"All religion, my friend, is simply evolved out of
fraud, fear, greed, imagination, and poetry."
—Edgar Allan Poe (American, 1809-1849)
Word for the day
Froideur (n)
An attitude of haughty aloofness; cold superiority.
Malice towards none
Two innocent queries:
(a) Is Jallikattu part of Tamil culture or Tamil Nadu
culture?
(b) Why do important regional issues in India fail to evoke
a national response in India? E.g., rehabilitation of Kashmiri Pandits.
First random thought this morning
Budget 2017: Increasing the IT exemption limit from current
Rs2.5lacs to Rs4lacs will completely defeat the purpose of enlarging the tax
net, as it will result in 96-98% citizens staying out of the tax net. The
better course would be to reduce tax rates with a lower exemption limit. To
keep the administration cost low, all Assessees with income below Rs10,00,000
may be exempted from filing compulsory return. Instead they may be required to
just e-file a self attested affidavit that they have calculated and deposited
the tax due on their income as per the prevalent law. The department may select
2% of these Assessees every year on random basis and ask them to file the
return in prescribed form with required details.
Growing like ginger
The moment you
exit from the Babatpur Airport in Varanasi, you see the modern symbol of
development - A concrete six lane highway being constructed to link the city
(30kms) with the airport; large showrooms of automobile; Delhi Public School;
etc. As you reach the city after a 90-120minutes of arduous drive, you fail to
find the Kashi, you have been hearing, reading and imagining about.
The city has become a generic Tier 2 north Indian city of India.
You would struggle to tell a difference between Kashi, Patna, Bareilly,
Moradabad, Aligarh, Agra, Panipat, Hissar, Jhansi, Allahabad. The city is
growing like ginger - unplanned and unmindful.
The main streets are dotted by showrooms of large apparel,
appliances and food brands. There are 50x more private coaching centers than
schools. It appears that all people just want to learn to speak English, and
become doctors, engineers, CAs and IAS officers.
If you try on your own, it might take 2-3 days to find a place
that teaches Indian languages, religion, classical music & dance, silk
weaving, or sculpting etc.
The city is dotted with the symbols of Clean India mission. But to
the dismay of all visitors, these symbols are dirtier than the city itself.
Many accept that city has become cleaner in past two years. But
"cleaner" is not necessarily "clean" per se. It is hard to
find any change in the mindset of people, who spit red anywhere and everywhere,
litter with freedom, sweep their shops and homes to throw the garbage on the
road. The entire city has open drains that remain filled with sewage water and
choked with plastic bags. Stray animals are found in abundance.
I spoke to many religious men on various famous ghats. No one, yes
None, wanted their children to study Sanskrit and religion. One of them had
four children - two are studying medicine, one preparing for civil services and
the fourth one is running a gym.
The sign boards make it abundantly clear that the city is
desperate to shed its traditional image and look progressive with English.
For time immemorial the city has been associated with
"Faith" and "Devotion". A 7km walk from Bhairasur Ghat to
Assi Ghat anytime during the day would tell you that the "Faith" and
"Devotion" are now mostly constricted to the Old, Rural, Illiterate
and Poor populace. Save for unmindful rituals and fearful compliance, the
young, urban, educated, middle class people are cynical about "Faith"
and lack "Devotion".
I met a group of visitors from Kyoto, who had come to Kashi with
great expectations. Trust me, they are carrying a message that will demotivate
many prospective Japanese visitors.
The point I am trying to make is that we would need to rise above symbolism, if we want to grow as a society, and hence as economy. Moreover, the straight road to prosperity is through our strengths and not weaknesses or imitation of others....more on this in following post.
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