Chennai goes into overdrive..
On New Year's eve..
By four in the evening...
The driving gets distinctly rash....
And much later..
The partying and the real drinking begins!!!!
Madras never made such a fuss!!!
Growing up with my grandparents...
New Year was just another day!!!
So too New Year's eve!!!
If Madras partied...
It did so without us!!!!
Our New Year is on April 14th..
Grandmother would keep reminding us!!
And..
Now we have been deprived of even that!!!
It has been shifted to mid-January!!!
Amazing what politicians can do!!!
While they are at it...
Why not shift all festivals from Deepavali to Easter to Ramadan to Ayutha Puja and Krishna Jayanthi et al to just one month...January??
Then Tamilnadu..
Like Europe which shuts down in mid-December...
Can shut down too....
And resurface from hibernation after a month!!
Sleep away the marghazi...
And all other forms of madness!!
Catch a concert or two...
Just chill!!!
Enjoy the nip in the air!!!
Just think...
If this happens...
Other progressive states may follow suit...
And then India itself may shut down...
In January..
A whole month off for the entire country!!!
Maybe our politicians will see the sense in this!!
And buy this idea from Madrasgirl!!!!
One can always hope..
Adios then!!!
And...
Happy New Year to you...
And your loved ones!!!
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Friday, December 25, 2009
Let them eat cake!!!
Lately...
I have taken to picking up grains of lentils when they roll off the kitchen counter...
I scrape the last remnants of curd and gravy from the pot..
Ask Cook to reheat leftover rice...
Or make it into a pongal..or a lemon rice...
Don't throw it away....don't waste it...
I constantly tell her...
It is as if I am girding up to take on..
A food shortage....
My father's generation may remember...
The days of rationing...
After the War...
But...
To my own generation...
Words like drought...
Food shortage...
Belong in history books...
We have been spoilt by years of plenty...
So perhaps I carry some racial memory within me...
I prepare by being careful.......
As I wait for the crunch..
That this feeling in my bones tells me..
Is surely coming!!!
Perhaps..
The rather blasé attitude..
Espoused by the Government and its minions...
When they talk about food price inflation!!!
Has added to this feeling in my bones....
It is truly scary!!!...
In a recent interview the FM...
When asked about the food price inflation numbers said:
We knew it would hit this figure ...
Jubilant that the numbers are right!!!
And not a squeak about what was done...
To deal with this situation!!!
Yet... what are the solutions???
We can import...
Various functionaries mumble every now and then...
Hoarding is taking place...says one...
The expectation of a drought is making this happen...says another...
People have excessive disposable income...
This is making prices go through the roof??
And so on and so forth...
So I ask:
Why aren't the hoarders being caught and punished and deterred?
Why have those imported food grains not reached our shores yet?
Why can't the prices of essential food items be controlled?
In the Land of Smiles...
Pork and chicken prices are controlled!!!
Put some food in their bellies is what that government clearly thinks!!!
But here...
The feeling is...
If they cannot have bread..
Then let them eat cake....
a la Marie Antoinette!!!...
As I write...news comes in..
The food price inflation has dropped from 20 something percent..
To 18 something percent...
Yippee!!!
But it is difficult to perceive this on the ground....
Heck!..even our growth rate of 6 odd percent is not perceptible...
Going back to the early 90s..
When Sawadee Land was Asian Tiger Country....
A growth rate of 8 percent...
Translated into a tangible vibrance in the economy...
It created wealth...
Threw up jobs aplenty...
Created opportunities for its people and others...
Not so in Bharath
Something wrong with those figures???.......
Cooked again???
Could it be???
Then again...what will the poor do??
If things get worse??
How are they coping now???
When lentils of any variety cost Rs 108 a kilo!!!
And onions rule at Rs 36!!!
Does anyone know??
Or care??
Apparently not....
On that dismal note...
I bid thee adieu!!!
I have taken to picking up grains of lentils when they roll off the kitchen counter...
I scrape the last remnants of curd and gravy from the pot..
Ask Cook to reheat leftover rice...
Or make it into a pongal..or a lemon rice...
Don't throw it away....don't waste it...
I constantly tell her...
It is as if I am girding up to take on..
A food shortage....
My father's generation may remember...
The days of rationing...
After the War...
But...
To my own generation...
Words like drought...
Food shortage...
Belong in history books...
We have been spoilt by years of plenty...
So perhaps I carry some racial memory within me...
I prepare by being careful.......
As I wait for the crunch..
That this feeling in my bones tells me..
Is surely coming!!!
Perhaps..
The rather blasé attitude..
Espoused by the Government and its minions...
When they talk about food price inflation!!!
Has added to this feeling in my bones....
It is truly scary!!!...
In a recent interview the FM...
When asked about the food price inflation numbers said:
We knew it would hit this figure ...
Jubilant that the numbers are right!!!
And not a squeak about what was done...
To deal with this situation!!!
Yet... what are the solutions???
We can import...
Various functionaries mumble every now and then...
Hoarding is taking place...says one...
The expectation of a drought is making this happen...says another...
People have excessive disposable income...
This is making prices go through the roof??
And so on and so forth...
So I ask:
Why aren't the hoarders being caught and punished and deterred?
Why have those imported food grains not reached our shores yet?
Why can't the prices of essential food items be controlled?
In the Land of Smiles...
Pork and chicken prices are controlled!!!
Put some food in their bellies is what that government clearly thinks!!!
But here...
The feeling is...
If they cannot have bread..
Then let them eat cake....
a la Marie Antoinette!!!...
As I write...news comes in..
The food price inflation has dropped from 20 something percent..
To 18 something percent...
Yippee!!!
But it is difficult to perceive this on the ground....
Heck!..even our growth rate of 6 odd percent is not perceptible...
Going back to the early 90s..
When Sawadee Land was Asian Tiger Country....
A growth rate of 8 percent...
Translated into a tangible vibrance in the economy...
It created wealth...
Threw up jobs aplenty...
Created opportunities for its people and others...
Not so in Bharath
Something wrong with those figures???.......
Cooked again???
Could it be???
Then again...what will the poor do??
If things get worse??
How are they coping now???
When lentils of any variety cost Rs 108 a kilo!!!
And onions rule at Rs 36!!!
Does anyone know??
Or care??
Apparently not....
On that dismal note...
I bid thee adieu!!!
