Tax vs Tax, where did it vaporize ?

The day of a common indian.

1. Wake up ( tax free :] )
2. Eat breakfast (The bread, corn-flakes, dal, wheat, everything was taxed)
3. Watch TV for some news (TV was taxed, the set-top box bill is taxed)
4. Get into the car (Car was heavily taxed, plus municipalty tax, road tax, registration.)
5. Call up a friend (Phone instrument was taxed. Phone call is also taxed)
6. Drive to friends place (Petrol is also taxed)
7. Go for a movie (Entertainment tax. Popcorn is additionally taxed)
8. Reach a restaurant (Again pay parking charges part of which is taxed)
9. Enjoy your meal (Pay tax, VAT + education cess + higher education cess)
10. Do some shopping (of course, everything you buy is directly or indirectly taxed)
11. Come back home (Again driving is taxed as you may end up paying toll tax too)
12. Cook dinner (Cooking gas is taxed, never believe the subsidy theory, its open secret that its just a sham)
13. Computer/facebook/internet (CDs are taxed, internet bill is taxed)
14. Sleep well (Its also taxed. The fan/AC electricity will get taxed for the entire duration of ur sleep)
15. Also, pay property tax and house-rent !!

However

• A new highway comes up and toll-tax is charged.
• To construct a metro govt takes loan from Japan bank.
• New airport comes up and cess is charged.
• .. and it is my tax and your tax that simply evaporates..

Day for the local MP/MLA

1. Wake up ( tax free :] )
2. Eat breakfast (Everything reaches a politicial tax-free )
3. Watch TV for some news (TV was in the furnished Akbar-road bunglow with dish-tv)
4. Get into the car (Migty vehicle with "Govt of India" with a govt driver)
5. Call up a friend (Phone instrument is free. Phone calls are free)
6. Drive to friends place (Govt vehicle, Govt pertol, Govt driver)
7. Go for a movie (Call up the local SHO, he will arrange for the premium seats in the local multiplex. Multiplex needs license to survive)
8. Reach a restaurant (All the road is parking place. The resturant will be pleased to host.)
9. Enjoy your meal (Dont dare think of the bill)
10. Do some shopping (well, some money and some taxes do get spent here in a big city. In a small city forget it)
11. Come back home (Govt vehicle, Govt pertol, Govt driver, No toll-tax)
12. Cook dinner (Cooking gas is again provided by govt.)
13. Computer/facebook/internet (Govt provides laptops. Internet bills are paid by govt.)
14. Sleep well (Free electricity)
15. The Akbar-road bunglow (market rent of 5 lac/month) is of course part of the package.

So, now you know the job to target for if you want to save the taxes. ...

The good and the bad

How honest is our society ?

I say it is pretty honest in general. If you don't agree read on ...

Everyday in newspapers and TV we watch

so much

of negative news that

sometimes it forces us to think whether

we are living in a civilized & honest society or a barbaric & crime-ridden

society.

If I question people, without a thought, mostly people will point towards the ugly side.

However I differ.

Below are some real life incidents that are not usual news stories, but do reflect the positive side.

The leather jacket

My Jijaji was travelling by train from Delhi to Jharkhand. He had a nice expensive leather jacket and in the train hung it from the hook. Unfortunately while deboarding, he forgot to take it and realized the mistake once he reached home. He assumed it to be lost forever. Surprisingly after a few weeks a postcard came to the Jharkhand address mentioning about the jacket, a contact number and the address to pick it from which was an hour away.What happened was after he got-off the train, one of the co-passenger noticed the jacket. Looking for clues to return it, he found an old dry-cleaning bill in its pocket that mentioned the address. That passenger got off at the next station with the jacket. Later dropped a postcard at the address mentioned in the bill telling the owner to collect it.

The bag and the boy

This incident happened in gole market. My dad was returning home from his office in a bus with his office bag in hand. A little boy tried to snatch it and managed to deboard the bus with the bag. Dad came home upset as it had all the office keys, a dairy with all the important contact numbers etc (those were pre-mobile days). later in the evening a phone call on our landline came from a Dad's colleague asking him whether he lost a bag or not. Dad was surprised, how could his friend know this. It happened that after the little boy who snatched the bag, ran, he was seen by a person on the footpath. he ran after him. After some distance, caught him. Then went till the police station (2 kms away) to submit the bag. At the police station, they opened it for some identification, found my dad's dairy and his colleague's phone number was on top. They called him to verify and then called us. We went to the police station, collected the bag and the phone number of the person who submitted it. Later thanked that person and got to know he came to gole market from very far for some work and had to make a good effort to locate the police station.

My mom's purse

This is oldest example of honesty I remember. I was a small kid then, maybe in class 3 or 4. Our family was travelling somewhere by a DTC bus on a sunday afternoon. Near the gol-dak-khana (GPO) roundabout, while the bus was taking a sharp turn, somehow my moms purse slipped and fell out of the back door. People who know that place will recall, how wide the roads are there the speed with traffic flows there, specially back then when traffic was thin. By the time we realized, and my dad asked the conductor, who in turn informed the driver, who then stopped the speeding bus, it was nearly a km away (almost near the RML hospital, for ppl who know the place). My dad went back but alas could not find it. It had cash, some gold-earrings, and keys to our home. And address was written inside. So hurriedly we went back home. My dad had duplicate keys. Than dad was thinking of getting the locks changed. Then surprisingly that evening a man came asking for us and asked whether we lost a purse. We answered yes. That person saw the bag falling from the bus. Picked it up, waited for some time then proceeded. Later saw the address in the back and came all the way to our house to return it.

So, on second thoughts, if you analyze, on a personal front, how many people you personally know are honest or dishonest.

In other words, as a quick sample, take all your orkut or facebook friends. How many of them are likely to return a mobile or a wallet they find accidently ? And a big chunk of society is made up of people like us and them...

PS: This writeup reminded me of an old Reader's Digest article, summarizing their experience when they deliberately lost 30 mobile phones in Mumbai to test honesty. Interestingly 24 phones out of 30 were returned to the owners by the people who found them !!

~ x - --- - x ~

Memories . . .

Memories

(Some recollections in random order)

New year night-out with school friends

Having a night out with 10 school friends (20 yrs old friendship) at friend's place in Dwarka. Then going out at 1am at night to Gurgaon to eat out Paranthas. Car having a minor accident. Getting caught by cops with booze in gurgaon ...

South-India trip

The cultural shock ... how can indians be so honest and helpful.

Dynamic schedule, breathtaking scenery, amazing food, 4-states, 11 days, 4 friends ... my most memorable trip.

Getting caught by cops many times for "booze in car" crime :-)

All the times escaped without bribe, but not without some fun-filled haggling !!

Kausani trip

Pleasant experience, comfortable road and ride, splashing in inviting hilly rivers, wonderful resort, calm among tea-gardens, good food.

Bangla recitation

Getting the first prize multiple times in bangla poem recitations in Durga puja competitions

The water tank

Getting caught when we climbed a (equivalent 12-stories) water tank near school and got caught (and slapped) , then in "murga" mode in school principle's rooom for 3 hours !!

Anticipating durga pujo

Waited months ahead for five precious puja days when I was in school. Just the waiting days reduce year by year :-(

Dance competition

Yes, judged undisputed first-place in school dance competition. Was leading the dance. Danced to A.R.Rehman's maa tujhe salaam. Was in 11th class

Football matches in college

Eagerly waited to play football in college grounds, rain or sun. Multiple rounds of banta followed.

Leg-break

Organised a football match in my office. I was my the captain of my side. Fractured my leg while playing. 1 week holiday. 6 weeks plaster !!

PC games

Playing Half-life, Max-payne, Medal-of-honor whole nights. Used to go to sleep when my mom got up at 5:30 am.

Hollywood Movie

Dad taking us for Jurassic-park at the biggest 70mm Shiela Theatre

Home sweet home

Happiness when we got the news that we got allotment to our dwarka home after waiting for years

Colorful holi

Filling water baloons, mixing water colors, throwing them on the unsuspecting passerby from the top floor. During later years, opening the building fire hydrant to make everybody wet.

Packing/unpacking

Getting prepared to leave Gurgaon/Delhi after changing job to Pune. Getting interview call and then getting selected in the then Hughes software, Gurgaon just a day before leaving for pune.

Bus pass

During college days, standing in the long DTC bus pass queue to get the Rs 12.50 monthly unlimited all route bus pass.

Fainting after the good deed

After my first blood-donation, stood up and fainted. Docs made me sleep for 30 mins and loaded me with extra juice and snacks. A regular blood-donor since then :-)

Cycling 80 kms

One of my cycling days that was stretched more than usual. After a long cycling day, check online my tracks and distances and realized I had cycled upwards of 80 kms that day !!

The quick weekend journeys to Jharkhand

Took the friday night 10:40 pm purushottam express to Koderma, my Didi's sasural. Took the Sunday train to be back by Monday morning.

Office night-outs

Even if all the work is done, either some extra issue is found or some unknown document is missing just before customer release date. Well another night-out, after some sumptuous biryani and an unofficial holiday or half-day next day !!

Rafting trips

Facing the slaps of the rapids, sitting calmly by the riverside bonfire, bathing in a water fall, rappling down mountain slopes, the white water rafting camps were pure bliss. Being cut-off from the mobile networks and electricity enhanced the peace !!

More to be added as and when my memory inspires me to register more instances

The credit for the inspiritaion to this idea goes to one of my friend's blog

Would like to give due credit to the original idea

http://lookwhos-talking.blogspot.com/2008/04/memories.html?zx=51330370a8f77178

How many beers break the law ?

Unofficial decoding of 0.03% Blood Alcohol Content

How many beers break the law ?

What does it mean to you and me ?

Read along to know the reality and don't forget to write your comment...

The thought

As all my friends know, I am typically a non-drinker famous for my coke or mocktail glass in the crowd of beer & wine glasses. In one or two outings I graduated to some bacardi breezer. Then there was another problem. Cops on Delhi roads at night, armed with alcometers sniffing out the drunk drivers. Then began my search (and often discussed among friends) how much is this legal limit in terms of a common man.

Official Decoding

Blood Alcohol Content (BAC) means concentration of alcohol in a person's blood.

In India the legal limit of BAC is 0.03% means 30 milligrams of alcohol per 100 milliliters of blood.(Section 185 of Motor Vehicles Act 1988. )

Unofficial Decoding (simplified for you and me)

Now comes the next question, how much booze does this magic number of 0.03% mean ?

I went on to search multiple sites, references, documents, govt-publications. The first thing everybody said were all those diplomatic answers, "it depends on person to person, dependent on weight, metabolism, gender etc etc etc ...". After some digging deeper, and some calculation later, got some standard/general references.

The real Stuff ... It goes like this...

In these examples 1 bottle of beer means a 650ml bottle with 5% alcohol content

• For a male, one bottle of beer (650ml,with 5% alcohol) in 1 hour is around the safe range (about 0.02% to 0.03% BAC). Anything more than that goes in the illegal boundary.
  After 3 hours your BAC should be almost 0.00%
  
  
• If you consume about 3 bottles of beer in 1 hour, then you are at about 4 times the legal limit :-(
  
  
• With 3 bottles of beer, it takes you about 6 to 7 hours (after the last beer) to come back in the legal limit of 0.03%
  (Our liver can remove alcohol from the blood at the rate of about 10ml per hour.)
  
  
• Heavy persons (since they have more water & fat content) will have slightly lower BAC :-)
  
  
• Females will have slightly higher BAC levels for similar consumption :-(
  Females should wait at least 1 hour after even 1 bottle of beer to come in the legal limit.

Is this crazy limit realistic & justified?

After all this gyan, I was curious to see if putting this crazy limit (0.03%) is actually realistic or not.

Read on & decide for yourself

BAC(%)	Behaviour	Impact on ...
0.01–0.029 (LegalLimit)	Average individual appears normal	Subtle effects that can be detected with special tests
0.03–0.059 (Illegal)	Mild euphoria Sense of well-being Relaxation Joyous Talkativeness Decreased inhibition	Alertness Judgment Coordination Concentration
0.06–0.10 (2 hrs after 2 beers)	Blunted Feelings Disinhibition Extroversion	Reflexes Reasoning Depth Perception Distance Acuity Peripheral Vision Glare Recovery
0.11–0.20 (6 hrs after 4 beers)	Over-Expression Emotional Swings Angry or Sad Boisterous	Reaction Time Gross Motor Control Staggering Slurred Speech
0.21–0.29 (5 hrs after 2 Martini)	Stupor Loss of Understanding Impaired Sensations	Severe Motor Impairment Loss of Consciousness Memory Blackout
0.30–0.39	Severe Depression Unconsciousness Death Possible	Bladder Function Breathing Heart Rate
>0.40	Unconsciousness Death	Breathing Heart Rate

It is strongly believed that these figures (legal or otherwise) are meant for 4 wheelers.

Motor cyclists with even small traces of alcohol are at a very high risk of a crash.

Myths

• Drinking coffee increases awareness; therefore, the drinker believes that they are more sober.
  In reality, the person is still impaired for the purposes of driving, as their coordination, reaction time, etc. are still affected by the alcohol in blood and BAC reading would still show the real picture.
  
  
• Eating various dehydrated and salty products such as crackers, chips etc may settle the stomach allowing the consumer to feel more sober.
  In reality, they are simply keeping the blood sugars from crashing, as drinking without the consumption of food would.

Some posters worth looking at ...

(These posters are properties of respective owners)

Poster picked from Delhi Traffic Police Website

Your comments & sugessions are definitely welcome :-)

ACROSS THE TIMES.......On a sunday

ACROSS THE TIMES.......
YOU BROUGHT ME SMILES....
YOU HAVE WIPED MY TEARS......
BY LENDING AN EAR..........
ALTHOUGH THE TIMES HAVE CHANGED
SINCE YOU LISTENED CAREFULLY
TO MY THOUGHTS......,
TO MY FEELING............,
TO MY WORDS............
AND I WANT YOU TO KNOW...
I AM GLAD THAT ONCE WE MET .....
MY HEART IS HAPPY DEEP DOWN INSIDE..
AND I STILL TREASURE THOSE TIMES.....
AND THTS NOT LIE.....
THAT MY LIFE IS NO LONGER A LIFE .....
THANKS FOR THAT TRUST....
THAT NOW I HAVE NOBODY TO TRUST....
AND MY SOUL REFUSES TO TRUST....
ONLY A SYMBOL OF YOU NOW REMAINS WITH ME...
SO THAT I CAN KISS IT GOODBYE WHEN I DIE ...
AND THANKZ FOR BEING YOU......
NOW I KNOW WHAT THE WORLD IS LIKE ...
NOW I KNOW WHAT THE WORLD IS LIKE ...

A Day in Japan

A day , rather a working day in japan ...

I generally get up at around 8 am with a target to reach ofc by 9:30. Get up, get ready. Then I coordinate with my room-mate to make some breakfast. mostly it is senka hua bread and jam. Bread (half wala, with 8 slices), the cheapest we get is for 100 yen. Yen to Rs (INR) conversion is pretty easy, just half it. so 100 yen is about Rs50.. Otherwise bread of other varieties/shops cost from 200 or even 300 yen. Brought a jam here. Small jar for about 250 yen. Along with that a cup of tea. Without a good cup of tea, my day never seems to start. Brought tea-bags, sugar and milk powder from home. My roomie has a red-label Herbal tea dabba. Then there isn always a glass of milk. 1ltr milk cost between 100 to 200 yen. Then I run to office. Station is just 5 min walk. from hotel.


We take a train which takes about 10 mins including waiting time. Ticket one side is 150 yen. and distance is of two stations, which is about CP to Karol bagh or maybe a little more. Japan has probably the best public transport sytem in the world, with the extensive rail network touching almost everywhere you need to go. The frequency of trains and punctulity deserves special applause. Specifically the Shinkasen network (Bullet trains), which boasts of an average of reaching within 6 seconds of scheduled time and accident free operations in till date. So, for Bullet trains, no late trains and no accidents in about 45 years of operation.

From station to office, it is a 10 min nice, enoyable walk, crossing a small bridge over a small river. Only Pedestrians are king in japan. If you cross the road, car will stop 10 meters away as soon as you put your step down from the footpath. Mostly people here go to office in train+walk or just cycle down to office. Most of our peers in panasonic, including higher management, either walk or cycle to office.

In office work is very hectic now a days. But japanese people are really really very nice an polite people. Their lunch time starts at 11:45 am :-) I generally eat at office. Mostly it is either sea-food, or chicken or similar items. Mostly with rice. Today tried a dish with seafood, fish and spagetti. Actually taste of japanese ppl r very different from indian taste. Bare minimum spice and minimum sweet and salt. However out of the lot of 8 ppl, I seem to enjoy the most :-) Lunch at office costs generally upwards of 500 yen. By 4 or 5 we r hungry again. So some of us go to try some cakes or cookies. It is not luxury here. It is necessity. Otheerwise we will not get anything to eat till 10pm. (Shops in office campus close by 6pm, and there is nothing nearby) Generally one round cost us about 200 to 300 yen per head. Then again work continues till late night. After that going home. Stations and trains still show that we are not alone in Japan who go home late!!

Kausani , Ranikhet and Nainital

The foundation
It started with a suggestion from Debraj that Kausani is a possible place for outing. A holiday on Friday plus the weekend will make a good summer trip, short and simple. Firstly the confusion was cleared that this is not Kasauli (in Himachal) but it’s Kausani (in Uttranchal near Nainital). In the following weeks, after pulling more people and a few rounds of phone calls later the plan was finalized. A visit to the railway website was enough to trigger the momentum as tickets were vanishing like hot cakes. I promptly booked the tickets. Thus, managed to clinch to RAC for our journey. For the return tickets, had to settle down for waitlisted ones only.

The Beginning
There were initial doubts whether all of us would be able to reach the station on time. However all of us reached the station before the train did. Our RAC tickets had been confirmed. However the ticket did not had seat numbers. The coach & seat numbers were checked online before leaving for the station. Only issue was negotiating with co passengers as our seats were further apart. After initial reluctance this also happened and we had all 6 seats together. Yes six people, not seven as initially planned. Arijit’s plans to visit Kausani were eaten away by a devil called training in office. But yes, Arijit’s wife, Chaitali was definitely part of the gang. She happens to work in the same office as Ayan, who is another creature in our gang. He just recovered after struggling with chicken, did I forget to mention pox. Ayan’s school friend Debraj was another character in this traveling troupe. His wounds are still healing from a freak motorcycle accident. In the accident which happened a week before traveling, he did manage to shield his wife Alakananda by coming heroically between the road and her. Yes, she is also part of the bandwagon going to Kausani. They have a common friend Tarun Singh. No, he doesn’t come with any incident. His incidents are about to come in the trip.

Ranikhet Express
So finally we were starting. The train began to slowly creep out of the hustle bustle of Old Delhi station. about 30 mins behind schedule. As the city cacophony was rapidly replaced by the silence of the sub-urbs, out fight for the window seats increased. After all, there were six of us with only two window seats. Anyway, food packets were ripped open and people complimented Ayan & Chaitali for bringing in delicious khandvis, sandwitch-pakoras and burfis from Kaleva sweets. Of course chips and other light snacks were there. The addas continued to the tune of the humming pace of Ranikhet express, chik-chik-- chik-chik --- tick-tick-- tick-tick. Interestingly this train goes only till the Himalayan foothill town of Kathgodam. Ranikhet is much farther away from there than Nainital itself. So still wondering why it’s called Ranikhet express. Not much concern although as long as we are moving. Another point is, that finally we did manage to execute the plan. It happens most of the time as Nine out of ten plans go in the drain. Anyway slowly people began to roll over tom recharge themselves with a good sleep, as we needed energy for the next three days.

Himalayan foothills
By dawn, the train was already pulling us into the low slopes of the Himalayan foothills. We had decided to get off at Haldwani, which is a bigger town, just 6 kms short of Kathgodam. Haldwani, being a bigger town, should give us more chances of finding a taxi at competitive price for our onward journey to Kausani. So after a good night's sleep, got down around 6am at Haldwani station. And a really beautiful station it was.

After negotiating with a few taxi operators, we realized that our plan to take individual taxi's from point-to-point will prove expensive as well as cumbersome. So after many more rounds of negotiations and enquiries from more agents, finally settled for a qualis for complete three days with tours of Kausani, Ranikhet and Nainital. This would set us back by 5k. Anyway sounded like a good deal. So we proceed to the qualis of Javed a.k.a Janbaaz bhai. It would be driven by Raju, our guide cum companion for the next three days.

The Hills
Now our actual journey was about to start, the journey through the hills.We left the plains in the next 10 mins as we snaked past Kathgodam. The qualis proved a good spacious car for us. With Tarun sitting in the front giving periodic company to Raju (our driver) tit-bits about the locations enroute continued to be told. I was sitting in the middle of the middle row with two pillows on either side. Just that the pillows were also talking and were called Ayan and Debraj. Alakananda and Chaitali's monopoly over the back part of the qualis along with all the luggage game the impression of a ladies-zone at the back. As we started gaining altitutute, the scenetic beauty and the curves of the road seemd to get better and better. One moment, we saw the clouds floating at some height in the mountains. In the next few minutes we were actually passing through those clouds. Our first point was Bhimtal en-route to Kausani. It was a treat for the eyes and senses. We saw it for the first time. Clouds kissing water in a lake. Amazing scenery. To top it all, the lake was was more or less left untouched. We were really having a very good morning. Now time for some morning tea and snacks.

The morning tea and pakoras
We stopped at a small dhaba to take our dose of morning tea along with something to eat for an early breakfast. It consisted of a variety of pakoras dished out by the dhaba wala along with piping hot tea. The to add to variety a Cake was opened. This was something Debraj and Alakananda had brought from Delhi. Yes it was definitely delicious and was present at the right moment when all of us were hungry. After this our onward journey continued towards Kausani. It was to be a good six hours before we reached there. On the way we touched a beautiful temple nestled between the hills called Kainchi dham.

The River Fun
Our next stopover was near a small secluded suspension bridge over a silently flowing hilly river. Initially and reluctantly we went down till the river. Clicked a few pictures here and there. Then took a walk in the river. Then started splashing little water. After a while the temptation could not be resisted and we were completely soaked in water. After all who can resist the lure of staying away from water when standing by such a beautiful river. It was pure fun. Absolutely clean water, gushing through big and small rocks, creating special zones for us to bathe in a natural bath tubs. After the natural and refreshing bath, new set of dry clothes went on us. The wet set went on the qualis roof, where they were promptly tied on the roof carrier. They will be dry by the time we meet the next river to take another dip.Our next big stop was a restaurant by the side of river Kosi. So we decided get set wet on Kosi by the time our order in the restaurant is converted to food. After enjoying a cool bath in the gushing waters of Kosi River, we enjoyed a hearty vegetarian lunch in the restaurant. Our onwards journey towards Kausani passed through Almora town. A beautiful hill town indeed.

... Watch this space, more to come ...

Don't forget to write comments'''