Pain Killers needed

Many years ago, a close friend’s father complained of unbearable pain in the lower back region, that needed medical treatment. His family doctor advised him to see a neurosurgeon and hinted at a possible surgery that could mitigate his pain. When I recommended him to talk to a neurosurgeon I knew, he readily agreed to consult him. This neurosurgeon went through his X-Ray and Scan reports and advised him against any surgery! “If you do undergo this operation your lower-back pain will go. But chances are that you may develop pain higher up your spine after the surgery. You also face risks associated with any surgery and here we are talking about neuro-surgery!”

So, for my friend’s dad, it was back to physiotherapy, painkillers and oodles of prayers!


Economic experts talk today like that neurosurgeon did several years ago.  Spiralling inflation, the Rupee falling, lower growth rates, no investors coming to India, no jobs for youngsters - we have more pains than one can ever imagine! If you don’t like the hike in the petrol prices, who do you think pays for the import bill, if the petrol prices aren’t hiked? Taxpayers! And that includes Income Tax payers and those that (fortunately or unfortunately) don’t have to pay Income Tax. Because those that who don’t have to pay Income Tax have to pay all the Indirect Taxes – Excise Duty, VAT/Sales Tax, Entertainment Tax, Octroi, Customs Duties on all goods that are purchased by us folks.

Some years ago, when a fellow-blogger and old friend invited me for a long drive to meet up some interesting folks, he broached the topic about why the Government controls Petrol prices? “Why subsidize the rich – just allow market forces to determine the price of petrol and if they can afford it they will drive their gas guzzlers and if they don’t, junk ‘em! Do you know the more we drive around and consume petrol the more benefits we get from the heavily subsidized petrol prices?”

The Government apparently was planning this - to decontrol Petrol prices – which they seemingly did some years later. Seemingly, because the Oil Marketing companies cannot just raise the prices – the telephone caller at the other end (read: Petroleum Minister) ought to give consent. But what options does the Government have? If the prices are not increased, the OMCs will take a hit. If the duties are reduced the fiscal deficit of the Govt. will increase. If the fiscal deficit increases, the Rupee will fall further. Investors will avoid coming to India… Gosh! My friend’s dad was certainly in better shape!

“So where do you want your pain?” is the question the Government is asking us all. 
The power of Democracy - you get to choose!

And whatever your answer is, the pain will only increase unless the Government curtails its wasteful spending and have a re-look at its subsidies and its beneficiaries. Unlike the Surgeon (who had not been the cause of the pain), the Government in this instance IS the cause of the economic pains – ill-conceived Yojanas, badly-monitored disbursements of government goodies, inaction against misuse of MNREGA funds and wide-scale looting activities, employing an army of inefficient government workers AND several such black holes in our government schemes. These ARE the cause of the pain.

And since people have already lost hopes that the Government will indeed act - or act in our interest if it at all acts, we find ourselves sending SMS jokes about petrol price hikes - maybe to put back the smile on our long faces. And the UPA-II government thinks we are happy about them completing 3 years of its term!

Blogger's Post-Script:  Some of us are also happy and smiling because we have bought a diesel car and not a petrol one!  Take that!  So why crib about Government policies - just learn to use it to your advantage. And keep smiling!

Free Speech - Don't ban bans!

Some people in our country believe in free speech.

Well, I would prefer to be paid.

Jokes apart, free speech is important. How good an idea would it be to keep our thoughts to ourselves and not express them? So we have many amongst us sharing our thoughts with the rest of the world - some in text and some endowed with artistic abilities express it through their drawings and cartoons. RK Laxman’s cartoons in the Times of India was something I never missed reading ever since I was in school. If I knew what was happening in my world, it was perhaps because of my addiction to relish its daily offerings. If I don’t understand it, I would ask my grand-aunt, who brought me up, while my parents were away at work. From her I would know how this miniature piece of brushwork talked volumes of our lives and the times in which we lived!

My grand-aunt - I called her ‘Mami’ - would read all the editorials and opinion pieces and keep abreast of what was happening in our country. If at all she would get angry, it would be after she read these columns. She had not completed her matriculation, but had an opinion about everything that was happening around us! Oh wait - this post is not about her - it is about having an opinion and voicing it. Had it not been for the recent uproar in the Parliament about Shankar’s cartoon in the Textbooks, I would never have known that Shankar was the pioneer in the field of cartooning in the early years of India and not RK Laxman. I would also not have known that his cartoons, amongst others have made it to the textbooks in India!

I don’t know what contribution the communists have made for the betterment of our country, but I must thank them for all this uproar about a cartoon hitting at the slow progress in regard to the penning of India’s Constitution in Nehru’s time as early as in 2012! But wait – if you hear them out, it is that it featured in the Textbooks five years ago that they are upset about! What I am upset about is – why didn’t we celebrate this FIVE years ago? Cartoons in our textbooks was unthinkable! If some spirited folks have convinced the NCERT to feature several such cartoons in our textbooks, I think it is indeed a silent revolution in the field of education that desperately needs to change. Kudos to NCERT all those who made this possible.

I don’t really care if the ‘Snail cartoon’ stays or is pulled out from the textbooks due to the pressures from the easily offended sensibilities housed in narrow minds. What I am concerned about is whether the teachers to whom the students turn to (like I did my ‘Mami’), know so much about the context against which these cartoons were created in those days? Do young minds relate to the times that existed then? Could they draw parallels to those incidents with what is happening today or would they conclude that ‘nothing at all has changed’? Except, of course, the players in the game of politics?

There is a website which is appealing to the public to ban bans of all kinds! But those who want bans are only expressing their opinions and I don’t want them to voice their opinions to ban anything. I strongly oppose the move to ban bans! They are so very educative, entertaining and offer our people our moments of truth – of the true nature of our people. From what we want and what we don’t!

Blogger’s Post-Script: While the recent controversy brought the spotlight on humour, would it be possible that some of our humorous blogposts feature in a Textbook some day soon? OK maybe 50 years hence? Ok I cant forget that Snail!