Railway Budget: A brave man and his plans

Recently I have started writing for the economics, politics and society club of IIMK. So from now on the same articles would be posted here. This is the first one of the lot.

For the first time in many years a railway minister has hiked the fares across all the categories. Railways, in recent times, has always been the stronghold of regional powers be it Nitish Kumar or Laloo Prasad Yadav or Ram Vilas Paswaan or Mamata Bannerjee( The current minister Dinesh Trivedi is an MP from the Trinamool Congress). And
being regional powers that they are, mostly the railway budgets have been used as a means to provide benefits to the state you hail from. A slew of well publicized popular measures (like new trains; sometimes even old trains with new names) and a few big announcements that never see the light of the day has been the trend. The only exception
perhaps was Nitish Kumar who had introduced the TATKAL system as well the initiated the computerized bookings on a large scale. And of course in the midst of all everybody seemed to forget whether the railway tickets are priced adequately enough to sustain any kind of development work, particularly that of safety which has long been talked about but little has been done till date. In that respect the current budget is a great deviation of sorts. Of course, Mamata Bannerjee has threatened withdrawal of support in case of no roll back of the hike in fare with her usual hyperbole." The government rolls back, TMC doesn't". Ultimately given the power equations in the centre
with a heavily weakened Congress post the state elections, it is highly possible that the fare hike might get rolled back. But that doesn't discount the fact that Mr Dinesh Trivedi is a brave man and an astute one too. Perhaps this is the beginning of the change that we all have been looking forward to, where railway ministers stop
treating the railways as their personal property for dolling out freebies and actually try and formulate economically viable action plans that would lead to the railways looking different from what it did when India was still under the British and Mahatma Gandhi was still alive. ( A previous article in the EPS posted last week speaks
about this in detail on how the railways have practically changed very little over the years). Someone had to, at one point, start opposing this syndrome of being populist with the railways. Mr Trivedi has done so. Only time will tell if it gets carried forward.

When Everything got lost in Translation!!!

Original Song--

Tu Cheez Badi Hai Mast Mast Tu Cheez Badi Hai Mast

Nahin Tujhko Koi Hosh Hosh Uspar Joban Ka Josh Josh

Nahin Tera Koi Dosh Dosh Madhosh Hai Tu Har Vakt Vakt

Tu Cheez Badi Hai Mast Mast...

Aashiq Hai Tera Naam Naam Dil Lena Tera Kaam Kaam

Meri Baahen Mat Thaam Thaam Badnaam Hai Tu Madamast Mast

Tu Cheez Badi Hai Mast Mast...

Bol Zara Tu Jaane Mehboobi Mujh Mein Aisi Kya Hai Khoobi

Tu Ek Resham Ki Dor Dor Teri Chaal Pe Aashiq Mor Mor

Teri Zulf Ghani Chitchor Chor Ghanghor Ghata Madamast Mast

Tu Cheez Badi Hai Mast Mast...

Ye Dil Teri Aankhon Mein Dooba Ban Ja Meri Tu Mehbooba

Mat Teer Nazar Ke Maar Maar Ye Chot Lagegi Aar Paar

Aasaan Samajh Mat Yaar Yaar Ye Pyaar Bada Hai Sakht Sakht

Tu Cheez Badi Hai Mast Mast...

English translation--

You are a very cool cool kind of thing

You are a very cool thing

You do not have any sense sense

On top of it youth's enthusiasm enthusiasm

You are not at fault fault

You are happily drunk every time time

(YOU)

Lover is your name name

Taking heart job job

Don't grab grab my arms my arms

You are cool infamous (and) intoxicated

You speak little my lover,what special traits do i have

(ME again)

You are a silk thread thread thread

You are a silk thread thread thread

Your walk makes your lovers go peacock peacock

Your dense hair,your dense hair, heart stealer

(Like)Cool deep clouds intoxicated

This heart has drowned in your eyes,become my lover

(YOU)

Don't throw throw arrows (of) eyes

This will wound through and through

Don't think love love to be easy

This love is hard hard

(THE INCORRIGIBLE ME)

You are a very cool cool kind of thing

You are a very cool thing

Credit: Sudipta Samanta

(lost in translation)

Nostalgic ruminations of a very temporarily jobless guy....

One of those sentimental moments when suddenly you get drunk in nostalgia and start missing every goddamn thing that ever happened to you in your four years at college.

The first ragging session near the mechanical building where a certain fat ass gamer decided to play cool and resulted in you being let off easily. I am ever grateful to you Souvik Bhattacharya and I know how internet speeds are measured.

A die hard Arsenal fan who suddenly decided that he would play up front in the finals of the fresher’s tournament and calmly missed 5 sitters and smiled and said “Goal Keeper ta boddo boro cheharar” Soumya Bandopadhyay your striking abilities are just like that of the team you support: NON-EXISTENT.

A beer hog TT player whose only aim post a facebook profile was to attract attention via weirder posts, whose day unfailingly started at 1 in the afternoon and sometimes extended till 3 AM in the Departmental Library. At least that’s what your parents thought Arnab Basu. We know better.

A slightly(well.. I don’t want to risk my balls) insane guy who always ensured that you finished your projects and reports and made sure the ball never went past the defence during the fresher’s. Pranenjyoti Sarkar, if only you had a little less of that affinity for things round I would have definitely voted you the as my candidate for the Pillar of Decency.

A sometimes long hair extremely thin guy who knew it all and made sure you gave up arguing even if you thought it was you who knew it all. Aman Khan , saale tere jhagrne se mera AKG mein 13 aaye. Nai to I was a sure shot 30 in the last sem”.

A too good TT player, too good academic, too good a guy who made sure your nerves went up before the exam with his “Hellllloooooo jaanish to kalke Ch**** debe porikkhai”. Debayan Roy we know that you know and you know that we know what’s behind that very well cultivated image. :P

A yo guy with that weird contraption of a headset who believed that birds were the ones for whom the game of Table Tennis was invented, who along with our dear Arnab made sure North road was always in business. Kausik Mukherjee, I bloody paid 60 bucks for that taxi to come to that final. It was my two days ka pocket money.

A guy with teeth more resembling some other species who actually managed to bite a bus conductor. Arijit Gorai someday I shall take revenge for the kicks I got during my last birthday and yes you copied well. Saved quite a few ###es during the classtests( Now Mr P don’t get angry, you’re still the best thing since Xerox).

A guy who made sure he got drunk every farewell party and started acting weird, who made dragged you through the dusty sweaty bylanes of Kolkata during your summer training to make sure you were absolutely clear on how CESC people dug up the roads. Soumava Mukhopadhyay, your songs were the elixir that made us live a little longer every single of those long nights.

And you. You who came late. Very late. Sudipta Samanta, wish I had found you the very first day itself. You have made my life.

Guys, I sincerely wish I could go back in time and take one more class test with the same seating arrangement. I sincerely wish I could go back in time and spend one more day in the union room talking about how Priyanka Chopra gave meaning to the universe.I sincerely wish i could go back in time and sit beneath that tree in front of staff canteen and keep on talking with you.

I sincerely wish I could go back and relive those four years again.

P.S.: It’s been a hectic week and now am kind of jobless. So, You get the sentimental part. And yeah you are not as bad as I portrayed. :P

Oh!!! That 23:59:59 hrs deadline…

This was one article I wrote a few days back as a part of a committee task in the new institute I am in,One of those Well Known Institutes of Management in India(this one is in the southern parts).so here goes..

Oh!!! That 23:59:59 hrs deadline…

1. Rate the urgency, importance and complexity on a scale of one to nine and add the three figures together

2. Rate from one to nine how skilled you are at the task, then subtract this from 10

3. Multiply answers to 1 and 2 and divide by 20

4. Rate from one to nine how frequently you perform the task and divide this by 10

5. Rate the sine (or sin) of your answer to step 4 and subtract this from 1

6. Divide 1 by your answer to step 5

7. Multiply your answer to step 3 by 0.7 and multiply this by your answer to step 6, and that's your:

SOD’S LAW RATING also popularly known as Murphy’s law. To state simply

“Anything that can go wrong will go wrong”.

This is precisely how one feels every time one sees those famous, fabled numbers. 23:59:59. It seems like a counterculture (read GEEK) alternative for the “F” word. I want to use “F” but cannot and hence I use the 23:59:59 deadline and the effect is, if not more, definitely not less devastating.

Which is exactly the way this author is feeling right now. Or to put it in the new lingo, “I have been royally 23:59:59 ed” . This article has a 23:59:59 deadline. So does my task for another committee and so does my CV submission and hold your breath, so do two assignments from two subjects which I have absolutely no clue about. It’s like asking Ajit Agarkar to bat on a Perth pitch without any helmets. I am clueless.

It has become a routine to check the mail right after waking up with the search filter activated with 23:59:59. And then groan, shout, cry and then realise a vital few minutes out of those available is already lost. Then, you start running.

Lazy individual that I am, I dream at times that there would be a mail someday from somewhere stating “Deadlines are very sacrosanct. You need to make sure you go to sleep by 23:59:59.” And then I wake up. And lo! I have missed a 23:59:59 deadline. Not only is sleep lost due to the deadline but even more is lost pondering over what if the deadline is missed.

The saga continues and comes up with new ways and means to frighten you just when you thought you had it all figured out.

By the way, Did I tell u that I have a 06:59:59 deadline for a WAC?

The English Period Spot Jump Competition

Well this happened when I was in class seven. I was in class vii-c( you’ll understand the importance of this statement as u read on). Chaitali ma’m used to take our English class. She had this strange habit of looking out of the window and wandering off to a dreamland which meant that everyday before the English class we closed all the windows. That, of course, never deterred ma’m. Once Ajesh went to the extent of even writing on the board “work hard to dream big”, Chaitali ma’m never gave a damn to such statements!! Then it happened! It was just another English class. Ma’m was looking out of the window and was venturing deeper into dreamland and the class was in its normal state of complete turmoil. A few were playing a new form of cricket with jumping balls. And right in front of the class “the English period spot jump competition” was going on. The rules were very simple One had to stand at one end of the board and without a run-up jump as far as one could with the ultimate aim being to cover the whole length of the board. It was the final that day. Prateek and Avra were THE guys fighting it out for the ultimate honor! Souvik and I were the referees, I checking that no body overstepped while Souvik deciding the length of the jump. Prateek had had a wonderful jump, almost covering the length of the board and now it was Avra’s turn. It was a matter of huge prestige Avra being the defending champion. With all concentration and facial expression of an Olympic athlete Avra jumped. What a jump it was. Not only did he cover the whole length of the board but he went well ahead of it an fell down with a very audible thud.Of course Chaitali ma’m didn’t see the jump and didn’t flinch on hearing the sound. She had experience of much louder noise!! People were just starting to get up from their seats in order to congratulate Avra, who was lying flat near the door, when the door opened .Avra, still relishing his great feat hadn’t noticed the door open and got up like a champion and faced the door. And there standing on the doorway was our very own MR Arora, the principal. Avra fell down once again with a louder thud this time. Suddenly the class had gone completely silent. Chaitali ma’m never accustomed to that kind of silence in her class looked in our direction to find out the reason behind our wonderfully benevolent behaviour. In the meantime most of us had managed to get ourselves back to our seat with the exception of Avra who was lying down on the floor in front of the principal like a Greek martyr! Chaitali ma’m on seeing the look on our faces understood that something was happening on the other side near the door.she looked around and immediately understood what the problem was.The words that came out of her mouth were truly legendary “ Sir, this is a class”!!! What followed next is history. In between the conversation between ma’m and the principal , Avra somehow managed to return back to his seat crawling on all fours!! Ma’m got a solid thrashing from Mr Arrora. And when it was finally the moment to leave Ma’m asked us to inform to class 7-c about the homework she had given to us. Once again it was the brave Avra who informed her very sweetly that she was standing in 7-C!!!

Recollections of a lost time.....

The year's at the Spring,
the day at the morn,
morning's at seven,
the hill-side's dew-pearled,
The Lark's on the wing,
the snail's on the thorn....!!!!!


PS:- Right Ho,J!!!

Sharm-El-Sheik: Its implications for India in the global context

While Prime Minister Singh’s signing of the joint declaration at the above mentioned place with our neighbour has been dubbed by the opposition as an act of cowardice and submission to the “American Agenda” as usual even more important is its implications in the current geopolitical context. With India and China rapidly emerging as the two new centre of Economics if not power this apparent backing off by the PM might be seen in many Quarters as India’s inability to deal with situations in a manner that is befitting of a country demanding a permanent membership of the dysfunctional yet prestigious Security Council of the UN.
The questions being raised do not in any way ask about the Prime Minister’s intent but about issues which remain unresolved between the states of India and Pakistan and whether signing a document of this nature at all has any thing to offer except perhaps a pat on the back of the Pakistani diplomats by General Kayani. While the sentiments echoed by the both the signatories were very close in letter there is considerable doubt about them being on the same pole in spirit. In the past there have been too many situations that have indicated Pakistan’s unwillingness to enter into a dialogue which would lead to peace in Jammu and Kashmir.
Even bigger questions are being raised about the statement regarding the de-linking of action against terrorism with the dialogue process simply because the second becomes meaningless without the first. It would serve no purpose at all if the valley continues to be paralyzed with terror strikes while the diplomats have endless talks about restoring relationship between the two countries. Moreover the very use of the word Baluchistan in the aforementioned document might end up haunting the Indian diplomats for ages to come. In spite of Mr. Tharoor advocating that its not a legal binding document every thing suggests that Pakistan would use it as an effective shield against any statement that India might make in the UN or any other such International body.
One can only hope against hope that PM Singh turns out to be right but history tells otherwise. Does Nehru and 1962 ring a bell?