AN EYE OPENER

AN EYE OPENER

       Last week I managed to persuade G to go on a motoring holiday of south Karnataka. I was keen to visit Belur & Halebid, spend time in Chikmagalur and visit goddess Sri Mookambika in the Kollur valley. Open the map of Karnataka and you will see the districts of Bangalore Rural, Hassan, Chikmagalur, Udipi and Shimoga, then see the Badra Wildlife Sanctury, Shettihalli Wildlife Sanctury, the Mookambika Wildlife Sanctury, the Sharavathi Valley Wildlife Sanctury, all part of the Western Ghats & Kudremukh Range and traveresd by Tunga & Badra rivers. It was breathtaking countryside.
      We started with an early morning train ride by the very comfortable Shatabdi and as senior citizens are first AC fare was a mere Rs 601/ per person with breakfast & refreshments. Given the soaring costs of every day essentials, this puts one in a happy frame of mind that some luxuries like travel are still within affordable reach.
      The train sped out of central and in minuets we had left the city behind and vast open spaces were visible blanketed under a layer of heavy mist. The sun struggled to pierce this eerie cocoon and succeeded sending up the mist into vapour which broke into a zillion tiny rainbows that danced on the tips of tender green shoots neatly laid out. It was meditative sceanery punctured by sharp bird calls. Suddenly the sun tired of this playful dalliance flared out  and everyhing was drowned in the white glare. Time to pull the blinds down.
      The Jain temples have beautiful carvings at Shravanbelagola Belur and Halebid are exquiste and very well maintained. This was the expected as the Hosyalas have been lauded down the ages for their miracles in sand stone.
 

 
    
But what of the social changes taking place awawy from media talk shows and sound bytes. The most wonderous sight is the sight of freshly bathed school children in tens & hundreds walking bussing cycling to school from 7 am onwards. all are in uniform of light & dark blue and only a tie differentiates those in private English medium schools. Girls and boys hurrying to school.

Freshly painted village schools with colourful wall art of the human anantomy, wildlife, plants & fauna, these are the modern temples of our nation, the all inclusive change at grass roots that Gandhiji advocated and the rationalists scoffed at.  

 

Its happening with quiet zeal and while we traipeze around the Andes or the Alsakan Cruises, our nation is growing nuturing itself in its tiny hamles and villages with electricity, roads, schools and agriculture.
  You will be surprised as I was.  




 

Did you Know?

All of us have heard or read the Budget headlines. What were we looking for; tax hike , some sops, inflation checks, some headline news ?
But friends its whats in fine print that should arrest our attention, make us conscious of the rising inequality between what we have and what 70% don't have.
 I was fortunate to listen to P Sainath on the subject on the Budget morning. As Pranab Mukherjee droned on about inclusive growth , in a tiny airless hall Sainath was educating young college students how to get accurate Government data and how to interpret. Pranab da spoke on increase in allocation for agri & rural sector. Sainath pointed out that when increase was spoken it was a percentage without inflation factor. So what increase?
Did you know that last year the Government waived off 
Rs 80,000 cr on Direct Corporate Income tax
Rs 1,49,000 cr on Excise duty
Rs 2,79,000 cr on customs duty( large corporate hospitals import equipment supposedly  for the poor)
Yet there is no fund available for Food , PDS or NAC recommendations.

In fact all the points raised by Sainath and what the Government response would be was predicted and it was verbatim in the replies of Kapil Sibal on TV debate. He bulldozed Sitaram Yerchury who was refuting the increase allocation to social development sector.

Did you know that in terms of Human Development Index HDI India ranks 119 of 169 countries and below Indonesia, Vietnam, Egypt and Sri Lanka . All these countries are densely populated , there is constant disruption , yet in terms of life span, standard of living and education all those countries fare better than India.

Why?

We in India have become a country of economists and statisticians. We favour growth and revenue but mouth schemes for poverty alleviation. What is this growth. Market expansion thanks to the population. What is HDI? The value we place on human life and quality of life. To imagine a country run by an autocrat Mubarak had offered a better life to its peoples than what we are having for the majority.

Friends please read the Economic survey which precedes the budget. At the very least we must be informed and aware of the doublespeak that we swallow in our ignorance.