5 Small Steps To Take To Strengthen Indian Rupee

We have been hearing about the weakening of the rupee in last few days, Irrespective of whether it is a Local Indian fretting about increase in the fuel, interest and food prices because of it, or a happy NRI thinking of making more money by exchange rates, or the great Indian Media happy that they have something to make long news about it, It has been in the news nevertheless.

So It got me thinking as well, and devoured a lot of articles about it thus,If you are keen on why it is falling there is one such interestig explanation here. Athough a person from  non-economic background there were some ground truths that hit me, when there is nothing I can do about the falling rupee at the national level it struck me that If do my part and if every Indian does then yeah we could do a great deal about it. There are a lot of small changes that we can easily make in our day to day life which would have huge impact on our nation and us in turn..Also these are the changes that would do a lot good for our health and ecology as well.

I thought Let me make a list of changes that would be great.

1.  One of the most common and big impact is petrol and diesel, As the petrol and diesel  are traded in $'s and depreciating rupee means you pay more for it, and given that diesel is partially deregulated there is government money going when you drive your luxury diesel car which inturn affect the rupee. Also the increase in transportation would inturn push the inflation high. Thus a small step to take either public commute or common transportation to office and schools, or use bicycle to work would actually save the rupee.

2. In India we take great pride in telling that we are using imported products, Every other conversation you hear, be your neighbor who takes pride in saying that she bought an imported apple or used imported kale and parsley for her soup  or your co-worker filling him/herself with so-called sugar filled fresh juices we unknowingly increase the import and thus indirectly cause in rupee fall. Instead using local seasonal vegetables and fruits close to the home while reducing packaged foods would not only help the rupee but also your health, and ease environmental pollution by reducing the carbon footprint by reducing the distance your food travels.

3.India which is known for its variety of culinary dishes with tons of local beverages and foods, It is sad state of affairs to see kids addicted to Coke, Pepsi and burgers, This addiction when increases the obesity of people having it, depletes health of consumers and sadly rupee strength as well.This sugar drink with profit margin is more than 100% is indeed a costly addiction, Going to home made dishes and local drinks like lemonade and lassi's is something which all of us can imbibe.

4. Fashion market has grown very big in India with loads of shopping malls mushrooming in every corner of the city, All the internationally branded clothes and fashion we buy impacts our import and hence the rupee, When the international market craves for Indian made clothes we ourselves look at it with contempt, so next time give desi-brands a try and I'm sure you will not regret.

5. One of the most innocent looking industry is that of beauty products, every channel that you browse, every actress tries to sell some or the other beauty product be it for hair care or face care.

All the fairness cream ad's that come create a false need, We Indians who were once proud of our golden brown to wheatish skin tone are now craving fair skin thanks to those ad's, because they have created a  need that  to be confident and likable you need to be fair and sadly we fall prey to it. Most of those brands have SLES, parabens etc which are considered a bane for skin health, more about that in another blog, Instead we could use local organic  brands which have low margins and thus not widely advertised.Also I plan to talk about organic stuff and DIY's in another blog in here in coming months.

These are very simple steps which you and me can take to save rupee instead of cribbing about it.Do share it. I would add more points if I can think of and I would be glad to take comments on this.

Common Wealth Games : Celebrating Slavery

Sometimes I wonder if Britishers had injected some slavery bug into our genes before leaving India. If you are wondering what the hell am i talking about here goes the entire Article to explain myself.

If you have ever wondered what common wealth games is ,

a Quote from wiki

"The Commonwealth of Nations, normally referred to as the Commonwealth and previously known as the British Commonwealth, is an intergovernmental organisation of fifty-four independent member states. All but three of these countries were formerly part of the British Empire."

It is a game that is played by members of common wealth nations , members who were part of British colonies.Basically one's ruled by British!

So after celebrating 61st republic day , if we still get Prince charles to come and inaugrate[ok jointly with Prathibha but still!!] the Common Wealth Games, arent we celebrating our slavery? Had Subhash Chandra Bose been alive today , this act would have cremated him alive. Is this the respect we are paying for all the struggle?

Now if you say Globalization, India getting visibility and such crap , The only visibilyt we got was for ,"The Great Indian Corruption". When It might not have affected any of these corrupt officers , It has bled the heart of every honest tax payer in India.Yes Inaguration was great , there was folklore , there was this great Indian railways program with people from different parts of india from kashmir to kanyakumari coming in. Again is this our reality ?, Doesnt the whole world know of the issue we are facing in Kashmir , Naxal problem ? Isnt this the act of wearing silk robe for a day when everybody knows that you wear rags otherswise? Had we honestly used the same money to fix food, education , funding for sports , encouraging entrepreneur rather than showing bigotry by organizing games , Probably we would have been far far better.

But then wanted to humor myself , Inspite of all the rage , Bingo! Remebered this joke about English :

"British might have ruled us for over 200 years but Indians have been taking the revenge ever since by killing their mother tongue day-in and day-out"

Just looked around and found these pictures .. :-)

IPL,Cricket ,India ,people,bollywood basically random thoughts

People who know me will be squirming and wondering what is this cricket moron writing about IPL , me writing about cricket is like an illiterate commenting about shaskespearean book, but then IPL isnt really cricket is it ? It is more masala, more bollywoodish and all about money.

"Cricket is a religion in India" , I remember having read this umpteen times right since my school days .My brother being a huge fan of cricket whether i like it or not i have been watching cricket but then i really really dont mind watching IPL.

Indians have always supported cricket team also Indian govt has funded cricket may be at the cost of other games (result is obvious in Olympics et al) but still we always cheer India as a team right but then hats off to Lalit modi for segmenting the cricket into bits and pieces within India and getting players from other countries and still make people follow it., How did it tick off by the way ?
1) Suddenly followers of cricket who were fighting for india as a team are now fighting for teams by state per se.
2) Hard to get tickets for rare matches are made available for a reasonable price and now everyone gets to see it.
3) A match for which initially you had to set aside full day is now 3 hours , time taken for a typical bollywood movie, so it is now a perfect after office hour entertainment.
4)But I guess the biggest plus it gets is because of the glamour involved , suddenly bollywood and cricket was one ! Bollywood stars being owners/brand ambassadors of any franchise, so be it the after hours party which makes to page 3 or the cheer leaders .Thus this factor makes it
more appealing to non-cricket crowd .

But one thing i must admit about this set up is that it is extremely honest , we have all known that money and self - obsession rules any day and what other set up but IPL proves it better.Though the viewers identitfy the team by their region , if you see the team there a lot of foreigners playing so what is the identification for them ? Before we all used to raise the cricketer to a level of sacrificial philanthropist who owes all the runs to india and his fans in here .But what would a greatest player in IPL tell ? At max he would tell is he his hitting for his team or the regional fans but is it really ? Knowingly or unknowingly we all admit that its all money that the player cares for(very fact that a player can be moved from one to other proves it) . Now if we get to the non IPL set up lets see what is the incentive for a player there , he would bag more endorsments and also win some accolades which will make sure he will continue to remain in team and thus would be able to secure his endorsment rating but the money factor there is less acknoweleded. Where as in IPL is more pronunced and thus i call it honest.
Now coming to the people aspect of it we often are hard core Indian cricket team supporters be it in world cup or any tri series or even a 2 team matches for that matter , but now what is driving us to support IPL ? There was report in TOI that TRP rating of IPL has fallen this season less than some popular serials on TV , but is it ? May be ? if so what is the reason ? The very people who would watch match on TV are now in stadium and identifying themselves with the cricket of their region remains just a reason , because if that was the case with whom would keralites or people from Assam would identified themselves with ?
So has IPL proved that cricket in India is not as sanctified as it was hyped to be and more mortal ? So now would this make people watch less of it after few years ? Not really .. People will still be drawn to it now not just with the hope of following or cheering it but also with the hope of one day playing for one of the region (especially kids and teens), without realizing the fact that it is only the top of pyramid that makes fortune when there is a huge under thrived base.
But IPL rocks ! For its revolutionary idea and yet getting people to watch it. I know i'm a little late writing this blog but still ....

Women Empowerment still a myth ?

This blog is inspired by TN seshan's heart full of burden.it is a book written and published in 1995 and most of the fundamental problems about India discussed in the book decade ago still holds ! Actually in a larger scale.

But one point that caught my attention was that when i came across this phrase " Fifty percent of the Indian population is oppressed suppressed and exploited and that population is called women" .

As i have already mentioned in my other blogs no i am not a feminist as i think asking for equal

rights is like accepting dominance of men.But it is deplorable that the above statement still holds 13 years after the book is published and the problem is more severe now.And actually i don't think it is 50% either now with all the female foeticide happening.I am not talking about the fortunate few like me who constitute just about 3-4 % of the total population but the rest of the mass still living in dark.

The problem in villages is so severe actually ie partly because of the cooperation from women

themselves who think it is a sin to raise voice against their abusive egotist husbands or father , may be it is because of lack of education or sheer ignorance. I remember having read somewhere when i was still in primary that a place where women in the family is literate continues to educate their offspring and the cycle continues but still why is it only kerala and very few states have achieved high women literacy? Why a girl child is considered an additional hand for a mother to help her in household and one to shoulder family's burden but not as a potent future which can conquer the world ? I don't want to pin point any religion , but why certain religion considers women as a mere reproductive machine than as a human being with emotions and dreams?

But when this is a raw problem which is seen mainly in rural India.Is urban India free of all this ? If i think whether women is treated at par in urban so called modern society i don't think so ,here the problem is not because of illiterate women but as far as i think a combination of the following problems :

partly it is because of half literate stupid men who neither end up in a job nor do they have any

ambition but to stand in public places and morally humiliate women by eve teasing,I have hardly travelled in bmtc(bangalore public transport)since my early engineering days but by chance got into one recently and it was then i realized how awkward it is for a lady to travel in bus , i really pity those countless women who commute to work by public transport like bmtc.

But are women in power spared ? I dont think so ,one of the classic examples i can think of in recent times is getting shobha karandalje(minister for rural develpment ) out of power in karnakata , I have never hidden my admiration for bjp like countless others of my generation but i guess i should seriously rethink about section 49-o. In spite of her good work why was she thrown out of the ministry all because of male tyranny ,why did it become such an issue and why all the false rumor spread about her spread just because she is unmarried and considered working for people her sole goal ?? if its just because she was a lady as projected by media , wasn't it a cheap game played ? so even women at power are not spared.what can be more demeaning and immoral in politics ?

Now coming to work area , I am not talking about the high end/sw jobs but at a lower physical jobs why is a women in spite of doing all the hard work men do given a far less pay than men? After all these years if dowry system and those innumerable rape cases still prevails it just shows how terribly our system has failed.

I am sure this blog will be treated as a one sided argument and i don't deny there would be counter argument but is it as huge as the problem women in India are facing ? But when i say

India i am wrong again , its a global problem actually even the so called liberalized US cant boast of a single women president in all these years not to mention how hilary clinton had to step back.Also the reports of physical and mental abuse on women troubles any sane person's mind.

I guess the fundamental problem is in the mindset of the people , as long as a women is treated a mother or wife who is bound to do one's daily chore's this problem will not be stopped ,Though I'm quite sure that my reach through this blog is only to the mass who I'm quite sure respect women, I guess it is only when you treat a women around you as an individual who has her own emotions dreams and a personality, also ego as big as a guy's then there will equality.