Litchi...the season is on, weather has not been conducive. Shahi litchi, which is like Kohinoor of diamonds. does not have the usual odour or flavour. Even availability is 40% of usual. Though we started earliest in the industry, It would be an achievement to cater to all our buyers forget holding surplus. The rains have already played havoc on the traders and Farmers. But i think it is going to come as a boon to the food processing industry. due to absence of Dabur foods last year. there was surplus. they were forced to bring down rates. But this year due to low availability of the crop i don't think even Dabur will be able to get their quota. the prices should stabilize this year.It has been a busy week. with arranging everything for the 3 shift production, entertaining buyers, making the new team familiar with the core business.
Girish....is a buyer, a friend and a mentor. For last 3 seasons he has been our customer. his was the invoice no.1 for our company. He maintains our liquidity in the first week, when most needed. He also trains us in fine tuning our production, provides secret recipes and his style of management. We have surely benefited a lot from him. He drinks like a fish, but manages to stay a teetotaler thrice and a week. eats from roadside thela, enjoys local cuisine. Admires rustic Desi beauty and thinks i am a filmy zamindar who can arrange a mujra with Bipasha lookalike gyrating on the banks of ganga.Awes at the sight of Asoka pillar at vaishali, ridicules amrapali. worships like the most devout Hindu at the takht harmandir saheb, and is astonished to see beggars in the gurudwara. visits the litchi farmers at the remotest village and inspires them by making purchases. Goes to the largest and oldest litchi juice manufacturer and refuses to drink his juice...it has too much so2..preservative.
Anu...He is so ordinary that it makes him extra ordinary. one can write a book on him, possibly with all blank pages.
Thakurji..a few days back, this man had threatened to have me killed, it did put me on edge for a few hours. then i realised if the biggest player in the market can use these words, i am surely on the right track. i paid him a visit last week. it took four hours of his lecture to get a lakh out of him. continued threats of torture chamber, his boasting of being a naxal, a follower of jp, a Friend of George fernandes and a booth grabber. JP would be tossing in his grave. i had respect for this man, till i met him. not that i can predict the future. i know one thing for sure, litchika is going to have a tough time, with us being around.
Preity....it has been a busy week, though, i do not watch sports, i am going to do so today. I am going to watch this little panju girl go ecstatic on every six, cry on defeat, maintain her composure for the camera, plan strategy for the next game, share a drink with her team mates. all this while, she would be looking for acclamation from the man in her life. Ness you just wait and watch.
After more than a week of late nights, me and Neha caught up over last week's undiscussed family issues. Usually avoided by me, she was on with her stories about her family, my family, in laws, kids, neighbour's, office staff...i had my brain switched off.. then suddenly, i asked her, tell me 10 of your favourite songs. it took her a few seconds to change her frequency, and then you should have seen her face light up, all 32 visible, she was actually laughing and telling me anecdotes on each song that she was listing. I was frankly still switched off, but the smile on her face was exuberant. I have a few friends to thank for this mode of mine. it really helps.
Saturday, May 31, 2008
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
Future shock
I just created history..right now, sitting in Maniyarpur, 50 Kms from patna, where there is no electricity, no landline phone, almost mud roads. I am able to access to the internet and publish my blog.
Point to prove....you dont know how the chapters in future will turn....be aware.
Point to prove....you dont know how the chapters in future will turn....be aware.
Mountain out of a mole
Earlier this month my mother had been advised for a hysterectomy (removal of uterus), by a leading gynecologist in Patna. I spoke to a lot of people on this and they were not amused at the doctor’s suggestions. I was told it is a usual thing for women in post menopause to do so, mainly to save them from any complications in their later lives.
Now, I am a little conservationist of sorts when it comes to near and dear ones getting under the knife. Especially when it’s your mother and body part discussed here is not some gangrene struck leg that had to be amputated, but the womb, where I and my brothers and sisters first originated. I know it is too much to think about a medical problem, and this was no Nandigram. My mother was having problems, but I did not think that this was the only solution.
There was another reason for my keenness on taking a second opinion. The doctor, in brief, is pretty, good to me, explains things in detail and the best part is the way she wears her saree. It’s an attitude that shows, pink usually. For a mother of three, she has a perfect belly and there are a few women who can wear their saree below navel. That too in Patna, pulled and folded upwards, with visible ankles, to make her running around in the hospital easier. Now, that is a mix of attitude, professionalism and bindaas.
Doctors in patna see on an average of 100 to 200 patients every day. Symptoms are common and so is the cure. They do not have the time to look at every patients face and spend time explaining things. So I quick hi! And she has the same advise for my mom as well. “Its ok, it’s a common thing get it removed”. With the best of my words, I try to explain my fears and apprehensions. After a glance at me, she agrees to take a deeper look at the case. She tells me, “we usually don’t do this, but you don’t get people like you, who try to make such an emotional issue over a dysfunctional organ”.
After much deliberation, she comes back with her trade mark, attitude grin. “Good news, you can keep your original apartment” and then she goes on to explain the intricacies of the female private parts, gesturing with her hands, usually I get uncomfortable, women talking like that, men have their own fantasies of those organs and it is quite harsh to make it look like a piece of some human machine. But, she has a way to explain with utmost care.
I understand every bit of it; I also understand one thing that she did not explain.
One was about politics and the other is about modern medical science.
Its about socialism, it’s about denying individuality.
Its about considering population or the people of the state to be the biggest problem.
The congress men led by the enthusiastic team of Sanjay Gandhi, in the seventies, went on a spree to control population. “Family Planning”.
People started to believe in the governments and disbelieve in themselves. They could no longer think for themselves. My parents also heeded the advice of the govt. and planned their families. My mother’s problem started then.( the doc told me so) It was not just about my mom’s problem, it was about all the mom’s who went thru that trauma and are living it everyday till day. Its about mothers to be. It is about a culture that we have in legacy. It is about denial of right to think for oneself.
Hypocrite’s and his men must be some 1600 old, human body is 50000 years old. I don’t think they have a right to take away a part of your body, just because it is a common phenomenon, not understanding that body evolves, it generates convineince for itself. Every ounce in your body is balanced on some other ounce. It would affect the functioning of some other parts if one part is removed. Munna bhai’s japphi yields more results than all the antibiotics put together. Medical science might have a technical name for it.
......is that’s how one makes a mountain out of a mole?
Now, I am a little conservationist of sorts when it comes to near and dear ones getting under the knife. Especially when it’s your mother and body part discussed here is not some gangrene struck leg that had to be amputated, but the womb, where I and my brothers and sisters first originated. I know it is too much to think about a medical problem, and this was no Nandigram. My mother was having problems, but I did not think that this was the only solution.
There was another reason for my keenness on taking a second opinion. The doctor, in brief, is pretty, good to me, explains things in detail and the best part is the way she wears her saree. It’s an attitude that shows, pink usually. For a mother of three, she has a perfect belly and there are a few women who can wear their saree below navel. That too in Patna, pulled and folded upwards, with visible ankles, to make her running around in the hospital easier. Now, that is a mix of attitude, professionalism and bindaas.
Doctors in patna see on an average of 100 to 200 patients every day. Symptoms are common and so is the cure. They do not have the time to look at every patients face and spend time explaining things. So I quick hi! And she has the same advise for my mom as well. “Its ok, it’s a common thing get it removed”. With the best of my words, I try to explain my fears and apprehensions. After a glance at me, she agrees to take a deeper look at the case. She tells me, “we usually don’t do this, but you don’t get people like you, who try to make such an emotional issue over a dysfunctional organ”.
After much deliberation, she comes back with her trade mark, attitude grin. “Good news, you can keep your original apartment” and then she goes on to explain the intricacies of the female private parts, gesturing with her hands, usually I get uncomfortable, women talking like that, men have their own fantasies of those organs and it is quite harsh to make it look like a piece of some human machine. But, she has a way to explain with utmost care.
I understand every bit of it; I also understand one thing that she did not explain.
One was about politics and the other is about modern medical science.
Its about socialism, it’s about denying individuality.
Its about considering population or the people of the state to be the biggest problem.
The congress men led by the enthusiastic team of Sanjay Gandhi, in the seventies, went on a spree to control population. “Family Planning”.
People started to believe in the governments and disbelieve in themselves. They could no longer think for themselves. My parents also heeded the advice of the govt. and planned their families. My mother’s problem started then.( the doc told me so) It was not just about my mom’s problem, it was about all the mom’s who went thru that trauma and are living it everyday till day. Its about mothers to be. It is about a culture that we have in legacy. It is about denial of right to think for oneself.
Hypocrite’s and his men must be some 1600 old, human body is 50000 years old. I don’t think they have a right to take away a part of your body, just because it is a common phenomenon, not understanding that body evolves, it generates convineince for itself. Every ounce in your body is balanced on some other ounce. It would affect the functioning of some other parts if one part is removed. Munna bhai’s japphi yields more results than all the antibiotics put together. Medical science might have a technical name for it.
......is that’s how one makes a mountain out of a mole?
Thursday, May 15, 2008
WISH YOU WERE HERE
So, so you think you can tell Heaven from Hell,blue skies from pain.Can you tell a green field from a cold steel rail?A smile from a veil?Do you think you can tell?And did they get you to trade your heroes for ghosts? Hot ashes for trees?Hot air for a cool breeze?Cold comfort for change?And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage?How I wish, how I wish you were here.We're just two lost souls swimming in a fish bowl, year after year,Running over the same old ground. What have you found? The same old fears.Wish you were here.
God listens to you, Mr. Bush
50000 dead in china and counting, 90000 dead in myanmar and still counting. Mr. Bush there should be some relief to percieved food crisis that the world faces. Though there will as many lesser mouths to feed, but there will be twice the number of hands not available to produce the surpuls, that would have fed the world.
India, has to wait for its own share of calamity, some wil die in the scorching heat, and then the floods will arrive and finaly the landslides. This is guaranteed. If God would listen to you further, He Would bestow on us an earthquake or a cyclone, and more millions would be lost. Then Terrorist are doing their bit. So, as far as your immediate botheration is concerned. He is looking after it.
But then, We can produce in no time, by the time you wink we will have another army ready. who will eat healthy and produce more so that America can eat their double Mac burgers with extra cheese, and yes, diet coke.
India, has to wait for its own share of calamity, some wil die in the scorching heat, and then the floods will arrive and finaly the landslides. This is guaranteed. If God would listen to you further, He Would bestow on us an earthquake or a cyclone, and more millions would be lost. Then Terrorist are doing their bit. So, as far as your immediate botheration is concerned. He is looking after it.
But then, We can produce in no time, by the time you wink we will have another army ready. who will eat healthy and produce more so that America can eat their double Mac burgers with extra cheese, and yes, diet coke.
Doing business the hard way in
By Simon Denyer
HAJIPUR, India (Reuters) - The white envelope filled with ten 500 rupee notes was dispatched to the electricity board official as a "goodwill gesture".
Soon it came back, with a message from a subordinate. The official was not playing ball -- at least not at that price.
"He refused to accept it, and now he is cooking up a problem," the factory manager said as the envelope was handed back. "I will have to pay the bugger 20,000 in the evening."
The manager had wanted a second power line for an extension for his small factory in the Hajipur Industrial Area in Bihar. A simple request, the official had threatened to tie it up in endless red tape, unless he was paid.
The routine way the bribe was offered, and the way the episode unfolded in front of a Reuters correspondent, offers a tiny insight into the problems of doing business in a state which has become a byword for poverty, lawlessness and corruption.
India's boom has not reached Bihar, a state of 90 million people almost completely disconnected from the global economy.
It is the country's poorest and one of its slowest growing states, with "exceptionally low" levels of private investment, according to the World Bank. There is no sign of any foreign investment at all.
Chief Minister Nitish Kumar took over two years ago promising to turn things around. Since then he has been wooing rich Indians at home and abroad, trying to attract the investment his state so desperately needs.
Last December, the World Bank said he was moving in the right direction. His government had initiated comprehensive reforms, it said, improved the investment climate, stepped up public investment and improved the delivery of health and education services -- albeit from an extremely low base.
The Bank loaned Kumar's government $225 million, but private investors have not been so enthusiastic. India's biggest industrialists have been visiting the state capital Patna, but so far they have kept their money firmly in their pockets.
The sad fact of Bihar is that it has little or no raw materials, intermittent power, terrible roads, a reputation for kidnapping businessmen and some of the least business-friendly bureaucrats in the capitalist world.
"People say things have changed, but we have yet to see that change," said the manager. "The red tape is the same, the bureaucracy is the same."
Law and order may be improving but Kumar's reforms are still only scratching the surface of the problem, says Shaibal Gupta of the Asian Development Research Institute in Patna.
"Why would anyone invest in Bihar?," he asked. "In a place like Bihar you have to build everything from scratch. Where is the rate of return?"
A HOPELESS PLACE
Hajipur is Bihar's premier industrial park.
Its factories get power when the rest of the state is in darkness, but only because they pay bribes. There is no drainage -- factories just dump tens of thousands of litres of effluent every day in nearby ditches or ponds.
Squatters camp on the grass verges beside the factory walls, cows munch grass and wander across the pot-holed roads. Armed guards man security gates to ward off kidnappers.
"This so-called industrial area is really in a pathetic condition," the manager said. "Bihar really is a hopeless place to do business."
On the wall behind his head he displays nearly two dozen licences he needs to keep his business open, standards for health, safety, labour laws and pollution. Each costs a few hundred rupees a year to renew, plus a 10,000 rupee bribe.
"Twenty-three departments have the power to shut down this unit," he said. "They create problems, make money, go back."
"So much for a liberal economy."
Rajesh Singh took a Masters in Business Administration (MBA) at Bombay University, before returning to Bihar to set up a tiny factory on his family's farmland to manufacture jams, juices, sauces, pickles and canned fruits.
"I realised things in Bihar were not very good, so I decided to start an agri-venture," he said. "It was a mix of good potential and good intentions."
But Singh has found the odds stacked up heavily against A1 Farm Solutions. His friends and even his father tried to convince him out of the idea, before his bank manager took over.
"The banker was telling me I was a fool to leave my job and start a business here," he said. "That is the attitude to coming back, to dissuade you."
It took Singh five years to get a bank loan, of just 500,000 rupees. To get it, he needed to offer 3 million rupees as security and have 250,000 parked in fixed-term deposits.
Today, his loan has been extended to 4 million rupees -- still, in his terms, "a meagre amount", equivalent to just 10 days of raw material and labour costs.
"I had a lot of orders from the UK, from Sainsbury's for lychees, but I couldn't complete them because bankers are not ready to back us," he said. "I am educated and I have assets. If I can't get finance, how can ordinary Biharis get finance?"
If bankers were not hard enough to cope with, Singh has also found himself sucked into the divisive caste-based politics and society of Bihar.
His high-caste parents feared they would be made outcastes because he employs Dalits or "untouchables" in a food processing factory, since upper-caste Indians are barred from eating anything which has touched a Dalit hand.
Then a lower-caste boy was killed on his farm when he fell under a tractor trailer. A local politician tried to exploit the issue to get Dalit votes, filing a police complaint in which he claimed the boy had been shot in the head.
Although everyone knew this was untrue, the accident cost him a year, he said.
"No one was willing to work for us, we couldn't get financing," Singh said, adding that all the time the police had been demanding money to drop the charges.
As we travelled down the pot-holed road to Singh's factory, a 35-km, three hour trip on a "state highway", he looked around at the congestion, the poverty, the crumbling infrastructure.
"Look at this," Singh said. "Someone has to come back... but at times you feel like asking 'what am I doing with my life'."
Is anywhere in the world more challenging to do business? "Maybe Somalia," he said. "They are shooting at you there."
HAJIPUR, India (Reuters) - The white envelope filled with ten 500 rupee notes was dispatched to the electricity board official as a "goodwill gesture".
Soon it came back, with a message from a subordinate. The official was not playing ball -- at least not at that price.
"He refused to accept it, and now he is cooking up a problem," the factory manager said as the envelope was handed back. "I will have to pay the bugger 20,000 in the evening."
The manager had wanted a second power line for an extension for his small factory in the Hajipur Industrial Area in Bihar. A simple request, the official had threatened to tie it up in endless red tape, unless he was paid.
The routine way the bribe was offered, and the way the episode unfolded in front of a Reuters correspondent, offers a tiny insight into the problems of doing business in a state which has become a byword for poverty, lawlessness and corruption.
India's boom has not reached Bihar, a state of 90 million people almost completely disconnected from the global economy.
It is the country's poorest and one of its slowest growing states, with "exceptionally low" levels of private investment, according to the World Bank. There is no sign of any foreign investment at all.
Chief Minister Nitish Kumar took over two years ago promising to turn things around. Since then he has been wooing rich Indians at home and abroad, trying to attract the investment his state so desperately needs.
Last December, the World Bank said he was moving in the right direction. His government had initiated comprehensive reforms, it said, improved the investment climate, stepped up public investment and improved the delivery of health and education services -- albeit from an extremely low base.
The Bank loaned Kumar's government $225 million, but private investors have not been so enthusiastic. India's biggest industrialists have been visiting the state capital Patna, but so far they have kept their money firmly in their pockets.
The sad fact of Bihar is that it has little or no raw materials, intermittent power, terrible roads, a reputation for kidnapping businessmen and some of the least business-friendly bureaucrats in the capitalist world.
"People say things have changed, but we have yet to see that change," said the manager. "The red tape is the same, the bureaucracy is the same."
Law and order may be improving but Kumar's reforms are still only scratching the surface of the problem, says Shaibal Gupta of the Asian Development Research Institute in Patna.
"Why would anyone invest in Bihar?," he asked. "In a place like Bihar you have to build everything from scratch. Where is the rate of return?"
A HOPELESS PLACE
Hajipur is Bihar's premier industrial park.
Its factories get power when the rest of the state is in darkness, but only because they pay bribes. There is no drainage -- factories just dump tens of thousands of litres of effluent every day in nearby ditches or ponds.
Squatters camp on the grass verges beside the factory walls, cows munch grass and wander across the pot-holed roads. Armed guards man security gates to ward off kidnappers.
"This so-called industrial area is really in a pathetic condition," the manager said. "Bihar really is a hopeless place to do business."
On the wall behind his head he displays nearly two dozen licences he needs to keep his business open, standards for health, safety, labour laws and pollution. Each costs a few hundred rupees a year to renew, plus a 10,000 rupee bribe.
"Twenty-three departments have the power to shut down this unit," he said. "They create problems, make money, go back."
"So much for a liberal economy."
Rajesh Singh took a Masters in Business Administration (MBA) at Bombay University, before returning to Bihar to set up a tiny factory on his family's farmland to manufacture jams, juices, sauces, pickles and canned fruits.
"I realised things in Bihar were not very good, so I decided to start an agri-venture," he said. "It was a mix of good potential and good intentions."
But Singh has found the odds stacked up heavily against A1 Farm Solutions. His friends and even his father tried to convince him out of the idea, before his bank manager took over.
"The banker was telling me I was a fool to leave my job and start a business here," he said. "That is the attitude to coming back, to dissuade you."
It took Singh five years to get a bank loan, of just 500,000 rupees. To get it, he needed to offer 3 million rupees as security and have 250,000 parked in fixed-term deposits.
Today, his loan has been extended to 4 million rupees -- still, in his terms, "a meagre amount", equivalent to just 10 days of raw material and labour costs.
"I had a lot of orders from the UK, from Sainsbury's for lychees, but I couldn't complete them because bankers are not ready to back us," he said. "I am educated and I have assets. If I can't get finance, how can ordinary Biharis get finance?"
If bankers were not hard enough to cope with, Singh has also found himself sucked into the divisive caste-based politics and society of Bihar.
His high-caste parents feared they would be made outcastes because he employs Dalits or "untouchables" in a food processing factory, since upper-caste Indians are barred from eating anything which has touched a Dalit hand.
Then a lower-caste boy was killed on his farm when he fell under a tractor trailer. A local politician tried to exploit the issue to get Dalit votes, filing a police complaint in which he claimed the boy had been shot in the head.
Although everyone knew this was untrue, the accident cost him a year, he said.
"No one was willing to work for us, we couldn't get financing," Singh said, adding that all the time the police had been demanding money to drop the charges.
As we travelled down the pot-holed road to Singh's factory, a 35-km, three hour trip on a "state highway", he looked around at the congestion, the poverty, the crumbling infrastructure.
"Look at this," Singh said. "Someone has to come back... but at times you feel like asking 'what am I doing with my life'."
Is anywhere in the world more challenging to do business? "Maybe Somalia," he said. "They are shooting at you there."
India struggles to tame its heart of darkness
( ofcourse this is a copyright violation, reuters would sue me....)
By Simon Denyer
PATNA, India, Feb 20 (Reuters) - Young girls and their mothers huddle under shawls in the central reservation of one of the city's main streets, picking through trash for grimy metal scraps that might earn them 20 rupees (half a dollar) a day.
Buses and autorickshaws belt out black fumes beside them on the congested, muddy street, dogs pick through huge piles of garbage by the roadside, men urinate at their side. This is Patna, the capital city of Bihar, India's poorest and one of its slowest growing states economically. On a rainy day, Patna can seem like some post-apocalyptic nightmare, with poverty, misery and ugliness around every corner.
So far, India has failed to trickle the benefits of its economic boom down to Bihar, a failure which could have serious political and economic repercussions. People here feel the rest of the country is simply not paying attention.
"Everyone has discarded Bihar, they think of it as a nightmare," said businessman Rajesh Singh.
"They only talk about the good things in India, they don't even look at Bihar. But this is 10 percent of India's population, you can't just chuck it away."
Bihar is home to around 90 million people and has one-seventh of India's poor, but accounts for just 1.6 percent of its gross domestic product. By any measure, literacy, infant mortality, malnourishment, it sits at or near the bottom in South Asia.
The World Bank put the challenge in its most tactful terms when lending Bihar's government $225 million last December.
"If large differences in growth rates between rich and poor states persist, these could eventually translate into vast differences in material well-being," it said. "Bihar lies at the heart of India's inclusive growth agenda."
Shaibal Gupta of the Asian Development Research Institute (ADRI) in Patna divides India into the sunrise states, those which are integrating into the global economy, and the sunset states, like Bihar and its larger neighbour Uttar Pradesh, which are rapidly being left behind. Bihar is metaphorically and sometimes literally India's heart of darkness -- there is so little power in Bihar, night-time satellite images show it as a massive black hole.
Crumbling roads, corrupt or inept governance and a reputation for unbridled lawlessness only add to the gloom.
"India will face problems if Bihar doesn't develop," Gupta said.
A SMALL STEP IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION
Bihar's economy failed to register any growth in the first half of the 1990s, and has grown at just under four percent since, less than half the current national growth rate and barely one percent in per capita terms.
Chief Minister Nitish Kumar took over two years ago promising a new era, and his reforms won some praise from the World Bank.
Criminal convictions were almost unheard of in the reign of Laloo Prasad Yadav and his wife Rabri Devi. A new system of speedy trials helped secure nearly 10,000 convictions in 2007.
Kidnapping for ransom, Bihar's biggest industry in Laloo's days, has fallen four-fold. In the past two years, more than 200 cases have been registered against corrupt government officials.
But private investment remains tiny, and a new era of fiscal responsibility in New Delhi means the kind of public investment required to transform Bihar is almost out of the question.
"Japan and Korea developed as industrial countries with the full support of the state," said the ADRI's Gupta. "In Bihar the state is very weak."
MIGRATION SPELLS TROUBLE
Rural migrants squat on the grass verges outside government ministers' houses in Patna, under plastic sheets, encampments that they say are "too horrible" when it rains.
Thousands of homes were damaged in last year's floods, and villagers tired of waiting for work under a new government rural employment guarantee scheme have left.
Bihar has a long history of migration dating back to the 19th century, when large numbers of people left as indentured labour to overseas British colonies or to find work on plantations in neighbouring Assam or in factories in West Bengal.
Today, as much of India booms, labourers from Bihar are migrating all over the country.
In the cities, the influx spells tension, and sometimes violence. Today nearly 11 percent of New Delhi's population hails from Bihar, another 40 percent from Uttar Pradesh.
Biharis are often looked down upon in Delhi, and blamed for rising crime -- the city's chief minister Sheila Dikshit publicly wonders how to turn back the tide.
In Mumbai, tensions between locals and migrants boiled over this month when a small right-wing Hindu-nationalist party stoked the flames with a campaign against "outsiders".
Taxi drivers, most of whom hail from Bihar or Uttar Pradesh were beaten up, a few vehicles damaged, and a bottle thrown over the wall of the house of Amitabh Bachchan, India's biggest film star, himself from Uttar Pradesh.
But the problem of Bihar -- and by extension the problem of India's widening inequality -- has even broader implications.
The Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party was kicked out of office in 2004 in a shock general election result, seen partly as an indictment of its failure to reach the rural poor.
The Congress-led coalition which has succeeded has made little headway with the type of economic reforms its prime minister and finance minister are associated with. Put simply, the political consensus for further economic reforms which India may need to sustain its boom, will simply not be there if those reforms do not benefit the poor.
Some companies are already suffering shortages of skilled labour that are pushing up wage costs. If India leaves millions of rural poor unskilled and illiterate, its economic upturn could find itself built on a shaky foundation, economists warn.
"If you think Bihar is not your problem, it will be your problem very soon," said businessman Singh. (Editing by Alistair Scrutton and Megan Goldin)
By Simon Denyer
PATNA, India, Feb 20 (Reuters) - Young girls and their mothers huddle under shawls in the central reservation of one of the city's main streets, picking through trash for grimy metal scraps that might earn them 20 rupees (half a dollar) a day.
Buses and autorickshaws belt out black fumes beside them on the congested, muddy street, dogs pick through huge piles of garbage by the roadside, men urinate at their side. This is Patna, the capital city of Bihar, India's poorest and one of its slowest growing states economically. On a rainy day, Patna can seem like some post-apocalyptic nightmare, with poverty, misery and ugliness around every corner.
So far, India has failed to trickle the benefits of its economic boom down to Bihar, a failure which could have serious political and economic repercussions. People here feel the rest of the country is simply not paying attention.
"Everyone has discarded Bihar, they think of it as a nightmare," said businessman Rajesh Singh.
"They only talk about the good things in India, they don't even look at Bihar. But this is 10 percent of India's population, you can't just chuck it away."
Bihar is home to around 90 million people and has one-seventh of India's poor, but accounts for just 1.6 percent of its gross domestic product. By any measure, literacy, infant mortality, malnourishment, it sits at or near the bottom in South Asia.
The World Bank put the challenge in its most tactful terms when lending Bihar's government $225 million last December.
"If large differences in growth rates between rich and poor states persist, these could eventually translate into vast differences in material well-being," it said. "Bihar lies at the heart of India's inclusive growth agenda."
Shaibal Gupta of the Asian Development Research Institute (ADRI) in Patna divides India into the sunrise states, those which are integrating into the global economy, and the sunset states, like Bihar and its larger neighbour Uttar Pradesh, which are rapidly being left behind. Bihar is metaphorically and sometimes literally India's heart of darkness -- there is so little power in Bihar, night-time satellite images show it as a massive black hole.
Crumbling roads, corrupt or inept governance and a reputation for unbridled lawlessness only add to the gloom.
"India will face problems if Bihar doesn't develop," Gupta said.
A SMALL STEP IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION
Bihar's economy failed to register any growth in the first half of the 1990s, and has grown at just under four percent since, less than half the current national growth rate and barely one percent in per capita terms.
Chief Minister Nitish Kumar took over two years ago promising a new era, and his reforms won some praise from the World Bank.
Criminal convictions were almost unheard of in the reign of Laloo Prasad Yadav and his wife Rabri Devi. A new system of speedy trials helped secure nearly 10,000 convictions in 2007.
Kidnapping for ransom, Bihar's biggest industry in Laloo's days, has fallen four-fold. In the past two years, more than 200 cases have been registered against corrupt government officials.
But private investment remains tiny, and a new era of fiscal responsibility in New Delhi means the kind of public investment required to transform Bihar is almost out of the question.
"Japan and Korea developed as industrial countries with the full support of the state," said the ADRI's Gupta. "In Bihar the state is very weak."
MIGRATION SPELLS TROUBLE
Rural migrants squat on the grass verges outside government ministers' houses in Patna, under plastic sheets, encampments that they say are "too horrible" when it rains.
Thousands of homes were damaged in last year's floods, and villagers tired of waiting for work under a new government rural employment guarantee scheme have left.
Bihar has a long history of migration dating back to the 19th century, when large numbers of people left as indentured labour to overseas British colonies or to find work on plantations in neighbouring Assam or in factories in West Bengal.
Today, as much of India booms, labourers from Bihar are migrating all over the country.
In the cities, the influx spells tension, and sometimes violence. Today nearly 11 percent of New Delhi's population hails from Bihar, another 40 percent from Uttar Pradesh.
Biharis are often looked down upon in Delhi, and blamed for rising crime -- the city's chief minister Sheila Dikshit publicly wonders how to turn back the tide.
In Mumbai, tensions between locals and migrants boiled over this month when a small right-wing Hindu-nationalist party stoked the flames with a campaign against "outsiders".
Taxi drivers, most of whom hail from Bihar or Uttar Pradesh were beaten up, a few vehicles damaged, and a bottle thrown over the wall of the house of Amitabh Bachchan, India's biggest film star, himself from Uttar Pradesh.
But the problem of Bihar -- and by extension the problem of India's widening inequality -- has even broader implications.
The Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party was kicked out of office in 2004 in a shock general election result, seen partly as an indictment of its failure to reach the rural poor.
The Congress-led coalition which has succeeded has made little headway with the type of economic reforms its prime minister and finance minister are associated with. Put simply, the political consensus for further economic reforms which India may need to sustain its boom, will simply not be there if those reforms do not benefit the poor.
Some companies are already suffering shortages of skilled labour that are pushing up wage costs. If India leaves millions of rural poor unskilled and illiterate, its economic upturn could find itself built on a shaky foundation, economists warn.
"If you think Bihar is not your problem, it will be your problem very soon," said businessman Singh. (Editing by Alistair Scrutton and Megan Goldin)
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
FARM SOLUTIONS PVT. LTD.
Today is a great day for us at Farm Solutions, since its inception in 2002, today we produced our first profitable balance sheet.
some figures are:
year capital turnover profit/loss
2003 100000 300000 -3000
2004 100000 800000 -16000
2005 100000 1300000 -19000
2006 1000000 1800000 - 300000
2007 1000000 3700000 - 1300000
2008 2250000 12000000 680000
* all figures are in INR and are still provisional.
situation is still far from better, and we have miles to go before we sleep. But, this seems to be a turning point. Sustaining an industry this long with losses accumulating was not easy.
We have not reached there as yet. We can surely Pat our backs today.
Bihar is surely not the best place to do business, and food processing and agri business not the best induatry. There has to be more to it than just plain business.
Not everyone one on our team would read this blog, but thank you everyone who trusted us, customers, family, friends, coleagues, associates, staff and anyone knowingly or unknowingly
helping us out.
We appoligiose for bouncing cheques, switched off phones, goods not reached on time, goods never reached, goods reached in bad shape. for all that should not have happened.
We promise we will be better persons in future.
THANK YOU SO MUCH.
( anu, you better get the site on fast, or this will be my notice board)
some figures are:
year capital turnover profit/loss
2003 100000 300000 -3000
2004 100000 800000 -16000
2005 100000 1300000 -19000
2006 1000000 1800000 - 300000
2007 1000000 3700000 - 1300000
2008 2250000 12000000 680000
* all figures are in INR and are still provisional.
situation is still far from better, and we have miles to go before we sleep. But, this seems to be a turning point. Sustaining an industry this long with losses accumulating was not easy.
We have not reached there as yet. We can surely Pat our backs today.
Bihar is surely not the best place to do business, and food processing and agri business not the best induatry. There has to be more to it than just plain business.
Not everyone one on our team would read this blog, but thank you everyone who trusted us, customers, family, friends, coleagues, associates, staff and anyone knowingly or unknowingly
helping us out.
We appoligiose for bouncing cheques, switched off phones, goods not reached on time, goods never reached, goods reached in bad shape. for all that should not have happened.
We promise we will be better persons in future.
THANK YOU SO MUCH.
( anu, you better get the site on fast, or this will be my notice board)
Sunday, May 11, 2008
OBITUARY TO A MOTHER
Ramkali devi, mother of my mother, passsed away today, on the mother's day. She was around 75 and is survived by 5 daughters. Her husband, A famous doctor from Bihar had passed away couple of years back. He is survived by a wife, two daughters and 4 sons. yes, he had two mairrages and my my mom was the eldest of siblings in from both the mairrages.
My Maternal grandfather, got married at an early age, later he went to BHU and further to become a doctor. He went to kerela for some professional reasons in the sixties. Met Mary, there and wedded her and got back to Bihar.
He was a famous doctor and non practicing communist. there was not much ressitance from the family. He went on to settle in a different town. Ramkali devi, lived in the village till today. she must have been 30 yrs old when her husband walked out of her life. She preffered not to be a burden on any of her daughters, and lived alone. once in a while she used to visit all her daughters, but made her discomfort felt to them.
people living in cities, ususally think, that Electricity, telephone, TV, fans and AC are necessity and that is what makes the difference between a town and a village. well, her village did not have any of this, infact she did not have a proper toilet. but she was happier there than any city.
I spoke to my mother a while back, sobbing she said, " I couldnt do anything for her".
Well thats the best reward that she can expect.
Bravo Mother's.
My Maternal grandfather, got married at an early age, later he went to BHU and further to become a doctor. He went to kerela for some professional reasons in the sixties. Met Mary, there and wedded her and got back to Bihar.
He was a famous doctor and non practicing communist. there was not much ressitance from the family. He went on to settle in a different town. Ramkali devi, lived in the village till today. she must have been 30 yrs old when her husband walked out of her life. She preffered not to be a burden on any of her daughters, and lived alone. once in a while she used to visit all her daughters, but made her discomfort felt to them.
people living in cities, ususally think, that Electricity, telephone, TV, fans and AC are necessity and that is what makes the difference between a town and a village. well, her village did not have any of this, infact she did not have a proper toilet. but she was happier there than any city.
I spoke to my mother a while back, sobbing she said, " I couldnt do anything for her".
Well thats the best reward that she can expect.
Bravo Mother's.
Mothers Day
Mamma, today is mothers day, I wish to tell you that you are a wonderful mother. You are very nice. I love you very much. I like the way you scold me, your gajar ka halwa. I hope you like the way I make tea for you? Thank you for letting me see, all the serials on TV. You are very beautiful, especially when you are going in any marriage. When you wear a saree, with all the jewelry. I also want to be like you.
Please don’t give me much food, let me go out to play with my friends, don’t send me for swimming classes, music class is ok. You should teach me every evening, I like it.
I am sorry for troubling you, but I love you.
HAPPY MOTHERS DAY.
( this is a note from Aarya singh, student of Class III B DPS Patna)
Please don’t give me much food, let me go out to play with my friends, don’t send me for swimming classes, music class is ok. You should teach me every evening, I like it.
I am sorry for troubling you, but I love you.
HAPPY MOTHERS DAY.
( this is a note from Aarya singh, student of Class III B DPS Patna)
Saturday, May 10, 2008
BUSINESS OF LITCHI
Yesterday, was a tough day, expected though, but the surprises came in as shocks. We are food processors, 90% of our revenues come in from litchi, Bihar is the largest producer of litchi in the country, almost 80% of indian consumption is met by Bihar. It is a solace to all food processors, as they are able to sustain themselves round the year by manufacturing only for 20 days in a year.
Out of some 10 players in the litchi market, we must be 7th largest as far as turnover is concerned, considering we have only two seasons to our credit, this is a fair rank. Dabur, is the largest buyer for pulps and litchika is the largest seller for tinned litchi.
My day was made by both the biggies. Absence of Dabur last year due to problems in Nepal, led to extra Stocks in the market. We managed to survive the year through making newer clients, adding value. It was a tough task. As litchika had exhausted thier stocks, we managed to get an entry into the southern markets, in the bargain we also managed to sell some to litchika itself.
It was ethical business, market forces were dictating terms.
Then it all changed yesterday, when I called for my payments, the lithcika boss, enquired "how well do you know me". I told him, that he was a leader in the market, an enterprenur who had almost single handedly laid the foundation of the litchi market". He added "that besides this, I am also a big goon, a politician and someone with a lot of money and influence" that I have been targetting his customers and he could get me killed for it. As far as money is concerned, he is not going to pay me for next seven years.
This is a bombay business man, I am a Bihari. This was the other way round. I am not sure how to react, besides sharing it with you. But one thing is sure, my resolve gets stronger, the 20 year king will take 5 years to vanish. Through the market route, obviously. the writing is on the wall, guess, i am on the right track.
Dabur, with whom we have been negotiating for months now, was a damp squib, after giving indications for purchases worth 5000K, cut the order size to 20%.
It was too much for a day.
If it wasnt for Priety, it would be difficult to start today. All of them are still asleep.
Sweet dreams honey...ss.
Out of some 10 players in the litchi market, we must be 7th largest as far as turnover is concerned, considering we have only two seasons to our credit, this is a fair rank. Dabur, is the largest buyer for pulps and litchika is the largest seller for tinned litchi.
My day was made by both the biggies. Absence of Dabur last year due to problems in Nepal, led to extra Stocks in the market. We managed to survive the year through making newer clients, adding value. It was a tough task. As litchika had exhausted thier stocks, we managed to get an entry into the southern markets, in the bargain we also managed to sell some to litchika itself.
It was ethical business, market forces were dictating terms.
Then it all changed yesterday, when I called for my payments, the lithcika boss, enquired "how well do you know me". I told him, that he was a leader in the market, an enterprenur who had almost single handedly laid the foundation of the litchi market". He added "that besides this, I am also a big goon, a politician and someone with a lot of money and influence" that I have been targetting his customers and he could get me killed for it. As far as money is concerned, he is not going to pay me for next seven years.
This is a bombay business man, I am a Bihari. This was the other way round. I am not sure how to react, besides sharing it with you. But one thing is sure, my resolve gets stronger, the 20 year king will take 5 years to vanish. Through the market route, obviously. the writing is on the wall, guess, i am on the right track.
Dabur, with whom we have been negotiating for months now, was a damp squib, after giving indications for purchases worth 5000K, cut the order size to 20%.
It was too much for a day.
If it wasnt for Priety, it would be difficult to start today. All of them are still asleep.
Sweet dreams honey...ss.
Thursday, May 8, 2008
DREAMING OF SOME PRIETY....
For last few days, during my travel, I thought lonliness was a problem, and was practically living on day dreaming. Last few months of travel has surely tought me tolerance and dreaming has been a big help.
Learning about other people lives, helps you understand your lives better. During last few few months of travel, I have been trying to learn out of life of Priety Zinta, I Must confess, I have been day dreaming about her too. I have formulated views on her and thought of ways she would react in a particular situation. She had been walikng along side me, listening to my conversations, giving me advise, making me see other side of things.
I think, I have returned home a better person, Last night I looked into Neha's eyes as i talked to her, I actually listened to her. It was as if I was doing all this with Priety. I wonder if Neha noticed this. Did You?
Actually, today, I had a tough day, and the thoughts of the next day is tougher, chances, that I just might forget Miss Zinta, is good. Thru, this writing, I try not to forget her. I look forward to the night and the day to come.
If every person would remember thier preity's everyday, guess, life would be good, worth living, worth dreaming.
I wonder what Neha must be dreaming of, Tom Cruise, Mel gibson or Salman Khan.
...KEEP ON DREAMING....( there will be more on Priety..)
Learning about other people lives, helps you understand your lives better. During last few few months of travel, I have been trying to learn out of life of Priety Zinta, I Must confess, I have been day dreaming about her too. I have formulated views on her and thought of ways she would react in a particular situation. She had been walikng along side me, listening to my conversations, giving me advise, making me see other side of things.
I think, I have returned home a better person, Last night I looked into Neha's eyes as i talked to her, I actually listened to her. It was as if I was doing all this with Priety. I wonder if Neha noticed this. Did You?
Actually, today, I had a tough day, and the thoughts of the next day is tougher, chances, that I just might forget Miss Zinta, is good. Thru, this writing, I try not to forget her. I look forward to the night and the day to come.
If every person would remember thier preity's everyday, guess, life would be good, worth living, worth dreaming.
I wonder what Neha must be dreaming of, Tom Cruise, Mel gibson or Salman Khan.
...KEEP ON DREAMING....( there will be more on Priety..)
Wednesday, May 7, 2008
FOOD CRISIS OR IDENTITY CRISIS
I was at Nilgiri's corporate office yesterday, after a months prior appointment. Nilgiri's is a 100 year old store in bangalore, and has earned its reputation of selling genuine food stuff. I Have been trying to do business with them, for while, earlier I did not have a product to place on thier counters. It took us one full year to be able to make something suitable enough for a counter like theirs. This time when I was there, things were different. Nilgiri's just sold of to a British Retail Chain, and now they are corporatised. They are franchising all their outlets, have plans to open 2500 stores in next one year.
So, this poor farmer, was trying to negotiate with a multinational retail giant now, their approach has changed and i was forced to change my colors too. Margins, markups, market share, SKUP name the jargons and this kisan from bihar was supposed to answer all of them.
I grow, most of my food stuff, then process it, like my mom makes pickles and my wife bakes cakes, I eat what I grow and what I manufacture. I consider this a certificate for the quality that I produce, and that is why I had gone to nilgiri's for, as they stood for the same values.
Usually I keep 10 to 15% margins and try to pass on the rest to the consumer. But not now, Organised retail wants, 30 to 50% margins, per product fixed charges, registration charges. So, anything, manufactured at say, $1.00 wil need to be sold at $3 for every mans greed to be met.
The corporates have heavy salaries to pay, advertising costs, average manager does not stay for more than an year, he has to perform for his next salary, so they keep pushing the lines upward. they have an identity crisis. which is leading to the food crisis.
I was in silliguri, vegetable yard, a couple of weeks back and the cost of water melons is less than Rs. 1 a Kg, in delhi it is Rs.12 to 20 a kg, 11 Rs. for transportation, unacceptable.
The food crisis, is not for real, like the value of the shares, one trades in.
Being a free thinker, I have no objections in people marking up on margins, or trading into shares or comodities. But as Rajesh singh, I wouldnt do it. Hoarding comodities, and expecting that people will go hungry on a later date, is not good business. You make more money, and then you pay for the same food 3 times the cost, is not good business. popcorn for 50 bucks, not funny.
Adding value is fine, giving an experience while you munch that popcorn, is creativity and enterprise. Well best part is what's wrong if people are paying for it. i will tell you what's wrong. I produce that Corn that you are eating, and I sell it for Rs. 4 per kg, Rs. 50 is what i have to spend to munch 100 gms of popped corn. I am going to go back learn all the tricks that corporates are upto, and will have a 300% markup on the corn, right from my fields. it would not make much of a difference to the consumers, but surely I should be able to buy my Popcorn.
I am no Adam Smith to forecast the outcome, but, onething is for sure, technology will change the way Farm products have been grown, distirbuted and sold. It is the corporates who are going to be stuck in the web they are knitting.
As for me I just got myself a laptop, and working on starategies and PP presentations.
So, this poor farmer, was trying to negotiate with a multinational retail giant now, their approach has changed and i was forced to change my colors too. Margins, markups, market share, SKUP name the jargons and this kisan from bihar was supposed to answer all of them.
I grow, most of my food stuff, then process it, like my mom makes pickles and my wife bakes cakes, I eat what I grow and what I manufacture. I consider this a certificate for the quality that I produce, and that is why I had gone to nilgiri's for, as they stood for the same values.
Usually I keep 10 to 15% margins and try to pass on the rest to the consumer. But not now, Organised retail wants, 30 to 50% margins, per product fixed charges, registration charges. So, anything, manufactured at say, $1.00 wil need to be sold at $3 for every mans greed to be met.
The corporates have heavy salaries to pay, advertising costs, average manager does not stay for more than an year, he has to perform for his next salary, so they keep pushing the lines upward. they have an identity crisis. which is leading to the food crisis.
I was in silliguri, vegetable yard, a couple of weeks back and the cost of water melons is less than Rs. 1 a Kg, in delhi it is Rs.12 to 20 a kg, 11 Rs. for transportation, unacceptable.
The food crisis, is not for real, like the value of the shares, one trades in.
Being a free thinker, I have no objections in people marking up on margins, or trading into shares or comodities. But as Rajesh singh, I wouldnt do it. Hoarding comodities, and expecting that people will go hungry on a later date, is not good business. You make more money, and then you pay for the same food 3 times the cost, is not good business. popcorn for 50 bucks, not funny.
Adding value is fine, giving an experience while you munch that popcorn, is creativity and enterprise. Well best part is what's wrong if people are paying for it. i will tell you what's wrong. I produce that Corn that you are eating, and I sell it for Rs. 4 per kg, Rs. 50 is what i have to spend to munch 100 gms of popped corn. I am going to go back learn all the tricks that corporates are upto, and will have a 300% markup on the corn, right from my fields. it would not make much of a difference to the consumers, but surely I should be able to buy my Popcorn.
I am no Adam Smith to forecast the outcome, but, onething is for sure, technology will change the way Farm products have been grown, distirbuted and sold. It is the corporates who are going to be stuck in the web they are knitting.
As for me I just got myself a laptop, and working on starategies and PP presentations.
Monday, May 5, 2008
king of good times
Yesterday, it took me 16 hrs to reach, bangalore, 10 hrs at the delhi airport and 4 hours in and out of flight. I started at 11 in the morning to reach bangalore at 2 in the morning. only good thing was that, vijay malya told me that I was his personal guest. Akshya khanna, I used to like him, even though he was from Mayo, after yesterday, he was uncool, in real life, he is like any other... filmy guy.. if you were at bombay xaviers hostel, you would know what I am talking about. Well, he was sitting opposite me at Delhi airport lounge and kept giving filmy glances, looking in the mirror, his biceps, over shoulder..et al..you just lost a fan Akshya.
However, When you are there for 16 Hrs with those kingfisher girls, and with no phone and no laptop. what does one do? one can only lech for a couple of hours at a stretch, after that it becomes a research. well thats what I did, a thesis on Air Hostesses.
There are three ways that all airlines dress their women.
1) Air India types. 2) King fisher types 3) every other, other than the last two.
The last one types are dressed in anything, that they think looks good, it has no statement. so no research work on that.
The next one is Kingfisher type. they have been very smartly dressed in red, the color that would get any bull flaring, 60% of your attention is focused on the color and rest on the posterior of the women, that is what you get to see the most of any air hostess any way, this combination brings out the animal in you, ( red is for blood and posterior is the only way one copulated )and you forget to look at other good things, like face, i mean, charm and courtesy.
But it is the sari Clad indian airlines women which take the cake. The Most skin one can see in a sari is ofcourse the Torso, which signifies fertility, worshiped in many religions, and it instigates the living male to asses the fertility of his seeds. ofcourse this is animal instinct too, but its a fine taste, its like comparing, beluga to fillet-o-fish. It is only, after one is satisfied with the torso, visible in a sari that, one could look for any other assets.
It would be wrong to analyse that all men, look at women with a single view, well, it is the subconscious and 50000 years of civilization that has gone into these instincts. one might not know, even when loking.
It is a different matter that, the torso's that one gets to look at these days, would by any chance lead to some philosphical thinking. Of course indians have been wearing many forms of saris for 5000 years, so no prizes to Indian airlines.
well, this is my research after 16 hrs of oggling at women, I really Hope Neha understands, what effort goes into even looking at womens figures. Stop wearing that Salwar Kurta thing, it has no statement.
Sitting in bangalore, waiting for appointments to materalize, still looking at more women, walk on the streets. thinking, that I will be personal guest to Mallya, again for next two days. Is some solace to my lonely evenings, as Neha, Struggles with two kids, kitchen, inlaws and selling sauces and juices.
Hats off....indian women....i guess that is why they wear, salwar et al...no one assesing your fertility status.
As
However, When you are there for 16 Hrs with those kingfisher girls, and with no phone and no laptop. what does one do? one can only lech for a couple of hours at a stretch, after that it becomes a research. well thats what I did, a thesis on Air Hostesses.
There are three ways that all airlines dress their women.
1) Air India types. 2) King fisher types 3) every other, other than the last two.
The last one types are dressed in anything, that they think looks good, it has no statement. so no research work on that.
The next one is Kingfisher type. they have been very smartly dressed in red, the color that would get any bull flaring, 60% of your attention is focused on the color and rest on the posterior of the women, that is what you get to see the most of any air hostess any way, this combination brings out the animal in you, ( red is for blood and posterior is the only way one copulated )and you forget to look at other good things, like face, i mean, charm and courtesy.
But it is the sari Clad indian airlines women which take the cake. The Most skin one can see in a sari is ofcourse the Torso, which signifies fertility, worshiped in many religions, and it instigates the living male to asses the fertility of his seeds. ofcourse this is animal instinct too, but its a fine taste, its like comparing, beluga to fillet-o-fish. It is only, after one is satisfied with the torso, visible in a sari that, one could look for any other assets.
It would be wrong to analyse that all men, look at women with a single view, well, it is the subconscious and 50000 years of civilization that has gone into these instincts. one might not know, even when loking.
It is a different matter that, the torso's that one gets to look at these days, would by any chance lead to some philosphical thinking. Of course indians have been wearing many forms of saris for 5000 years, so no prizes to Indian airlines.
well, this is my research after 16 hrs of oggling at women, I really Hope Neha understands, what effort goes into even looking at womens figures. Stop wearing that Salwar Kurta thing, it has no statement.
Sitting in bangalore, waiting for appointments to materalize, still looking at more women, walk on the streets. thinking, that I will be personal guest to Mallya, again for next two days. Is some solace to my lonely evenings, as Neha, Struggles with two kids, kitchen, inlaws and selling sauces and juices.
Hats off....indian women....i guess that is why they wear, salwar et al...no one assesing your fertility status.
As
Saturday, May 3, 2008
A Begining
WELCOME TO MY WORLD
Something I have been thinking about for a long time. Its the first step, which takes the most effort. Of course, the next ones take still more effort, but having walked a mile it gets more difficult to go back.This blog is going to be, sort of compilation of thoughts, views, observations, suggestions about friends, people I meet, everything that has gone in making of ME.
It is loud thinking, it will be inconsistent, rogue...a piece of my mind.
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