"Average Indian spends just Rs.440 on food per month" - bah, humbug!

Yeh main nahi kehta - yeh woh kehte hain! Funnily enough, when you click on the link that is supposed to be their external website...ha!

Here’s a link to the entire story...

First of all, the headline of the post itself: Average Indian spends just Rs 440 on food per month

Right - and I spend just 30 p on electricity. I mean, first of all - who is an ‘average Indian’…and secondly, what constitutes ‘food’? Who is considered to be an ‘urban’ citizen (is mumbai = jaipur)? Who is a rural inhabitant?

Let’s look at this in a different light. What is the average per capita income of an Indian? Ans. INR 29,642 (according to this article). That means the average Indian earns approx. INR 2500/month. That means they spend ~ 17% of their income on food. That sounds slightly believable, but if I were to take things into consideration via percentages, then either I am underspending like crazy or I am malnourished and keep my family that way as well. The percentage spend on food in my case stands at approx. 11% (and I have a family of 2 and I have discounted eating out - which I am sure even the calculations above must have taken into consideration).

The NSSO data showed a rural Indian spending just Rs.12 per month on fruit, while his urban counterpart Rs.28.

Please show me where the hell such a fruit-seller is, or are these people surviving on a diet of a bite of an apple a day? Further, I feel that this data is again misrepresented because they have taken into consideration the entire population who eats fruits and who don’t eat fruits as well. In a sense of the word, it’s not an oranges - oranges comparison (no pun intended).

Basically, this is a very open-ended article which leads to a lot of questions and leaves the reader with a lot going on in his/her mind, as to whether we are being conned in our daily lives with regard to food prices.

And as always, one Mr. Jaiswal says the following - blame it on the Government, no matter who it is.

“”It is an alarming situation, which will lead to severe malnutrition, and will subsequently weaken human resources. The government must reorient its policies.”

And for those of you who are wondering, here is a breakup of the sample size, once again, very very ambiguous:

NSSO survey results relate to July 2006 to June 2007, and findings are based on a randomly drawn sample, 63,729 households spread over 5,573 villages and 7,698 urban blocks countrywide.

Here's testament to the fact that prices are rising multifold than what the government is projecting. Courtesy: http://www.rediff.com/getahead/2008/apr/09fm.htm

Are these guys doing to the per capita consumption what the government is doing to the inflation figures, and what women do most of the time….Faking it?

Two In One

Two posts in one day...not bad.

Ok - so I've already hit writer's block and don't know where I am going with the story. In the first place, as soon as I was all enthusiastic to start writing about something, the lights went out...I fell asleep, and all of a sudden, the idea that was my ripe in mind had somehow just disappeared!

Not going to take up too much of your time except that the story lives to be told another day. Nothing from my stable just yet. Maybe I should just make a movie. That way, even the reader/viewer won't be exposed to it twice.

Hmm...some direction of thought there, or maybe so because it's just convenient for me. Well, whatever!

A Random Post 

~ Hef.

Writing A Book? The Beginning of Something Big?

Now that's an interesting thought, isn't it? I could never have imagined that I would get down to writing a book, or at least attempting to write one. I have harboured this secret urge for quite some time now, and I feel that with time on my hands and nothing better to do, I might as well get down to writing a book. 

I could of course, watch tons of movies, considering that I have got 4x24 hours at my disposal, but something within me tells me that it's now or never. Everyone feels like writing a book at some point in their lives. Some do it, and some don't. I have no idea whether I will be able to actually get down to it or even get a few pages written down, but rest assured, I am going to give it a shot to say the least.

But before that, a few questions that I must ask myself:

• Subject?

Ramblings of a few blokes working for one of the greatest companies that man/woman has ever worked in (sorry, can't elaborate more than this - fear of being whipped by the corp comm team of this company).

Story's about a group of guys who talk about everyone and everything under the sun. Mind you - it's got a lot of stuff that guys would normally talk about (and that involves a lot of dirty stuff). An insight into the minds of a few normal guys.

• Plot?

Are you kidding me? Nothing!!!

• Plans of making this a full-time hobby?

Since the recession is already here, I need to figure out an alternative shot at making some money at least.

• Will it become a movie?

Now, there's a thought...

• Who's going to be your audience?

I don't know...anyone who has a lot of time to do nothing.

• Is access free of charge?

As are all the good things in life - yes...this is free access to one and all who care (or don't). Well, free at least for some time. Once (and if) it becomes a rage, then who knows? I know I am greedy.

• Afraid of being sued?

Who isn't?

• Timelines?

Starting now, Saturday, 25th October, 2008. Don't know when (and if) I will finish.

• Where should the readers go to read the junk that I'll write?

Umm...good question. Will post the link as soon as I make some progress.

• Ready?

Ready.

• Go...

Gone!

~ Hef.

Gettin' Jiggy With It - Globally

Here's what symbolizes the title of this post.

For those of you who are not familiar with the matter, although I must admit it's hard to miss, here's a quick, simplistic, humorous explanation of the entire situation (thanks to greatbong).

Part 1
Part 2

The times, they are a changin'. 6 months ago, who could have imagined that stocks could plummet globally from where they were to where they are now. Each day where the stocks rally, there is jubilation all around the globe and hopes resurface as the end of a nightmare. Well, the very next day, things are back to the way they were. Stocks are tumbling, people are committing suicide, and I am losing sleep.

Losing sleep not because I have a significant investment in my company's stock options (which are pretty much worthless right now), but am wondering whether I am ready to brave the next 12-24 months and retain holding the stocks till the worst phase is over. The worst part about the entire thing is that there are no guarantees in life and the meltdown is no exception either.

As mentioned earlier, I don't have any money in stocks. I prefer playing it safe. I don't miss the highs of the stock market and definitely don't care about the lows. However, considering that I intend making some changes to the way I live, be it in terms of lifestyle or responsibilities, these are nervous times. I guess this is what they say about growing up - you start caring about things that don't affect you directly in the least bit. I believe in playing it safe and investing my money in very very safe avenues, also because I don't have much to save (isn't that a global problem as well?). Each day I wake up, I frantically search for my blackberry, and key in the stocks that I care about the most (on google.com/m), only to be disappointed with a graph that is slanting downwards to the right bottom of my tiny mobile screen.

Can anything be done? I honestly doubt it. We have to pay for our greed and what better way to pay for it than to have that thing taken away that gave rise to a vice in the first place?

I am sure people must have seen this coming at some point in time. All conversations that I have with my friends/relatives all surround this terrible state of affairs. Some of the things that come out of the conversation are:

• "I am not going to invest in stocks ever again"
• "This global crap has happened all because of human greed"
• "Suicides by stockbrokers is spreading like an epidemic"
• "What's your guess on what's going to happen?"
• and like a fresh breath of air - "Where/when do you think will the next bomb strike be?"

Depressing, ain't it?

Changing tracks slightly, 2008 hasn't been all that a great year for the citizens of the world. Some failures that come to mind immediately, in no order as such:

• Failure of the Nano project in W Bengal
• Number of bomb blasts (we are second only to Iraq) in the country
• Waving a wad of currency notes in the Indian Parliament reminiscent of this disgraceful scene
  
• Globally weak economies
• Iceland declaring itself bankrupt
• No hikes in salaries
• Weakening job markets
• No decent movies to watch (so far)
• Reality shows becoming passe' except of course that fateful evening on Bindaas TV and the confusion of the participant shouting 'How can you slap?' and then clarifies again "How can she slap?"
  
• No great music either this year
• Sourav Ganguly announcing his retirement - by far the best leader (cricket, et. al) India has ever had.
• Prices of petrol going through the roof
• Benazir Bhutto's assassination...well to be honest, this was Dec 27, 2007...but close enough.*
  
• Hurricanes Ike, Hanna, Gustav
• iPhone overpriced in India, and therefore, much beyond the reach of the common man.

(* thanks Suhel for pointing the date out...)

Some points to make the Indian at heart feel better:

• India launched 10 satellites at once, setting a world record for most number of satellites launches.
  
• Finally a gold medal for India in the 2008 Beijing Olympics
• Lalu at his best: Part 1 / Part 2
  
• Zardari acts all amorous
• umm... I guess that's it.
  

Hopefully, towards the end of the year, when and if I still own a laptop/PC, I will write to enumerate all the significant events in the year that was.

Coming back to getting jiggy with it - it's just getting more and more 'jiggier'. Watch out for the rest of this year for the ultimate shakedown of the millennium.

God bless!

~ Hef.