My maiden voting right experience!!!

I was on the way from Delhi to my village,on one Friday evening, in the month of June 2007. Day was too hot to get out of the home during the day, hence I preferred evening 5 O'clock to take ride on my Pulsar 150cc.I have been always crazy for its riding and 130 KM distance from Delhi to village was a matter of two and half hour fun for me. However, on that evening riding was not for fun but for another cause, which was exciting me of my importance, responsibility, maturity and above all citizenship right. Yeah...on next day morning I was suppose to use  my maiden citizenship right  by casting a vote in Gram Panchayat Election . Thanks to Indian democracy and system of electing our representative by way of voting process, so that,  it gives millions of people a moment of pride of being citizen of it, at least once in five year. Otherwise most of the time, we are treated as poor, helpless, mango people, made for extortion, zero value of no importance etc. My chest widen by inch  when I felt  importance of my voting right, for which, I got a special invitation from 2 different contestants to come to village on each ones expenditure. Best of my memory, one of them has never exchanged any word of good or bad wishes with me in the last 25 years of my life.Though, second one was my neighbor, who has been in usual touch and pretended to be my well wisher always.

Mudilia is just 130 Km away from Delhi's Nizamuddin Bus Stand  but inconvenience of connectivity  to main roads and towns widens the gap and Delhi seems far away from. However, presently, Yamuna Express way has linked it to Noida and has reduced the distance to 60 Km only. Including one more small village, i.e Khanpur (~200 voters), which is the part of the same Gram Panchayat, there would be total ~1500 voters in 2007. The stories of Gram Panchayat elections have always been very  interesting and funny in my village, but this time I got an opportunity to watch it closely and to withdrew some interesting facts. Actually, Mudilia is again divided in two small villages i.e Mudilia (Badi) and Mudilia (Chhoti). Luckily, I was born in Mudilia Badi and was always full of vanity of belonging. However, there was nothing big in Mudilia Badi except big by population (~800 voters), or suffice to say that it was smaller economically, literally and culturally, which I realized later on.

Elections are contested there by keeping larger view  in mind of  Kunba, where voters are allured firstly on the basis of village and then Kunba. Since the time of independence, I never heard of any Pradhan was elected from  Khanpur village, because of its cult of being smaller by population. Hence, it is oblivious to understand that most of the time Pradhani crown  went to Mudilia (Badi). This time game was between three players Ranveer Singh and Ashok from Mudilia (Badi) and Chander from Mudilia (Chhoti).
There are 3 Kunba's in each Mudilia (Badi and Chhoti). In Mudilia Badi largest one Kunba known as Sataua, second large is Bhakhar and third one is Tihaua. Certain number of migrants also have adjusted themselves as part of either one of these Kunba, depending on their ancestor's belongings to any of these. Ranveer Singh is a migrant (know as pie in local language) but belongs to Bhakhar and his father (Chhatter Singh) enjoyed Pradhani's Crown for almost 15 years. Best trick worked in his favor was disputed land issue between Chhela (Ashok's father who was from Satua's Kunaba) and Radha (from Tihua's Kunaba), where Chatter Singh always and strongly supported Chhela and helped him in legal proceedings due to his contacts with government Babus and Police officers, as a result most of the votes from Satua's Kunaba was in his favor. On the other hand,  he was successful in gathering most of votes of his own Kunba i.e Bhakar. Additionally, his heroic image, well known personality and most importantly  closeness with bureaucrats helped him to garner the votes of poor and schedule caste group, which is known as deciding factor in wining the elections. The illiteracy and ignorance of law and order are big fears for most of these people, who are always afraid of any issue which is associated with Police and Judiciary etc. Hence, multiple factors worked in his favor or may be it was his political trick to keep alive land dispute for longer period, which benefited him in three consecutive wins in Gram Panchayat elections.

 Though in 2007, things were different , Chhatter Singh died in the year 2002 and land dispute issue was almost in favor of Chhela after ~30 years of legal and physical fights. Ashok (son of Chhela), who returned to the village after retirement from Indian Army, took aggressive stance in local politics and elected Gram Panchat Head (Pradhan) two consecutive times  before 2007. In his first election (1997) he cheated Ranveer  by promising  him favor for BDC elections, which were held simultaneously. He kept Ranveer  in the dark up to the last day of elections and  favored Prempal (another guy from his own Kunaba). This incident disappointed very much to Ranveer Singh and  friendship and closeness of two families turned into bitterness and separated each-other. Ashok betrayed Ranveer, whom father was legal adviser and supporter of Ashok's father in land dispute case and helped him in winning the  case ultimately.Though, Chhela (Ashok's father) was very much disappointed from this event and he consent his guilt some where in his inner self and was seen rarely in public meetings due to his betrayal image. On the other side, Ashok was having different view, according to him, Chhattar Singh had  cheated his father on financial front for almost thirty years of his life and had taken double amount, what was actually bribed for Government Babus, Lawyers, Police Officers and other legal issues.Transfer of  power and ideas in between generations had never been a smooth process in Indian history, either it has hearten ancestors or disappointed predecessors to survive in old cage. Many times  this disappointment leads to frustrations and finally to revolts. 

This time Ranveer Singh was preparing to  head on directly with Ashok and was willful to take revenge of 1,997 defeat and betrayal. Due to anti- incumbency factor Khanpur villager's  were likely to vote against Ashok, but at the same time they never favored any contestant from Mudilia Chhoti. Hence, Ranveer  was appropriate and only option for them to choose. Also, they had been supporter of Chhatter Singh in his tenure. Anti-incumbency  factor in Khanpur, (which can work only in that village due to neutrality ) , certain sycophants of Chhatter Singh were ready to favor his son and to go against their own Kunba's candidate i.e. Ashok,  illusion of getting healthy voting sharing of schedule cast and support by his own Kunba i.e Bhakhar were  four main factors to keep Ranveer alive in the race.

On the other side, Mudilia Chhoti also has three Kunbas i.e Tihaua, (largest by population), Pachaua (second large) and Sataua (smallest) with total ~ 500 voters. Chander belongs to Pachaua group and he was never wishful to fight election but due to his integrity and kindness image, he was pushed into the battle ground by certain pseudo intellectuals of village.Their ostensible purpose was favorism of him but actually they all were lobbying against Ashok, who was suppose to make hat trick of winning three consecutive elections in a row. Among the lobbyist,  two lead people were from Mudilia Baddi, my father Bijendra Singh and his close aide Bhudeva (allies Rao Saab). My father was having strong grip in his own Kunba i.e Bhakhar and has always  been in opposition of Ashok's family since the time of land dispute between him (Ashok) and Radha, despite that his relations were  normal with Chhatter Singh due to neighborhood. On the other side Rao Saab was a migrant, though he was part of  Sataua's Kunba but never ever favored Ashok's family. His strength was his own large family of almost 100 voters and his shrewd political tricks. For implementing these tricks he always used credibility of my father's face value.    

Now it was a triangle fight between three contestants and outcome was to be very exciting. Ashok was overconfident of striking hat trick. Ranveer was also confident but quite nervous due to partition of votes in the same village while Chander was solo contestant from his own village. My father and Rao Saab were supporting Ranveer ostensibly but were well aware of the fact that he was hardly to be a winning horse. At the same time it was necessary to keep him in race till the final moment to assure Ashok's defeat. Because, he was to divert certain votes of Sataua's Kunba, who were along with him due to his father's face value, certain votes of Khanpur, who were along with him due to anti-incumbency but were not willing to vote for Chander due to unusual relation with his village and obliviously most of votes of his own Kunba i.e Bhakar.  

In my view, this was the entire theme of political game where shrewdness worked and was required. The goal of Ranveer Singh, my father and Rao Saab was same, defeat of Ashok. But, three were having different game plans. Ranveer was willing to defeat him along with greed for power, while my father and Rao Saab were plotting the plan to bring his (Ashok's) arrogance down on the ground. For which these both were willing  Ranveer Singh to remain in the fight till last moment, which was likely to divide certain votes of Sataua's (Ashok's Kunba)  Khanpur's and Bhaker's  in favor of him, who were supposed to go back to Ashok in absence of Ranveer's candidature.  Though, second game plan of the situation would had been shared with Ranveer, which was serving his ostensible purpose also of defeating Ashok but biggest risk to that  was Ranveer's swinging nature and  his likely dilution with Ashok. Greediness has never been a good idea for constructive works. However, certain close allies of Ranveer informed him of dual political trick of Rao Saab of internally supporting Chander and ostensibly being with him. This was the right time where Rao Saab en-cashed my father's face value, who was known for his morals, integrity and commitments. As a result, Ranveer was entrapped in pseudo-confidence.  This entire situation for my father was like of Yudhister, when he was asked by Dronacharya in Kurushetra for confirmation of Aswasthama's death. My father's integrity, face value and Rao Saab's shrewdness kept Ranveer alive in the race almost for twenty days and till the last moment, who was blind with greed and could not sense their motive.

As it was expected, voters of Satua's, Bhakher, Khanpur and schedule castes were divided between Ranveer and Ashok.   Tihaua's votes, though small in count , who were real foes of Ashok and  Ranveer was also never  favorite for them due to his father's open support to Chhela in land dispute case, went in favor of Chander. Along with that, Rao Saab and my family's members also caste their voting rights for Chander except two individual votes of Rao Saab and my father, who were liable and committed to  vote in favor of Ranveer only. Though it was heard that certain votes from Mudilia Chhoti were caste against Chander and in favor of Ashok, but those were very few in numbers to make any difference. I was very much confused till the last moment of deciding my vote at polling booth. In my view, this was betrayal to go against Ranveer but I was having faith and confidence in my father's view of never being wrong, which  compelled me to vote in favor of Chander. That was probably the last time when my arguments bowed down against my father's mount peaking personality. Though he did not insist me to vote for Chander but I could not collect courage to go against his cause. Ultimately I end up by stamping my maiden voting right against my will and in favor of my father's cause.
      
Though, most of people, including of opposition party,  were almost sure for Chander's win but I was predicting it to be very close fight. Finally, hard work and shrewd tricks of Rao Saab's paid his way and after ten days of election I heard news of Chander's victory by the margin of  11 votes only, inline with my guess. Later on Ranveer also realized that perhaps it was hard to win for him in this situation but his candidature helped in assuring Ashok's defeat, which was a satisfactory note for him. He usually calls himself BAZIGAR (Har ke jeetne wale ko Bazigar kahte hain). He never complained of my father & Rao Saab's stance on that situation, infect he started admiring them for their political vision. My father is no more in this world but Ranveer still has very usual relations with my family & with Rao Saab's also. He can be seen in long discussions with Rao Saab randomly. Perhaps he still have political ambitions in his life and might be learning certain tricks from Rao Saab. On my next trip to my village, when I went to meet Rao Saab on his house he had been rewarded with the new name "Chankaya of Mudilia's politics". Though Rao Saab is not exposed to corporate level but leadership qualities not have any walls. Surely I am keen to imbibe some of his tricks and want to nurture them to give giant shape in corporate world. I strongly believe that most of big ideas are born inside 10x10 laboratory.

Too big to fail

"Too big to fail" is very popular theory in economics. I don't know very precise meaning of that but some how I sense two meaning out of it....one is that country can not afford the failure of a big institution due to post disastrous consequences (chain reaction) of the event. Second...its all about of arrogance of large institutions, who strongly believe that they are immortal. Just to bring in notice ....both theories are irrelevant in practical term. Fall of LTCM to Lehman Brothers have been classic example in US history.
In India,  Despite sensing the horrified consequences post "1998 Nuclear Test", Indian Government took the decision to go ahead with that. Once again at this time, I would like to remind the events of Anna Hazare's anti-corruption movement & death of Gaddafi in Libya , which were almost impossible to imagine before it happened.

Although, I am not a big admirer of Arvind Kejriwal but today's his demand of cancellation of Bank licenses of HDFC bank, Axis Bank & ICICI bank, post money laundering exposure by Cobra Post & than reaction of many readers on that was very surprising to me. Arvind demanded what would have been morally and patriotically right.If these banks or any other institution can not prioritize country's benefit, I think it has no  rights to run its operations more. But reactions of readers were like that  he (Arvind) was demanding like a naughty & stub burned child for bringing moon on earth. Most of the readers were of the view that canceling license of  these banks is impossible, will not be right decision for economy and will be a full of emotions. It may lead to inefficiencies in the banking and financial system & millions of people will became unemployed.

So far it looks that message from public is very clear, whenever it comes to the government & politicians, we all are echoing same voice that Government & politicians are corrupt but at the same time, we don't want to give-off our jobs  for saying no to bad practices.
In another way, given the few examples above in discussion from Lehman Brother's to India's Nuclear Test....forget to sense that we can not afford cancellations of banks licences & removal of other bad practices in India...but the realty is that we are in very comfort zone of saying no to these all........we can not afford short term pains for long term gains.  Race in between and easy access to short cuts have ruined our patriotism.  Finally, we don't want to be change, we want to see.  

Lingering approaches:….moot question

We, most of Indians, are very well known for procrastination habits. Our culture, tradition and most important conditions are responsible for that. Charles Darwin’s theory “Survival of fittest” is appropriately applicable over our life style. Our whole life is into vein, into struggle, where we are trying to carve out a niche. We are also well known creature on the earth for hard work (attitude) for mere pennies.

These contradictory thoughts (one way procrastinations & other way hard working attitude) are continue to boggle my mind since the last few sessions. …Yeah, I may be wrong with contradictory statements made above, but matter of fact is, ….this is incredible India…where unity in diversity …perfection in contradiction are the popular slogans for survival.

Like millions of Indians, I am also great follower of Mr APJ Abdul Kalam, who wore country’s top crown of presidency in recent past. His impressive life style and hair style influenced me to know little more of him and I ended up by reading his auto biography “Wings of Fire”. Being a very short in memory, I don’t remember the entire story but Mr Kalam mentioned that he likes attitude of Americans, who do not linger problems and love to shoot it out from root at very early stage, unlike Indians, who carry it through entire life and sometime after that also.

Why are not Europeans taking clue from Americans?,……There was time in mid 2011 when everyone was concerned of America’s mounting debt scenario. People were of the view, including me, that China or may be down the line India, are most likely to replace world power in next 30-50 years horizon. US currency was in doldrums. However, few of my colleagues, obliviously more experienced, were very confident that US is known for accepting their mistakes at very early stage and taking the corrective actions quickly. Now days, there is too much pessimism around the world, everyone is thinking that other countries are going to die tomorrow except US. Hence all are buying only USD to survive in future. As a result, US Treasury bond yield has gone down below it was in World War II in 1945. I could not understand, this is the ability of US to recover itself too quickly or it is disability of European countries, where PIIGS are continuously in need of bail out …firstly it was Ireland than Greece and now Spain. Germany is trying to save her own nose …and continue to linger the problem.  More than 1 trillion euro has been infused in the system till date. Why not let Greece go to bankrupt? Why are those (Europeans) lingering its bankruptcy? Why are those not clear with their object? They want to save the nation or to save world? If we try to understand economic discrepancies, in both the scenario either you save it (Greece) or lose it ….world is going to be net sufferer, off course Greece too. Now moot question is that which one is the best way to follow? Bail it out or let it bankrupt? Or in which scenario disaster is likely to be lesser?

See the attitude of Germany & America ....Angela Merkel is always in discussion of austerity with European nations where Barack Obama is suggesting her to focus more on growth. Entire scenario reminds me of my heart’s closest story of a farmer, who was indebted with huge amount (~10 times of his income) of debt and lost his mental control in wiriness. Than his educated son, of whom education expenses were responsible for indebted condition of his father,   took over his father’s legacy crown and followed American model of trouble shooting. He sold out his ancestor’s 1/6^th assets (mainly land) to bailout his father and to follow growth model. No doubt, after 4 years of his decision, he is riding high on the growth of above 3 times of country’s GDP CAGR, but in the process, he lost his father. Poignancy is that individuals are important for their near and dear ones, nations are important for their citizens. Nations are immortal …if defaulted…require many times energy to regain their status. Same like poor farmer…who could not consolidated his energy to regain his status …and lost his life. Still, rich son of poor dad evaluates his past and often has discussions with me….”was I wrong? ….did I took decisions with immaturity in hurry? Or do I have lingered the problem for few more years to save my father’s life?”  …..I don’t have answers for his query but have a second thought in mind.” It depends on preference …what is important for you? Lingering with problems but enjoying family OR enjoying success, living dreams of your ancestors and constructing stairs for coming generations to ease the path?” it’s all up to you….. if you have guts to take challenges…take them and prove yourself…..there is no definite solution of economic problems…. no matter which way you follow….hit the bull’s eye at the end!!!     

Best strategy to follow for our (corrupt) politicians

World is changing with a very fast pace. Things which seem next to impossible are turning to reality. Anna's campaign against corruption in India, liberalization in Libya after the death of Gaddafi are the two recent prominent incidents, which allow me to think again that everything is possible...yeah but change may come too early is still my hallucination.
Earlier in the books, I read about various civilizations like Harappa, Mohenjo daro etc as well as of many sculptures, which details of various "Yugs" and their transformation. According to our mythology, transformation of one Yug to another took thousands of years. In modern history, British ruled India almost 200 years before we tasted freedom in 1947 fighting for almost 90 years (from 1857- first fight against British rule till 1947). While Gaddafi ruled Libya for 42 years before he died in October, 2011. However, revelation against him was for less than one year. Once upon a time, Lalu claimed that he will rule Bihar for next 20 years before his end up in 15 years. No one imagined of such a fast economic & political recovery in Bihar after Nitish Kumar appointed chief minister in 2005.
Many intellectuals claim that cause of many intricacies & wrong suffering is dearth of knowledge. I agreed their views, but also I am of the view that easy & fast access of information (knowledge) contributes lot for speedy development & change. I appreciate Anna's vision of fighting first for "Right to Information" then fighting for change on the basis of that information. Our countries corrupt & delighted politician had never thought of such a drastic speedy change of their miserable life. Yesterday’s heroes have turned today’s villain. Earlier, there was a well non misperception in our system that corrupt file of powerful people opens only after their death. Which has been a most motivating factor for them not to do good things in their life, and always approaching short cuts to achieve long goals.
In the current scenario, the ruling party members are taking every possible effort to mask the voice of team Anna to save their (ruling party members) real faces. They are blaming team Anna of being corrupt. Hence, either they will bring a law that a corrupt teacher cannot teach a lesson of morality to government OR the government will give an open offer to team Anna to join them by quoting “we all are son of same mother “Bharat Mata” come join us and we will loot country people together”. But the second option might dilute their (government) profitability share, so what next ploy they have in their bag? Heed to our PM’s statement of curbing the rights of "Right to Information" act. My suggestion to this ploy is, if ruling party really wants to save their share of profitability; best way is to curb the technology and accessibility of information. Conflict of interest is that one way government is distributing laptops (under the project “Akash”) at only Rs 1500 in colleges & universities which will increase the accessibility of information, other way it wants to curb information. I understand that our economist (sitting with policy makers in parliament) have rightly estimated the importance of technology in the development of our economy. Also the contribution of technology & accessibility of information can’t be ignored after 1991, when our economy was opened first time for globalization. At the same time they (economist) have not rightly estimated the curse of technology to ruling party members.
I believe that our economists are not good politician and they are pushing the life of our renowned politicians to hell. My straight sense is that ruling party members can’t blame only Anna for such a worst (from ruling party’s point of view) anti corruption movement, they also have to curse themselves of bringing technology & accessibility to the country.
Future is not in the favor of corrupt politicians & leaders, India is shining, technology is penetrating to villages rapidly and accessibility and affordability of information is increasing. Penetration of 3G from city to village’s level will eventually lead to maximum hits to Google, the search engine. Indian brains are very well known for their good analytical skills, which may end up in origination of millions of Annas. Facing millions of Annas will not be an easy task for corrupt leaders.
I am of the view that technology is bringing another mammoth change to our life. Hence, in this changing environment, best strategy for government & our corrupt politicians will be to change themselves before they are forced to change.

Is life a journey!!!!

Since my childhood I have been crazy about travelling and journey to new places. I was used to dreaming with my eyes wide open before my journey starts. Imagination of the new place, new people and new culture arouses my nerves and gives me ecstasy of being at place. Hence I usually get a sleepless night before my journey schedule. However, many a times the real journey can be different from your thoughts. But along with time as my brain became older and older my excitement and ecstasy for travelling became younger and younger.
During my early days of life, my journey began when I started to go to the town from my village for my education in the VIth standard. I used to walk approximately 2 kms to attend my school in the town. That was really a great joy and excitement to me to watch and discuss the culture and life style of town which was merely of 4000 population in 1992. During the early days of this journey (4 Km from both side), my muscles never complained to me of their tiredness. I came to know that a person is never tired physically until he is not prepared for it mentally. As a result, abundant with the joy of journey, my nerves and brain was not ready to accept the tiredness. Some months down the line I realized that my brain had been convinced by my muscles and I felt the need of conveyance. At that point of time the only best option for me was cycle...which was available to me after a notorious art of ZID.
But this was just a starting of my journey and various tools (conveyances) which were pushing me to fly high, and to approach more spots to look and enjoy in life.

Just after that again I was very excited in the year 1996, when I was supposed to be acclimatized with the city, its culture and its life style. I got admission in class XIth in the city, which was also a district of state, U.P. as well as the Lord KRISHNA's birthplace, "MATHURA". I was free for the first time from the all family restrictions, like not being late at home etc. and I was heading to a place where I would be my own mentor, I would be having many roads to allure me to follow but finally my sole decision would determine the path I choose to follow either good or not good. Freedom is like a double edged sword, one way it gives you opportunity to act on the situation as you want, other way it takes opportunity to react you as it wants. I can not remember clearly which path I did follow, how did I analyze between good and not good but I just kept learning from every path and journey and kept walking. People react to situations based on their wisdom & learnings from experiences and devise their tools in the process. I don't remember the tools which I used at that point of time to pass the tests of journey, but definitely some tools/techniques were helping me to differentiate between good & not good. Later on I realized perhaps these tools were conscience/ inner feeling/gut feeling as people called it. But above all, I was enjoying my freedom .....and off course, my journey. As I discussed earlier I like to enjoy new places, cultures, traditions and life style, I found all that here. Few days passed, I kept observing the new situations and my new journey(first observe keenly before reacting or adopting to it had been my mantra of life)and I started reacting to it. I watched movies on big screens in theatre, rich with hundreds of comfortable seats with economy order of DC to balcony. Here, I first realized the factor of money and economy standard, every one in the theatre was enjoying the movie but the level of enjoyment was different from DC to balcony. I observed the same class differentiation at many other places in the society which I did not encounter or might be I ignored to observe in my rural life. But one thing is sure that this discrimination is on the larger scale in urban than in rural areas.
After a successful visit to city of population of 2 lacs, my next trip was scheduled for the city with the population of two crores, one among the four metro cities of India as well as the capital of India, Delhi. Mentally, I was not prepared for this trip but during the last two years of journey I won the confidence of my family and my relatives, who were ready to bet on me for my next race of life, and I was getting popularity and quote of long race winner.
I got ready with my kit to start my next journey but could not convince myself to enjoy it this time because for the first time in my life I was not excited for this journey. This is like you have a girl as a friend but not a girl-friend and you have to be dutiful to her. Sameway I was supposed to visit a city which is well known for its glamorous and fashionable life style, people call it " Dilli Dilwalon ki Shahar" but bound by the weight of expactations I bowed down to realities. I felt nervous for the first time before my journey due to the weights of expectations, dreams, achievements and responsibilities on my shoulder. I decided not to enjoy the the city because somewhere, inside my heart, I felt the fear of failure, I was questioning myself again and again if I could perform under such an immense pressure. But I consoled myself, the real winners are those who perform against the direction of wind. Finally, I was hailed to the destination which was different from what I enjoyed earlier or I can say the scale of class differentiation/discrimination was larger than my expectations. Here, You might be able to observe the whole India at one place, from the rough and tough Jaat of Haryana to the intellectuals of Bihar. After all there was not big masala for me in my Delhi's journey and result was as expected ......I could not enjoy this journey and in the process failed to lift the weight of expectations and I returned with nothing.
After this my journey to various other places kept rolling but I could hardly find anything new to exite me except the same the class differentiation & discrimination's in the society more or less at the same level. But during these journies I got accustomed to various important tools like a macho bike, luxurious car, at least AC III tier reservation in train and AC buses which were making my journey more comfortable and enjoyable with the upgradation of my status in society. Hence I was never bothered about others status symbols except of me. This is how time passes and our taste buds gets developed along with it. Our taste buds becomes more mature and seek not only new dishes but also more sophisticated way of nurturing them.
Again one night, at 1 o'clock, circumstances turned the fate and I decided to follow a tour from Mumbai to Delhi in less than two hrs. The aeroplane was the only feasible solution to cover the distance of almost 1100 kms in optimal time. Just after the decision, in next 10 mins the ticket was in my email and schedule departure was on the same day at 5 pm. This time I was more excited than ever before....off course not for a new place and culture but for the new tool I was to use....aeroplane. Since my child I have been dreaming to fly in aeroplane at least once and look at the world from top of it. It gave me immense pleasure that I remember my childhood dream and almost after twenty years I was going to live it. After a long period, I felt, my keenness to observe the new conditions, was at its peak. Again I could not sleep the remaining hours, I was in hallucination almost for next eighteen hours till I landed my feet in Delhi at 7 pm.
My journey began at 2 pm, I packed my small hand-bag along with a printout of my ticket, and I reached Mumbai airport at 4 pm. From the very starting, from the entry gate of domestic airport I was pretending not to be a first time flier, but some of my silly mistakes were signalling me to be wrong, but I did not care much of it and after security checks, I was finally waiting in the waiting hall for an air-bus which was supposed to pick the passengers to aeroplane, merely to a distance of 200 meters. I realized the change of time or the change in me....some days back I was analyzing the Indian auto industry and its growth, and was regressing between the increasing burgeoning class of India and growth of auto industry, In the population of more than one billion only 200 million people in India were earning more than 2.5 lacs annually. This information hurt me alot but at the same time it gave me a sigh of relief and I was proud that I belong to the class where only 20% of total population stand with me and I raised my head up for being above than 80% of the total population.... the same kind of feelings was hammering me at the airport, I was corelating the burgeoning class with travel by air, if ratio goes same( 20% of Indian population has made their journey by air at least once) than I was going to achieve another milestone in my life, that day.
During my journey of one hour forty mins in air, I once again felt the factor of discrimination of society, here the executive class was not doing journey just for the pleasure but for the need and affordability. They were paying high fair not only for the time but also for the service they were getting. The lady assistants were always there to take care of their needs for the next two hours. Obviously, you will feel, a feel good factor and you have been regarded more than your dignity. I could not identify if, this salute to dignity, was a culture of India or just that you have paid for it. But one thing was sure I enjoyed the whole journey and my dignity for next one hour and forty mins...which off course I have to do because I was on the top of the world & my childhood dream had turned into reality which I dreampt 20years back.
My story of dignity did not end at the airport, it boost up further when my friend picked me up from the airport with his new luxurious car of almost fifteen lacs of worth. I enjoyed not only the traveling with the car but also the driving of it on the neat and big roads of Delhi. Finally I was to depart to Agra from Delhi and I did not mind to choose the UP roadways bus to travel in night, as I have became very used to, to these buses. If I rewind my whole journey of life, 80% of that have been achieved through these buses and rest 20% by other tools. But after a long period, I was in the UP road ways, which was supposed to take another 5 hrs to reach my destination which was merely 200 kms from Delhi. I took a seat very near to the engine, which was roaring more than the engine of aeroplane,....now I was comparing everything with aeroplane...how slow it was creeping than aeroplane etc.
Almost after the five hrs of journey I was in Agra and asked the conductor to drop me in between before the bus stand. I don't know if legally these buses are permitted to stop in between or not, but the practice of stopping in between is very usual particularly with UP roadways. Knowing the fact I asked the conductor to stop the bus in between, naively. His reaction on my question was unexpected to me, he not only abused me but also advised that next time better to drop down one kilometer before here otherwise he will through me out from the bus. I was shocked further, when I tried to argue with him that it is his duty to take care of the passengers and mind behaviour with them, another passenger also favoured the conductor and behaved with me in the same manner as the conductor did. He blamed me that I was killing their time by indulging myself in argument with conductor.
Finally I was dropped down in between the bus stops. Actually I was brought down to the earth from the my hellucinations of aeroplane. Before the indulgence with conductor I was at the top of level where I was feeling that I have created a niche for my self among the top 20% of burgeoning class and really I deserve for the dignity and respect I got from the air hostess and air staff. I was feeling that I really deserve the kind of dignity and respect I earned that day. But at the same time I thanked to the conductor who reminded me of my status and taught me a lesson that whatever you have got in the form of respect and dignity you simply have paid for it....
Still my nerves are strained for the short term hallucination I perceived, I am still searching answer to my question, do we really belong to the nation where people put the metaphor of its culture and civilization which is more volatile than sensex???????
....Life is a journey no matter which tool you are using to achieve it , all the tools are just helping to make it easier,.... Just keep walking.. Just keep walking.

GOLD (A NEW CONTRACT PROPOSAL)

Gold is not merely a commodity, looking back at the history of gold it has its unique phase world wide, in ancient time it was used as a currency, it is one of the highly liquid asset. When it comes to portfolio managers they like to have it in there portfolio because, no specific statistical evidence to come up a relation between Gold and GDP, inflation and interest rate. It is always believe a worthy investment…
When we talk of gold traded on exchanges it is always matter of standardization of gold, in Indian context it should be 995.9fineness while outside India it is traded in 999.9 fineness of purity. Purity of gold in India is measured in the term of karat which means 24 karat of gold is purest and have 1000 fineness, i.e. it has all its particle of gold no other metal is involved there or no adulteration. But gold is very fragile metal so its use in very pure form is never easy, almost impossible. India is largest consumer of gold (800 tones annually). Maximum consumption of it is in the form of jewelries, India has already 22000 to 24000 tones of gold in the form of jewelries, but problem with jewelries is these are not in the pure form (i.e.1000 fineness). Jewelries purity generally lies from 18 karat (i.e. 750fineness ) to 24 karat(1000 fineness).
So our main motive behind the whole story to is to bring these jewelries on the exchange to trade, which will serve us two benefits ,first it will facilitate liquidity ,second it will achieve the actual motive of physical delivery in the form of jewelries.
Our whole idea begins with the standardization of these jewelries, how to standardized them? We have taken two things in consideration, first is purity of gold (jewelries) ,second is weight of gold. Now next unit of trade would be VPU (value per unit) unit. Constraints are 1- purity would not be less than 750fineness.(i.e. 18 karat), 2- weight would not be less than 7.5 gram. (This is because in India general deals happen in 10.81 gram i.e. one toula)
Now question is, what is VPU?
So VPU is equals to purity of gold multiplying with weight of gold. Suppose purity of jewelries is 750fineness and its weight is 10 gram. Than 1 VPU=750*10=7500. And its price once can be derive from the pure gold. For example price of pure gold of 1000 fineness of 10 gram is Rs 20000/ than price of 750 fineness of gold of 10 gram would be (20000/1000)*750=Rs 15000/. In the same way we can also find out the price of a pure gold of 1000 fineness but its weight is 7.5gram. Then its price would be (20000/10)*7.5=Rs15000/. Hence in both the cases the price 1 VPU is same while in one situation there was change in fineness while in other situation there was accordingly change in weight. So moral of the story is, if someone compromising in fineness of gold than he has to adjust it in weight of gold or vice-versa. Now if any body is having a gold of fineness in between 750 to 1000 of any weight minimum 7.5gram if gold is of 1000 fineness and 10 gram if gold is of 750 fineness. Accordingly we can calculate the VPU of gold.
Now we have some basic calculations of VPU……


As we know investor can have any fractional amount of gold and fineness of that amount of gold can lie anywhere in between 750 to 1000, hence to find out the number of VPUs, we simply multiply weight of gold with its respective fineness. Now our 1 VPU is equals to 7500(i.e. multiplication of 10 gm of weight with 750 fineness OR it can be multiplication of 7.5 gm of weight of gold with 1000 fineness OR may be the product of some other unit of weight with fineness).
Accordingly if we have any amount of gold, with any fineness, than we can convert it into standardized unit i.e. VPU. Now its easy to trade on exchange with this standardize unit. But some problems are still there, after calculations we have find out some VPUs in fractions? Than we can have one amendment in our contract, that if any body have fractional unit with him than he has to trade in terms of absolute nearby unit and at the time of settlement he will get premium or discount as per trading terms.
For example I have 7.45 (or 7.95) VPUs with me than I can trade with 7 (or 8) VPUs and accordingly I will get premium (or discount) of .45 VPU (or .05 VPU) unit at the time of settlement.

Now onwards our second proposal is, we need to trade with gold in dematerialized form. How that should be?
To make our reach to general people we have to constitute different exchange approved centre in different cities and towns. Than these authorized centers will provide a card with Unique Identification Number, and that record also should be maintain with exchange as well as with broker, hence just by putting that number in computer broker can know the status of investor i.e. how many VPUs he has in his account and on how many units he want to trade.
Hence simply a general person by putting his gold to nearby Exchange Authorized Centre can trade on exchange, hence this process will increase liquidity as well as a person will be able to get a right price of his gold. Later on this gold can be send to refineries, where it can be converted in to the pure gold if required.70 % of gold reserve (in the form of jewelery) lies with rural India ,hence we need to make a deep penetration to bring that gold on exchange and to being a price maker not a price seeker.
Proposed by-
Bhagwan Singh
Indian Institute of Capital Markets, Vashi, Navi Mumbai.

Some very good malpractices in India

"Now a days I am doing a very good work for the society , this is a kind of philanthropy to the victims, also a very good earning to me too." these were the words of my lawyer fried who just started to filed cases on compensation bases for the compensation of those families who had lost their near or dear one in road accidents.
But he explained me this all, very bravely. [I could not understand, he was doing his marketing or was telling me for my shake?] His new boss, in this profession since old time, has done a lot of favor of common people...also he earned a lot for himself too. As well as he has collected working capital and fixed assets for the same business.
Now, he discussed with me what actully this business , working capital is ?...... They claims to the court for compensation to the victim's family to the owner of vehicle by which accident has occured and later on share the money at fix ratio or described before the deal, if they are rewarded by it, However the success rate of getting reward is 99%. In most of these cases the compensation is given by the Insurance companies as the vehicles are insured.. and the company,s lawer also gets some share of the amount to loose the case.( however he also gets salary from the company)..... this is called BAZIGAR (har ke jeetne wale ko bazigar kahte hain).... Further, some other characters also contributes to the story .... when an accident is by unknown vehicles than here comes the working capital of new boss in picture....as he has acquired lot of vehicles to there relatives. He puts these vehicles in the FIR that accident was by his nominated vehicle. At the same time police gives nod to the incident in revert back of some gandhi g(money). Again a fake drivers gets bail plus some gandhi g for the fake accident. Finally, the insurance companies lose money atleast to ten families in the whole drama. The real looser are insurance companies or we all? ....... Being a financial professional my concern is, Is this good for the society or bad for the finacial system?? Because we all are ultimately looser to increased premium or adverse selection and moral hazard problem of the few business men like new boss.......
So, next time, you all please, be ready to pay the increase insurance premium of your vehicle .... this is also an oppurtinity to new lawyer professionals to show off there enterprenure skills to start a niche business......