Today's gratitude

is for this thought:


Write your sorrows in sand, and your gratitude in granite. Leave the sand on the beach and use the granite on your kitchen slab.

पहेलियाँ

कौन सी दो बातें सब से ज़्यादा दुःख देती हैं?


१. किसी का हो कर भी न होना.
२. किसी का न हो कर भी हर समय होना.




What are the 2 greatest sorrows that we know?
1. Someone who is here, and still isn't.
2. Someone who is not here, and still is. Always.








कौन दो लोग सब से ज़्यादा दुःख देते हैं?
१. कोइ ऐसा जो हो कर भी न हो. 
२. कोइ ऐसा जो जीवन में नहीं है, पर मन में हर समय होता है. 

Acknowledge that mental illness is not another malady

जैसे हम लोग ये मानते हैं कि AIDS या cancer जीवनघाती रोग है, terminal illness है, वैसे ही हमें ये भी स्वीकार करना चाहिए की अवसाद (depression) या और मानसिक रोग भी जीवन घाती (terminal illnesses) हैं.


इन रोगों को भी वही इज़्ज़त, या कम से कम वही acknowledgement तो मिलना चाहिए. लोगों को मालूम तो होना चाहिए की अगर किसी को अवसाद है, तो ये निश्चित नहीं की वो ठीक हो ही जाएगा.


जिस तरह हम कर्करोग या एड्स के मरीजों के अधिकारों में अपने जाने का समय चुनने के अधिकार की शिरकत करते हैं, यही शिरकत मानसिक रोग के रोगियों के लिए क्यों नहीं की जाती?


We speak about AIDS and cancer, and acknowledge the terminal nature of some of the cases of these illnesses. Why don't we accord the same seriousness and the same acknowledgement to mental illnesses?


We speak the right to die with dignity for patients who suffer from terminal illnesses of the body. Why don't we include that right among the rights of those affected by life long, terminal mental illnesses?

कतरनें

आज, बड़ी अजीब बात हुई. रेडियो पर, कोई  गानों को मिला कर, गा रहा था. और मेरे दिमाग में आया, की ये गाने, तुम्हे गाने चाहिए... ये बस तुम्हारी ही आवाज़ में अच्छे लगेंगे. इसी तरह , ठीक इसी बुनावट में. बस आवाज़ तुम्हारी हो.


*************


मैं रोज़ अच्छे कपडे पहनता हूँ. इत्र रोज़ लगता है. और बाल भी रोज़ संवरते हैं. लोग कहते हैं की लड़के इतने सजीले अमूमन होते नहीं हैं. पर तुम पता नहीं किस दिन मिल जाओ, यूँ ही, कहीं भी..


*********************

RIP

I belong
to a world gone by
When it came to its expiry date
That world expired.
Leaving its inhabitants
out in the cold
The world did not know
that the expiry date of the world
is also
the expiry date
of its inhabitants
Someone, someplace
made a mistake
and now I live
well past my expiry date
in a world
that is no more.

The unlovables

We are
the unlovables. The ones
who
are
too aggressive
too demanding
too compulsive
too rigid.
we are
the unlovable ones

Friendships

Friendship is just a tag.


But its something.
In a world full of nothings
Its a very important something.

On social media and loneliness

शायद ऐसा ही होता है लोगों के साथ... शायद ऐसे ही शुरू होता है सब कुछ. चुप रहने का सिलसिला, चुप करा देने के सिलसिले से भी शुरू हो सकता है, और चुप होने से भी.


लोग सोचते नहीं, बोलते बहुत हैं. किसी चीज़ के बारे में विचार व्यक्त करने के लिए, उस चीज़ के बारे में जानना भी ज़रूरी है, ये कहाँ लिखा है?


 बिना सोचे बोलने वालों से मुझे सख्त चिढ़ हुआ करती थी. अब भी है.


फिर देखा, चारों ओर , लोगों की बातों का शोर. इतने लोग, इतनी बातें, ज़्यादातर वो बातें जिन्हें कहने की करने की, कोई ज़रुरत ही नहीं. और बातें भी, वो नहीं जो ऐसे ही दोंस्तों में की जाएँ। सारी दुनिया को सुनाई जाएँ और उन से टिपण्णी की उम्मीद भी हो.


वे लोग, जिनकी बातें अच्छी लगती हैं, धीरे धीरे काम बात करने लगे. फूहड़पन बेशर्म भी होता है. दानाई शर्मीली. बस  यही हुआ हमारी दुनिया के साथ. दानाई शर्मा गयी, फूहड़पन को मंच मिल गया..यही मंच आगे जा कर सोशल मीडिया बना. 


और अंदर की बातें? अंदर ही खो गयी कहीं. न कोई हमनवा, न हमराज़, न हमदम, न हबीब।

The Unaccounted money at the bottom of the pyramid

Background Information:
Only 1% of India's population pays income tax. The tax rate slab in India is 2.4 lacs for adults for the current financial year. Agriculture , which is a tax exempt sector, employs  about 57% of India's population. This means that of the remaining 43% of the population, 42% earn less than 2.4 lacs a year.

The Trigger:
On 8th November, 2016, something changed in India. By some estimates, 85% of our currency became invalid overnight.


The queues since then - mostly composed of the underprivileged, made all of us uncomfortable. Some of them had been paid to stand in that line. But a lot of others were there because they were a part of an all cash economy.


As time passed and the queues did not get any shorter, it set me thinking about the real size of the cash economy at the bottom of the pyramid. How much cash is really there at the bottom of the pyramid, that is not entering the system at all? (And is, therefore, black money)?


So, this morning, I did some back of envelope calculations, hoping to get some sense of the all cash economy that hides at the bottom of the pyramid


The bottom of the pyramid has its own hierarchy(see note below).


For my analysis, I decided to focus only on the primary income generators, as a reliable measure of  cash at the bottom of the pyramid. This is because B and C re-use the cash generated by A. They may add to the size of the economy, but I am interested in the size of the cash chest alone. The size of the economy will be about 2 or 3 times the size of the cash chest as the money gets recycled.


Determining the Set of Primary Income Generators
After this, I zeroed in on some occupations where I have some idea of the margins, daily income, ticket size et al. 


Methodology
I just followed very simple back of envelope calculation. So, average order/ ticket size, no. of orders per day, margins (because according to Indian tax law, business is allowed to deduct expenses before arriving at income) and no. of working days per annum.


For monthly workers, I used average income per month, plus additional income (bonuses, overtime etc).


At first, I couldn't believe the numbers that appeared on that screen. So I did some more changes - reduced the working days, reduced the no. of tickets per day and so on. Even with all the changes, at the most conservative, this is how it appears.


The size of the all cash economy at the bottom of the pyramid - 2016 December

That number in INR Today is 562590 Million INR. i.e.,: 562590000000 or 562 Billion INR.



Notes:
1. This is only for a few selected occupations.


2. The number of 1000/2000/5000 vendors per city is obviously very low.




3. The hierarchy at the bottom of the pyramid:
A. Primary Income generators
These are the people who generate income from the economy and bring it to the bottom of the pyramid. Think: Vegetable vendors, pan wallas, small grocery shop owners, dhobis, malis, parking stand boys, domestic staff,  other service providers. In the money cycle, think of this as the point at which wealth enters the bottom of the pyramid.


B. Secondary Income Recyclers
These are the people who then use that money to support the bottom of the pyramid economy. Think landlords, service providers to the poor, alcohol thekas et al.


C. Consumers
These are the people who have the spending power at the bottom of the pyramid. Think home decision makers, consumers et al.


4. No. of cities in India as in 2011: 497. I have used the number of 450 for this analysis.