Frustrations & Disappointments - Part 1

A Collective of write-ups on frustrations and disappointments in our daily lives

By

Murali Murthy

The Squeeze

After a short span of respite, our Man is back to his favourite timepass - Hold the ordinary citizen by their balls and watch the Fun. He loves adding salt to the already wounded finances of all. I am sure he likes Tequila, as he keeps adding salt and lime to the wounded economy as we ordinary people trying to rebuild our lives 

This Man is eternally in Election Campaigning mode, even yesterday he started his usual "Bash the Opposition" speech..come on, give us a break, focus on governing and conveying what good can you do for us, or atleast don't do anything to hurt us more.

Somebody stop him!! And the Opposition instead of taking advantage of the situation is busy with internal squabbles and in utter chaos.

I would say it shouldn't matter who or which party is in Opposition, it doesn't really matter. Anyone and everyone can do the job of being an agent to squeeze us, collect taxes and claim credit for giving freebies.

A Master stroke

Dussehra is over, but our man hasn't stopped gifting us with incessant rise in prices and fuel, for 10 days in a row without a pause.

While Diesel hit a Century early this week, Petrol touched 110!

Yet Devotees seem to be unaffected and don't utter a word against atrocity, but continue to defend every ghastly move and remain unabated.

A master stroke by their Master to keep them busy and blind..be it Hindutva emotion, be it fingering with History, be it Disneyfication of monuments representing gory past, be it selling assets with huge liabilities. 

The Devotees are doped with such drugs to keep them High and in trance.

The romance of devotees and their Master is so deep that the eternal examples like Krishna Radha, Romeo Juliet will stand pale.

The poor Aryan Khan who just consumed drugs for Fun without causing harm to anyone is in jail, but this man who supplies drugs to his millions of Devotees and dope them is going scotfree.

Our Transport Minister defends Fuel hike with an intent to promote other forms of Fuel, while he himself goes around Diesel Cars and with atleast 10 pilot cars.

The State nor the Center wants to cut their share of Excise duty and blame each other, leaving common man to suffer

Ignorance is bliss

And the Govt says "No one is on the streets...no citizen is expressing concern, outrage or uproar."

The Politicians think all are jobless like them and have time to get on streets for the Photo Ops and do stunts on the streets. Till then, they don't even realize what we go through.

What is the need of such a disconnected, unconcerned Govt, when they don't see the problem unless someone is on the street!

This Govt keeps proving that anyone can run this country, shouldn't matter the ability of the one who is in power, end of the day squeeze citizen's livelihood, rake in free moola, announce some freebies, take credit of those, appease the audience for votes, come back to power.

And we still pat our own back, that we are the largest democracy!

Pentioner's paradise

We all have abused the statement - "It's taxpayer's money that's being wasted" that we all have been conveniently using over the years against the Govt of the day.

Do we really understand how Govt spends money? Do we know why is it used for? When Fuel, commodity, Income Tax rates are increased, some of us feel we - the common man/middle class/poor is bearing the brunt of any crisis.

However, many others jump to protect the  Govt and say "How else will the Govt generate money for all the work they do?"

The same lot said when the Air India sale happened, the Tax Payer's money was saved, when they never knew it was being "wasted" for decades. End of the day the money was spent on paying salaries to 1000s.

Apart from around a Crore Govt Employees eligible was Pensions, all others from unorganized and Private sectors are tuned to earn for the work they do. And when we quit/retire the company is not liable to take care of your needs as we do not have anything to offer back. We all are responsible for our own retirement and Save for future.

Why cant these Govt Employees plan their retirement on their own?

I always failed to understand the concept of Pension, It's a liability which obviously is eating from the budgets.

Almost every retired person I have known are financially sound and have made assets by the time they retire, their sons/daughters earning very well. Yet they draw handsome Pensions after retirement. And after 10 to 20 years into retirement, most of them would be taking atleast twice what they used to get as Salary!

If we just take the Central Govt Employees, the annual spend on Pension is about 2 Lakh Crores, which is around 5.5% of our Country's budget.

I am not refering to ones who served in the defence as they deserve all possible support for the risk they took to protect our Nation.

A point to ponder for all of us. These are just my personal views and welcome any discussions / counter views.

A country like India where a common man / poor guy pays for even a small development work or to fund vaccine program with no buffer / surplus funds available with the Govt, can't some measures be taken to stop rich becoming more richer?

Can't the data with PAN, Aadhar be used to cut down pensions for those who are abusing this privilege?

In 2015, P.M Modi started a brilliant Campaign motivating those who can afford to pay full LPG cylinder cost, to give up subsidy, and millions of them voluntarily gave up Subsidy.

What if such a campaign is started for economically stronger families to give up Pensions, as the purpose of Pension is to support households.

But irony - for many retired population, Pension is only a luxury and not for basic livelihood.

As per me, Pension should be given to ensure when they retire, they should still continue to independently lead a respectable living, especially for those who do not have children or who have been abandoned by children or if cumulative family income is below certain number.

The indispensable Employee

I have seen this post way too many times and feel nauseated by such thoughts and people who keep endorsing such thoughts.

Not sure if Elon Musk has really made such statements, as it's not official anywhere.

Can I ask a counter question on the same lines? What if the Employer goes through a crisis? What if company's finances goes through a turbulence?

The same Employee will start bombarding the resume all over the industry and does not waste time jumping the ship.

I would rather say - do not treat Employees as family, as their loyalty is only towards the paycheck and a progressive one.

If this thought sounds exaggerated and irrational, so does the other thought that Employer wouldn't care for the Employees. Every Employer takes care of safety, security, health, comfort and convenience of their Employees, not by obligation but by choice.

An extreme event like a death is beyond anyone's control, and eventually everyone has to move on, so does the Employer, so does the family.

The statement of Elon Musk that I endorse is "The problem is that at a lot of big companies, process becomes a substitute for thinking. You're encouraged to behave like a little gear in a complex machine."

Individuals as they grow in their career and end up in large organizations, their multitasking ability goes down the drain, as an army of workforce are engaged with one task split and managed by multiple teams, as each are scoped to handle just one skill.

I recently concluded a Application Migration activity with one of my client, who took almost an year to complete the task. The processes and distributed job execution is to be blamed. 2 guys from each team and each team handling one portion - Network, Server, Windows, Database and Application.

On the other hand I could single handedly guide, support each of them and advice on each of their role!

There are always counter views and opinions on everything under the sun, this is one such.

Rights and Religion

Our Constitution provides us rights and freedom to express ourselves in any way we deem fit. But is it absolute? Is it unconditional? Doesn't it come with a sense of responsibility?

Though there is a mention that the rights are morally bound, but the Morality itself is subjective. I feel I am morally at a higher place than you, you feel you are morally better placed, so does everyone else.

One or two Judges sitting in the court who decides if wearing a Hijab to school is constitutionally right under moral grounds, feel their morality is on top of the world.

The term Uniform itself represents equality, neutrality and consistency.

But if Sikhs have exceptions to wear a turban as part of all Uniforms, even when security and safety comes in the way of efficiency as a Soldier or a Pilot in the name of religion, why not Hijab!

Hijab has always been synonymous to Muslim women/girls, and is indeed not new for them to be wearing in schools and colleges. Why all the hue and cry now? By the way, when did wearing Saffron shawl become a part of a Hindu wear, apart from using it as a uniform in protests??

The girls also started the protest to wear a head scarf of the same color as the Uniform, later changed to wearing a full Hijab and some voices demanding permission to do Namaaz in Schools. Where does the list of demands end?

If the girls are being rigid and hell bent on carrying their religion along everywhere, what on earth the Saffron clad boys could have a problem with? We anyway carry along our Hindu markings on our forehead along with all Uniforms.

It is a different subject to say wearing Hijab itself is oppressive, which We Hindus should be the last to comment on, as Ghoonghat is still a normal practice amongst North Indian Hindus.

If the real intent is to ensure strict adherence of Uniform in Schools, then all Schools should adapt to Christian Schools who don't even allow Kunkum on the forehead. Is that acceptable?

We had only seen Politicians and their followers/supporters being fanatically claiming torch bearers of their respective religions, but now the toxin has penetrated deep in the society.

We were a proud democracy until recently, but we are following the footsteps of many Islamic States in becoming another Religious state.

Why is 1st April celebrated as a Fool's day?

Because you pay taxes all year, and start fresh again to pay taxes and work for the Govt.

The funny thing about Tax is you pay Income tax for the money you earn, and pay Sales Tax for the money you spend.

As the prices go High, We don't have a choice but to pay more for the commodity, the Govt will also earn more with the corresponding tax component.

But hey, don't complain, the movie is tax free!