It wasn’t a pleasant conversation over the telephone. It never is, when the person at the other end happens to be a greedy tax officer. Life isn’t simple and straightforward for me with these guys whom I have to face all the time. It is one of those occupational hazards after all. Invariably, I spend time figuring out the ways of evading these tax guys rather than tax itself.
I find a compelling need for the above prelude to what I am going to narrate. Immediately after that tele-conversation I joined the tax officer on a busy street in the city. I don’t see how we had fixed up all the things. We were heading to a wedding. As we walked, he was driving a bargain for a higher ‘cut’ in the ‘deal’, obviously a quid-pro-quo. By the time we reached the marriage hall, I was plunged deep in thought weighing the pros and cons of the offer that he had made. I was unaware of the proceedings around me.
I hadn’t even noticed that my companion was missing until I was woken up from my musings by the bride groom himself. It was just a matter of common sense for me to realize that this bubbly figure, fully decked up is the man of the day. It was hard to place him right away but the fog cleared slowly and the edgy realization dawned on me that this was the man who arrived with me. By now he was completely ready for the events that were to unfold.
I escorted him to the mandapam along with the others. As he took up his designated seat I found myself standing among the photographers who were bent upon catching every silly gesture of the bride groom in their snaps. Somehow in the confusion I was not able to see the bride while being brought to the mandapam. She was already seated next to the groom when I rushed forward to catch a glimpse of her face.
The very next moment I wanted to run away from there, but the bride had caught sight of me and beckoned to me. Can things get more revolting than this? Being the gentleman that I am, trying to make a polite face, I nudged my way up to her.
We had courted for a long time. We had promised each other a whole lot of things I guess every couple, aspiring to get married one day, make. Where were all those tender moments and memories gone? What of the great future that we had planned for ourselves? My mind was racing in all directions. There were more thoughts in it than thinking. After all what is left that she can tell me now? Her beautified face was a pool of pity for this ill-fated creature.
She whispered something that sounded like “don’t worry, you’ll find a much better girl than me”. Empty though these words were, they could neither cause me any pain nor could they be balm for any pain. Deep within me I felt my heart continue its beat. Assured though I was that it wasn’t broken as it should be expected, there remained an uneasy sense of numbness.
With the long cultivated habit of hiding the innate feelings, I managed to give a considered nod for the words that made no difference whatsoever. I forced a wry smile at the couple who waited for the matrimonial ceremonies to begin.
Who do I blame for the predicament I find myself in….? The question revolved again and again in my head as I woke up from the bed. It was a week day and a day to face the sickening taxman. The only consolation that remained was that what took place all this while was only in a dream, a bad dream at that.
P.S: The shortchanging at times I have felt is happening all the while, if not of the bride of other things of life atleast.
Monday, March 05, 2007
Thursday, March 01, 2007
Capitalism: What about ‘in practice’?
The last decade and a half has witnessed a boom in our economy. Liberalization and privatization no doubt have been the chief agents of this miracle as in the western developed economies. Yet again capitalism has triumphed. The theory of ‘invisible hand’ is after all invincible. It has in it the best mechanism to produce and distribute the wealth of the nations.
With higher per capita income people have come to enjoy a higher standard of living. Competitive market economy has made it possible for the economic participants to reap the benefits of a growing economy. When the stakeholders in the private sector seem to have a windfall can those in the governance be kept at bay? A piece in the expanding cake rightfully belongs to them too.
How does one transplant the market economic techniques into the governance sector to replicate therein the efficiency of the private sector? Whether we have recognized it or not, I believe it has already happened in good measure. Market economy is not an artificial invention but the natural phenomenon, a possible behavioral pattern arising out of normal human interaction. So also in the interaction between the government and the governed a natural process of discovering the best possible mechanism of mutual benefit is only expected.
In my humble opinion, what we widely perceive as corruption in government establishments is verily the capitalistic technique at work. At one level it is the incentive for the efficiency of the government personnel and in a larger perspective, it is the mechanism for the wealth of the economy to reach those in government. May be we have to come out of the conservative and misconceived notion that corruption is unethical.
Contrary to what may appear, my idea of setting forth the above argument is not to justify corruption on grounds of capitalism, but to question the justification of capitalism itself. If one holds on to the idea that corruption is immoral and dishonorable, then one has to review the well rooted idea that capitalism is ethical and capitalism is morally right.
Corruption thrives on power, access to information and the vulnerability of the victim. In that sense, capitalism is not very different. It flourishes on the strength of the financial muscle, asymmetry of information and the vulnerability of the consumer. The rosy pictures painted of the success of capitalism are just one side of the story. There are multitudes who are marginalized and excluded from the benefits of progress. What about the fact that 10% of population of the world owns 80% of the world’s wealth? What about the insatiable thirst of consumers and the instinct of the businessmen to cash in on that? What about the enormity of damage caused to nature in this mad pursuit? And in all these we have not even taken up the issue of deterioration in the quality of life itself. Let me not go on further on those lines lest I sound preachy.
No doubt by now the votaries of capitalism have rushed to the defense of it - in theory capitalism does not encourage any of these practices. That is right, yet the fact remains that it is only in theory.
With higher per capita income people have come to enjoy a higher standard of living. Competitive market economy has made it possible for the economic participants to reap the benefits of a growing economy. When the stakeholders in the private sector seem to have a windfall can those in the governance be kept at bay? A piece in the expanding cake rightfully belongs to them too.
How does one transplant the market economic techniques into the governance sector to replicate therein the efficiency of the private sector? Whether we have recognized it or not, I believe it has already happened in good measure. Market economy is not an artificial invention but the natural phenomenon, a possible behavioral pattern arising out of normal human interaction. So also in the interaction between the government and the governed a natural process of discovering the best possible mechanism of mutual benefit is only expected.
In my humble opinion, what we widely perceive as corruption in government establishments is verily the capitalistic technique at work. At one level it is the incentive for the efficiency of the government personnel and in a larger perspective, it is the mechanism for the wealth of the economy to reach those in government. May be we have to come out of the conservative and misconceived notion that corruption is unethical.
Contrary to what may appear, my idea of setting forth the above argument is not to justify corruption on grounds of capitalism, but to question the justification of capitalism itself. If one holds on to the idea that corruption is immoral and dishonorable, then one has to review the well rooted idea that capitalism is ethical and capitalism is morally right.
Corruption thrives on power, access to information and the vulnerability of the victim. In that sense, capitalism is not very different. It flourishes on the strength of the financial muscle, asymmetry of information and the vulnerability of the consumer. The rosy pictures painted of the success of capitalism are just one side of the story. There are multitudes who are marginalized and excluded from the benefits of progress. What about the fact that 10% of population of the world owns 80% of the world’s wealth? What about the insatiable thirst of consumers and the instinct of the businessmen to cash in on that? What about the enormity of damage caused to nature in this mad pursuit? And in all these we have not even taken up the issue of deterioration in the quality of life itself. Let me not go on further on those lines lest I sound preachy.
No doubt by now the votaries of capitalism have rushed to the defense of it - in theory capitalism does not encourage any of these practices. That is right, yet the fact remains that it is only in theory.
Tuesday, March 28, 2006
Being in love
Plato said "At the touch of love, everyone becomes a poet". Just got some inspiration to look around for some quotes on being in love.
We are all a little weird and life's a little weird, and when we find someone whose weirdness is compatible with ours, we join up with them and fall in mutual weirdness and call it love.
You learn to like someone when you find out what makes them laugh, but you can never truly love someone until you find out what makes them cry.
Love - a wildly misunderstood although highly desirable malfunction of the heart which weakens the brain, causes eyes to sparkle, cheeks to glow, blood pressure to rise and the lips to pucker.
When love is not madness, it is not love. ~Pedro Calderon de la Barca
The ultimate test of a relationship is to disagree but to hold hands. ~Quoted by Alexandra Penney in Self
We are all a little weird and life's a little weird, and when we find someone whose weirdness is compatible with ours, we join up with them and fall in mutual weirdness and call it love.
You learn to like someone when you find out what makes them laugh, but you can never truly love someone until you find out what makes them cry.
Love - a wildly misunderstood although highly desirable malfunction of the heart which weakens the brain, causes eyes to sparkle, cheeks to glow, blood pressure to rise and the lips to pucker.
When love is not madness, it is not love. ~Pedro Calderon de la Barca
The ultimate test of a relationship is to disagree but to hold hands. ~Quoted by Alexandra Penney in Self
Friday, September 09, 2005
Back to basics of management
Very often we need to get back to our basics and refresh our fundamentals. Read on to brush up management lessons - The relevance of the M-word from today's Business Standard.
Thursday, September 08, 2005
My Sanskrit Teacher
There are pleasures of life that we experience when others achieve the heights. One such pleasure which I had of late was to see the message that my school sanskrit teacher, Mr. K R Vedanarayan has been awarded the President's Award. He was one of the 306 teachers to have received the award for 2004 from the president on 5th Sep 2005. His name may be located at number 287 of the list released on Press Information Bureau's (PIB) website.
I am proud to be his student. (A teacher is a teacher forever. That is why I chose to use the present tense construction of this sentence).
[Further, to blow my trumpet, I had got 100% in Sanskrit in the exam conducted by Sanskrit Teachers' Association, Chennai in 1998 and I have treasured the certificate with my sanskrit teacher's autograph at the back.]
Thursday, September 01, 2005
Money Matters
Many a time I feel that probably I am selling myself cheap, I should have gone in search of greener pastures elsewhere. But then again, I have never actually had money at the top most of my mind. How about others?... I have very frequently wondered. Here is something to read on if you too ever wondered.
Work and love are ok; but money gives me nirvana
LOPAMUDRA GHATAK
INDIATIMES NEWS NETWORK [ THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 01, 2005 01:09:15 AM]
“Money frees you from doing things you dislike. Since I dislike doing nearly everything, money is handy.”
-Groucho Marx (1890 - 1977)
Samrat Bhattacharya, unlike American actor Groucho Marx does not ‘dislike doing nearly everything’. But like Marx, this 30+something manager in a Delhi-based MNC believes that ‘money can be a liberating experience’.
“Apart from enhancing spending power and hiking my social equity, money also lets me be myself. Thanks to money, I can conveniently flaunt branded apparels, accessories and spend money on doing what I like doing,” Bhattacharya, whose weekend expenditure ranges anywhere between Rs 3,000 to Rs 8,000 says.
Although Bhattacharya’s father, who retired recently after having worked in a PSU bank for 30 years, fails to connect with his son’s slightly hedonistic lifestyle, he himself acknowledges that times have changed. More importantly, people’s perception about money has also undergone a huge transformation.
Sharmila Joshi, who is a voice trainer in a call centre, has no qualms that money is an important ingredient towards a better life. And, without any hesitation, she admits that “money figures high on my priority list.”
“It would be foolish to say that money is not important. In today’s world, money is very important, rather essential in order to survive,” Joshi, 29, who left her boyfriend in Delhi and moved to Mumbai for a job that paid her more, says, without any hesitation.
Apart from being an essential factor for survival, money also spells out mental security and assurance. And for many young professionals like Bhattacharya and Joshi, a life replete with luxuries is possible only thanks to money. And it is this quest for a better life that has young professionals looking to make a fast buck while the sun shines!
But are young pros actually chasing money?
“No, they are also chasing their dreams, of fulfilling oneself,” says Vasantha Patri, chairperson, Indian Institute of Counselling. “With a mad scramble for time and demanding jobs in tow, young professionals have no choice but to make the best of given time, resources and also derive maximum benefit from the given set of situations.”
In this instant age of consumerist culture, money is being increasingly seen as an index of success. From branded clothes, glitzy accessories, swanky cars, expensive vacations and eating out sessions, money has helped convert erstwhile items of luxury into simple needs. In other words, money has strengthened the belief that it ‘big bucks make life easy’.
“I work hard throughout the week. The only time when I get to socialise and be myself with my friends is during the weekend. And during such outings, I don’t mind spending money as it also enhances my spending power, and reflects on my success in the professional front,” T Thomas, a corporate lawyer based in Mumbai, says.
In a world being swept in by material tidings, money has emerged as a key player in forging emotional bond and human relationships. Patri feels that “the onset of early careers has led to young professionals trying to make ends meet by becoming a part of the gold rush,” and for our new age pros, money clubbed together along with professional success can act as a heady combination. But the amount of money that young pros have and are willing to spend also determines how they’ll fare among their peers.
Apart from being a measure of personal success, the kind of money one has also determines the kind of friends one will gain. While the sentimental ones spew that “there are some things that money can’t buy,” there are many who insist that money does play a crucial role in forming friendships.
Money works, and talks...
“Money does play an important role, especially in the workplace. The kind of money you have will reflect on the kind of clothes you wear and your spending power and before you can even realise, an image is built in the mind of your colleagues of the kind of person you are,” Kallol Saha, a project manager in an IT company in Bangalore, says.
Bhattacharya, who doesn’t feel guilty about spending Rs 8,000 on a weekend outing, agrees with what Saha says. “Apart from image building, money also gives a sense of assurance and confidence. And in any gathering, self-assured people do draw a lot of positive attention.”
Even as upward mobility and leading a good life occupies top priority for new age professionals, there are people like Rishi Nath who belong to the old school of thought, especially when it comes to money. The successful PR manager in a leading hotel feels that “money may be important but there is scope for old values and friendships to survive.
“I was absolutely new when I came to Mumbai and although I hated it initially, I soon found a good set of friends at the workplace who have been there for me. And money took a backseat,” Nath says.
While Patri terms the rush for money as “an inevitable consequence, thanks to the transition taking place in society, with good things having been scarce erstwhile,” there is no doubt that money does occupy priority in the scheme of things in the lives of young professionals.
And for many, to borrow from Woody Allen, “Money is better than poverty, if only for financial reasons."
Work and love are ok; but money gives me nirvana
LOPAMUDRA GHATAK
INDIATIMES NEWS NETWORK [ THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 01, 2005 01:09:15 AM]
“Money frees you from doing things you dislike. Since I dislike doing nearly everything, money is handy.”
-Groucho Marx (1890 - 1977)
Samrat Bhattacharya, unlike American actor Groucho Marx does not ‘dislike doing nearly everything’. But like Marx, this 30+something manager in a Delhi-based MNC believes that ‘money can be a liberating experience’.
“Apart from enhancing spending power and hiking my social equity, money also lets me be myself. Thanks to money, I can conveniently flaunt branded apparels, accessories and spend money on doing what I like doing,” Bhattacharya, whose weekend expenditure ranges anywhere between Rs 3,000 to Rs 8,000 says.
Although Bhattacharya’s father, who retired recently after having worked in a PSU bank for 30 years, fails to connect with his son’s slightly hedonistic lifestyle, he himself acknowledges that times have changed. More importantly, people’s perception about money has also undergone a huge transformation.
Sharmila Joshi, who is a voice trainer in a call centre, has no qualms that money is an important ingredient towards a better life. And, without any hesitation, she admits that “money figures high on my priority list.”
“It would be foolish to say that money is not important. In today’s world, money is very important, rather essential in order to survive,” Joshi, 29, who left her boyfriend in Delhi and moved to Mumbai for a job that paid her more, says, without any hesitation.
Apart from being an essential factor for survival, money also spells out mental security and assurance. And for many young professionals like Bhattacharya and Joshi, a life replete with luxuries is possible only thanks to money. And it is this quest for a better life that has young professionals looking to make a fast buck while the sun shines!
But are young pros actually chasing money?
“No, they are also chasing their dreams, of fulfilling oneself,” says Vasantha Patri, chairperson, Indian Institute of Counselling. “With a mad scramble for time and demanding jobs in tow, young professionals have no choice but to make the best of given time, resources and also derive maximum benefit from the given set of situations.”
In this instant age of consumerist culture, money is being increasingly seen as an index of success. From branded clothes, glitzy accessories, swanky cars, expensive vacations and eating out sessions, money has helped convert erstwhile items of luxury into simple needs. In other words, money has strengthened the belief that it ‘big bucks make life easy’.
“I work hard throughout the week. The only time when I get to socialise and be myself with my friends is during the weekend. And during such outings, I don’t mind spending money as it also enhances my spending power, and reflects on my success in the professional front,” T Thomas, a corporate lawyer based in Mumbai, says.
In a world being swept in by material tidings, money has emerged as a key player in forging emotional bond and human relationships. Patri feels that “the onset of early careers has led to young professionals trying to make ends meet by becoming a part of the gold rush,” and for our new age pros, money clubbed together along with professional success can act as a heady combination. But the amount of money that young pros have and are willing to spend also determines how they’ll fare among their peers.
Apart from being a measure of personal success, the kind of money one has also determines the kind of friends one will gain. While the sentimental ones spew that “there are some things that money can’t buy,” there are many who insist that money does play a crucial role in forming friendships.
Money works, and talks...
“Money does play an important role, especially in the workplace. The kind of money you have will reflect on the kind of clothes you wear and your spending power and before you can even realise, an image is built in the mind of your colleagues of the kind of person you are,” Kallol Saha, a project manager in an IT company in Bangalore, says.
Bhattacharya, who doesn’t feel guilty about spending Rs 8,000 on a weekend outing, agrees with what Saha says. “Apart from image building, money also gives a sense of assurance and confidence. And in any gathering, self-assured people do draw a lot of positive attention.”
Even as upward mobility and leading a good life occupies top priority for new age professionals, there are people like Rishi Nath who belong to the old school of thought, especially when it comes to money. The successful PR manager in a leading hotel feels that “money may be important but there is scope for old values and friendships to survive.
“I was absolutely new when I came to Mumbai and although I hated it initially, I soon found a good set of friends at the workplace who have been there for me. And money took a backseat,” Nath says.
While Patri terms the rush for money as “an inevitable consequence, thanks to the transition taking place in society, with good things having been scarce erstwhile,” there is no doubt that money does occupy priority in the scheme of things in the lives of young professionals.
And for many, to borrow from Woody Allen, “Money is better than poverty, if only for financial reasons."
Friday, August 19, 2005
Framing
We know that words are deceptive. Read from the Rockridge Institute website about the concept of Framing. Very interesting!
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