote in elections, the Finance Minister has cleverly and shrewdly provided us a secret gift in a shiny wrapping paper.

What also had to be kept in mind is the slowdown in global markets due to increased fears of US recession, an impact which could directly have in the growing Indian economy. Plus, those fears that the India’s honeymoon with the GDP growth rate was ending. Such slowdown, if true, would be devastating, when the funds riding on the stock markets are primarily of the FII’s, reaping in the benefit.

This post would hardly help the academics or the people preparing for interviews for B schools. What we say there (and I am included too) is what we want to believe and what we want to achieve, NOT what we think is going to happen. Call me cynical, a forbearer of bad news or someone who secretly wishes for doom, but all does not look too well. What the minister did was to tweak a thing or too, which would probably keep the growth rate in Indian economy still at an impressive rate in the next year, enough for his government to get re-elected. As some one sarcastically put it, “The only thing not announced in the budget were the election dates”

To explain things simply, individuals were given a breather with reductions, and other concessions, (One already knows all the numbers). Increasing the disposable income means more buying, more consumption and more investment thereby boosting a short-term growth in the GDP. Along with this, the budget proposes to increase government expenditure to an all time high with numbers no one had ever dreamt of to increase India’s GDP with a long term intention along with a short term objective to attract all the potential voters and potential Investors.

People, who look at numbers and believe them, would be satisfied at them when they do come out next year. And professional individuals, right now, are also very happy because they think that a high disposable income would increase their ability to buy more. What they will not understand, is that only disposable income increases while goods bought (and necessary ones, those) will not get any cheaper. Inflation will increase, due to increase in money flows, so you pay more than what you are paying now. And you live in an illusion that you have more money now. Measures to check inflation, although, have been conveniently left out in the budget.

The most important question, that everyone is asking right now, is how will the Government arrange for 60,000 crores? That’s not that difficult to explain. The process of loan waivers is a 3 years process, as said by the Finance minister. We only see tax sops to individuals. Corporate tax, on the other hand is a different story. There are stringent rules applied and corporates don’t get any relief. Government hunts down its revenues from here, definitely more than that of individuals.

This budget is actually again a plan suggesting the measures. Implementation is easier said than done. For example, since India still has a deficit in its balance of payments, the loan waiver and other government expenditure has given something to think about. It doesn’t matter if the government is re-elected or not, taxes are bound to increase for the corporate sector next year. Such increase would again cause to look for more SEZs and again the SEZ policy has also been conveniently hidden underneath the carpet, even though Nandigram and Singur were such burning issues this year.

But I do place my facts on the probability that the measures that the government has proposed will be implemented. The building of IITs and IIScs and 16 central universities are still in papers and such “mandatory” announcements are made every year. Evaluation is not done, and the only effects proposed would be short term effects. The numbers, the growth rate, the inflation rate and the tax rate are huge matters which are always applied with a short-term intention, while the consequences are not given any importance.

If the annual financial budget is only created to keep the investor’s confidence, the voter’s confidence and the confidence that India is growing, by whatever measures necessary then what is the need for such annual disclosure? The government and the finance minister can come out every time with their policies when there is an issue at hand, like global markets or economic recession.

Growth is a concept which is never short term. The problem is that foreign investors look for immediate results, through the growth rates. Immediate results can always be arrived at by applying tweaks like increase/decrease in taxes. But in this process, the whole point of the growth of Indian economy in real terms, is absolutely lost.

 Two posts in quick succession, but I can hardly be  blamed. Actually this post had always been in the making, but because of the absence of vital data, it never got materialized. But now, after a lot of hard work I have finally got this.

The collection has to be credited to C. C is the extremely pretty dame, who is  always found to be increasing her lipstick collection, carrying an umbrella when there is no sun and poking other people with that in a crowded central Calcutta road, trying to find out whether fat-free popcorn is available, confusing people in a coffee shop by asking which sandwich has mayonnaise and which doesn’t, gorging on fat-free ice-creams and then founding out to her horror that it may not be fat-free, religiously jogging without taking breaks and then eating biryani, chocolate mousse, walnut brownie with chocolate sauce etc. Of course why she needs to diet is another important question which we all are yet to find out.

When she does however, successfully, manage to formulate an effective fitness regime, she gets into extremely high spirits. When she does get into high spirits, she likes to entertain us with her dose of observations usually hidden from our naked eye. One of the priceless things are her collection of Mithun Chakraborty dialogues  from recent Bengali films, which for some reason I can never watch on my television. Following is the complete list of unforgettable gems.

1. Public-er  maar Keyaratola paar.

This does not need translation. Although, this led to an extremely pertinent conversation..

Me: What is Keyaratola and why will public’s maar get you to Keyaratola ke paar?

C: You live in Calcutta and you don’t know Keyaratola!! It is a famous shamshan, after all.

Me: But I thought Nimtala was the famous shamshan,

C: Keyatola is also a famous shamshan in Calcutta. Nimtala and Keyaratala are two famous shamshans in Calcutta.

2.  Aami kukur ke biskoot, beral ke doodh aar criminal ke gooli khawai. Tai tara aamar payer kaache pore thake.

I feed dogs with biscuit, cats with milk and criminals with “goli”. That’s why they always reside near my feet.

3. Shaaper chobol aar cheetar khabol, jekhanei porbey arai  kg mangsho tuley nebe.

A snake’s sting and a cheetah’s paw, wherever one of these will land, it will carve out 2.5 kg of flesh

4. Abhimanyu Nag. Jal-dhora noi jaat gokhra. Ek chobolei chobi.

Abhimanyu Nag (character name) is not jal-dhora (supposedly trying to signify a harmless snake) but a cobra. With one sting, (listen to this, with one sting) you will become a picture.

Those who do not understand the significance of the word “picture” and its indication can contact me.

5. Nursery theke shuru, half-pant-e guru, full pant-e Mahaguru.

 From nursery school my personality development has started. When I wore a half-pant I was the guru, when I wore a full pant I became Mahaguru.

C’s reaction about this blog post.

” If I knew you will write about these dialogues before, I would have never befriended you in the first place”

Thank you, C. Applause audience.

Somehow, today I feel that the language that I would be using while writing this post may not coincide with the actual feelings I wish to express. This doesn’t happen to me too often; rather it’s a case of rarity. But still, I have to continue writing this in English in hope that I am able to give shape to my actual thoughts.

 Its cold in Calcutta now. The chilly weather has been continuing for a week, with occasional showers which is bringing down the temperature furthermore. People here aren’t accustomed to the weather as such, and so for us the cold just seems quite tiresome.

 Even more tedious is the task of getting up early at about 6 to 6:30 in the morning, getting ready, commuting through the public transport and reaching the university on time. You can almost feel my disinterest and my lack of enthusiasm here when I talk about my daily adventures these days. The walk from the bus-stand to the campus is a long one, consisting of lazy, indifferent people walking so slowly through the footpaths that you can almost consider yourself to be standstill waiting for the “green signal” to allow you to move ahead of the human traffic. It is easy to get impatient and take the route by walking on the main road, but I try not to. Safety reasons withstanding, puddles of water are already present, an usual picture of Calcutta when rain has been continuing for some time.

 Everyday, I walk through the footpath, overcrowded with shops, big and small, with stalls selling magazines from PC Quest to StarDust, from local fruitsellers to small chaiwalllas. I notice an old man sitting on a stall, with socks and handkerchiefs among other things, shouting “Socks! Socks!” while people just quietly and steadily walking past him. Today is different, it is quite cold than other days. Rains lashed on to the city yesterday, and because of that the city was shivering more than usual. The man wasn’t there today, instead of his usual voice a shrill young voice shouted “Socks! Socks!”. I passed it, like everyday but not before I caught a small figure in red, a little girl, no taller than my knees yelling those words. When I had walked quite a bit, I don’t know why, but I had this strong feeling to turn back, to look again at the sight which I thought I had seen a few moments ago. And I did. I turned a bit while continuing to walk and I saw her. I met her eyes and in an instant, quite embarrassedly I turned myself again and kept walking, wondering why I had done so.

 Throughout the entire walk, I thought about her. May be her uncle or her grandfather was sick today and she was filling in for him. Did she miss her school today? Did she actually go to school? Will she actually manage to sell a pair of socks today? And on an instant, I wanted to move away from such thoughts, erasing them out as rubbish and extremely insipid or may be too immature. Even while writing now, I am constantly asking why am I spending such an amount of time and space writing about something which has got absolutely no relevance?

 Was it on my part to try and empathize? Or an attempt to try to understand people’s livelihood which is poles apart from mine? Questions such as these makes me feel small and insignificant. Who am I to judge other people and show compassion to them without even knowing who they are? Wasn’t it always me who kept on telling others that people are inconsiderate, selfish and deceitful trying to take every ounce of advantage they can from others? So, why was I trying to be different today?

 May be, I, like the rest of the people was behaving like the exact same way, empathizing with a situation with which I can never identify and only trying to camouflage this inability with my act, a fabricated emotion of showing compassion.