The Cost

Is there a cost of life? We never bother. There is no value associated to it. We lose more people in road accidents than cross border firing. More infants die than the senile. Just like that. One day, the maid came with a long face. I acted inquisitive. She muttered that a girl in her locality passed away. Further prodding revealed that she had touched a metal object, which was not earthed properly. She ended, on the spot. Just like that. One of my acquaintances was standing by the roadside, for her car had broken down. She turned out to be a victim of a hit and run case. Struggled for 9 days. Then gave up. Just like that. We keep hearing news about people dying of cold wave, heat wave, drought or flood; changes in weather, in language of household discourse.

Is human life, that cheap? People loosing it for not apparent reason, cause or purpose! Just like that?! And what do we do to avoid it? Pray to God? Isn't it more sensible, logical, practical, fruitful, plausible, possible, doable to fix the equipment's earthing, drive in a lane without overtaking, use counter-intelligence over counter-firing, nurses over daya-bai's, vaccination over blessings, decision over guess, plan before action, think before ink, read before sign, ponder before perorate, analyse before conclude, reason over faith; or simply, be human?

Nothing is free. There is a cost attached to every thing, how so insignificant it may be. If you are offered life versus the engagement ring, on the gunpoint, what will you choose? Won't this be your reflex: 'The ring be damned!', even though, that's the epitome of your love for your fiancé or fiancée? You care about it - the life - only when you are offered to do away with it for some petty object. And what do you use it - the life, again - for? Believing in some senseless, illogical, impractical, fruitless, implausible, impossible, useless mysticism or hypocritical values or dogmas? You say, life is for spiritual attainment and not money. Really? Tell me, can you live without it? Tell me, if you discover yourself bored with the wealth?

Time is money. Life, incidentally is a function of time. By syllogism, Life is a function of money. Taking literary freedom, lets put it this way: Life has a cost. It's invaluable, inevitable, unavoidable, unquestionable, steadily augmenting entity. Care for it - yours and others' equally - just like you do for your money.

Shitta Shilpi and the others

No. She didn't do anything intentionally. For Fame? It's infamy. For money? She can do a couple of more B grade flicks and make much more. For the race? She doesn't have that panoramic viewpoint. For the country? Hah! That's the biggest joke. Ms. Shetty was being a lousy sobbing pathetic participant of an unequivocally useless TV show. The viewer count of the show jumped by 70% after the stunning performances. Ms. Shetty will get a fixed sum. May be, a bit of short-lived public sympathy. The show makers and sponsors have already raked in the moolah! Frankly, Ms. Goody can best be described as this: A pig-nosed ape-lipped hippo, with a fat brain. I mean, Ms. Shetty was looking better to her! Strange, isn't it? And regarding the dialectic between the two, I had following observation. Remember the character of the iron smith - the Arjan - in Lagaan? He was kicked on face by the gora saab when he had banged the hammer on horse leg instead of horseshoe, for he was raged by the derogatory offered by gora saab about India(ns). The gora saab played same trick, successfully again, when he was hitting them badly in the cricket duel. Arjan - loosing temper - pulled the shot, miscalculating, and threw the wicket.

There was no media then. That's the only difference in the two scenarios. Fiction and Reality was never so close!

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No SEZs, till there is a proper compensation package designed (?) for the PAPs. Applause! Lets talk facts. The Land Acquisition Act of India, was enacted in 1895. 112 years back! Farmers in many states - of the traditionally agriculturist economy of India- are doing suicide. (Mansoon in 2007 is expected to be weak.) Gujrat and Maharastra, the most industrialised states, offer highest revenue; taxes and duties. UP and Bihar, the states are blessed with most fertile land stretch and virtually perpetual supply of water. Revenue collection? Statistically, Corporate Tax chunk has increased by 100% to circa 31% of the total Tax kitty (BE 2007), from circa 17% in 2000. The Personal Income Tax chunk has dropped by almost 2 percentage points from 17 to 15, during the same period. The Indian consumers - we - are getting better products: better value for money. Majority of it are manufactured in-house. It's cheap to produce here, rather than import! Government divested completely from Maruti. Government must govern, not manufacture cars. We drive better models than the archetype (or box-type?) 800cc. Again, manufactured in-house. OK. Enough.

A greenfield power plant for 2000MW generation capacity typically demands 3000 acres of land. Currently, for all SEZs taken together, we need to acquire 50,000 acres of land. Say, equivalent to circa 34,000MW of fresh capacity addition. 45,000MW of the total of over 75,000MW capacity addition by the year 2012 is exclusively thermal. Is it achievable? Now? Forgo the Tatas' and Ambanis' SEZ plans.

If Gurubhai overrules such rules, is he an outlaw?

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Moral Policing is an in-thing nowadays. We see it everywhere. The I&B ministry, the Bhagwa Brigade, the Meerut police, the anti-St.Valentinos, et al. Censorship on obscenity and perversion of social values, they fight for. I wonder, why there is no censorship on the News channels. Master had once said, 'I wonder where the news reporting is headed now. The day is not far when watching news with your family would be a taxing affair.' There were days when editors were people of mind. It appears now as if they are, well, word of mouth. What to show and what not appears to be just a matter of chance not choice. Some funny brains ruminate about some utterly irrelevant thing (to the common) like, the mind of the serial killer, the spiritual strength of the idiot kid who couldn't see the trench or the racist and apartheid mentality of the Britons, epitomised by some lowly rotter of the city.

Now, there was a fantastic achievement in the history of Indian Power industry, that went visibly unnoticed. One of the upcoming greenfield project of the biggest CPSU made it's 765kV switchyard operational on January 20, 2007. Importance? Well, by 2012, we have to make all switchyards of that scale. Two, if we transmit at such higher voltages, i²R losses are less; meaning: less wastage, cheaper power, lesser bills, more profit. Three, this pertain to all. Every citizen of India. Shitta Shilpi won't power the TV or reduce your bills.

Energy

Yesterday, power went off umpteen times. As we have APC at the office, initially, work wasn't affected as the PC's didn't go off along with the lightings and the AC. However, later in the day, as the UPS weren't charged enough due to frequent power downs, even the PCs bid adieu. Thankfully, our critical servers were on redundant supply of generators and hence didn't crash. Had they, it would have been a jolly good time pass for all. And then we (read HR) talk about productivity and efficiency in terms of man-hours.

What is the most important thing for any living person in a civilised world? Basic Amenities. Do we have? Unfortunately, inadequate. Why blame the government we elected. By definition, the representatives of the people, after all, represent the cumulative sum of the intelligence of the people. If we are bereft of the bare minimum infrastructure, it is we who are to be blamed. Period.

At the time of independence, 60 years back, our generating capacity was around 33000 MW. Now it is around 1.3 GW. Sixty years for 1 GW; less than 1700 MW per year! As of date, over 45000MW capacity addition is in under way, that is to be synchronised by 2012. Looking at the current (administrative and financial) prospects, it seems feasible. So, in next 5 years, we shall have added around 30% of the our present capacity; equivalent to the proportionate work accomplished in about 30 years between 1947-2007! Can it be done? The answer is an emphatic, Yes. Power, Oil, Gas - in short, Energy - is the need of the day. It has always been.

There are two ways to be happy. One, the escapist way, preached by the pristine sages of India which professes an individual that to be devoid of the material pleasure. Simply speaking, they convey that one should not desire. If there are no desire - of any variety - there is no discontentment. If there is no discontentment, one is happy. So, live in jungles with monkeys, eat herbs, sleep on hay and enjoy the nature. The other way is the entrepreneurial one. Take risks, invent, discover, desire; for comforts, facilities, amenities, et al. Enjoy them. Be happy. These are tangible things. Material of the Materialistic pleasure. One can quantify these things, at least, unlike the unfathomable and unquantifiable Spiritual one. OK. Where are these so-called materialistic things going to come from? Heaven? Absolutely not. We have to manufacture them. If we want it, we need to work. We need to upgrade infrastructure. We need to produce energy. It's the motive force that can drive us ahead. Granted, energy can't be created or destroyed. But, what we have been doing since last two millennia? Chanting dohe? How much moral purification it did? The Noida Serial Killer? Had he had better income, he would have savoured some vegetarian delicacies over the human flesh. We have been wasting incredible amount of energy on ostensibly worthless pursuits in the name of public welfare under the fictitious banner of 'Help the Poor'. How far are the alms going to feed? If the hand gets rewarded with money for doing nothing but just because it's the hand of poor, why that hand would ever desire to achieve the strength to earn. We need to teach how to fish, rather than giving away fish. And then, who is we? No, not only the government. Why blame them. If you swear, you will catch no fish. We have to work. We have to earn the happiness we desire, lest we are ready to be labelled as escapists.

We want malls, cars, ditch less roads, uninterrupted power supply and ilk. Where is it going to come from? Doing maintenance of obsolete mainframe code? Or by answering overseas calls? Where are you going to power the mainframes from? Where are you going to power the telephone exchanges? Where are you going to power the escalator you used to reach the next floor of mall? What are you going to fuel the car with? Spiritual drivel? Rubbish.

We need to manufacture. That needs industries. That needs skilled manpower. That needs education. And it can't be achieved by reservations, for sure. Prosperity is a function of (skilled) workmanship, not alms. I firmly stand by the following words of John D. Rockefeller, "I can think of nothing less pleasurable than a life devoted to pleasure." We need to realise what drives the world. It's not service. It's manufacturing. Products. And that needs Energy.

Think over it.