Journey continues.

After the miraculous escape, my efforts to find another Rick went in vain. It was 1.00 am by then and I could hardly see any Rick near by, the roads were deserted and night life of the city went for a pause as it rained that night. There is always a ray of hope in all blues and so was with me I could see one establishment lightened some distance away, I started moving towards the establishment and to my bliss it was a police station. I found one cop at the gate itself and narrated the incident in one go with a request to get me one Rick.

I was not out of the shock completely and was blabbering while speaking, heart beep was still on very high note, and my entire body was shivering. I was thirsty and the accident drained off my entire energy, I was repeatedly rolling my tongue over the lips to keep them wet. In the mean time the cop arrived with one Rick and without wasting any moment I boarded…, forgetting my desire for water.

After driving few kilometers I asked the Rick driver to stop for water, I purchased one bottle and gulped it. The Rick driver was new to the area and every time to enquire about the address I need to get down and enquire the watchman and security personals stationed at the commercial/ residential complexes. It was raining, and in repeated attempts of enquiry; I got drenched completely and was feeling very cold.

Almost after one hour or so we reached the destination. The address which I wanted to go appeared in complete dark; obviously it needs to be as it was 2.30 am by then. I knocked at the big gate of the establishment but no one reverted with a reply, I shouted with the name of few people whom I know were surely inside, but again the same result.

I got tensed, Worried and restless, I also discovered that I’m completely drenched and my cloths were ragged from multiple places. Again a ray of hope in all blues “A watch man of nearby business establishment approached me, and wanted to know as to why I was loitering on the gate”. I gave him the explanation; in order to assist me he did the same set of task which I did in order to gain attention of the people who were inside but all in vain.

Defeated with all his efforts he placed the final card “Jump the boundary wall, get into the premise and shout for some name”. Initially I thought of doing so but taken a back thinking that if this established didn’t proved to which I was looking for, people present there will beat me red & blue, they will not accept any of my excuses and will hand over me to the cops.

I was in an utter fix, deciding not to go ahead with the action plan I decided to wait outside till morning. With nowhere to go I found a shabby shade nearby wherein I could get some shelter from the rain and cold. I asked the watchman for some water, changed my cloths and waited there patiently. Though the shade was shabby I got into sleep mode within few minutes.

I don’t know what happened after that, I waked up by the call of the same watchman who was about to leave, he told me that the gates are open now and I can go inside.

Collecting my energy I waked in to the establishment; looking at some of the known faces was bliss for me. I told them the entire story and the entire group was amazed to my experience, in the nick of time someone came with a newspaper "Page three headlines" with the summary of the accident and name of the injured ones. I could recall the accident and how miraculously I got saved; I thanked the Almighty and prayed for the injured, I was a hot topic in that gathering. I somehow convinced myself to forget the real nightmare.

Image source: guardian.co.uk

Divine Blessing

Boarding a Rick reminds me about a very old and harrowing incident during my visit to the capital. I was a collegian at that point of time and was supposed to travel to the city for a social gathering, not a big deal to travel 400 odd kilometers via train, but surprise were there and my ordeal was about to begin.

After finishing my college assignments I reached the railway station and boarded the train which was just waiting for me to board, but before boarding I loaded myself with the required arsenal (Cigarettes, mouth fresheners etc), but in huff-puff I forgot to collect potable water with me. As it was winter I didn’t felt that emergency of water and though of purchasing it during the course of journey. But on the contrary I didn’t saw any vendor with water during the journey and my anxiety started getting wilder. Nothing working I thought of having water once I reach the capital, and the entire journey got over in anticipation of water.

When I reached the capital it was quarter to 12.00 and fog had gripped the capital. It was very chilling there and Rick driver had all excuses to booze, the entire Rick stand appeared to be a “Maykhana”(a bar) , somehow I was able to hold of a young chap who promised to drop me at my destination without charging extra bucks. As I was the lone traveler, he sought my permission to accommodate few more passengers for nearer destination so that he can make some additional money. I happily granted the permission as he was not charging me night charges.

Few more passengers a family rather for nearby destination joined me; I sat next to the driver and fellow passengers on the back seat, and that’s how we started. We have hardly moved a few meters and I Saw a sign board of “Hazarat Nizamuddin chisti dargah” after which I closed my eyes for a small prayer and blessings. A few seconds later on a cross road a speeding car dashed our Rick from the back, the impact was so severe that our Rick toppled innumerable times, the moment I could understand what has happened I was lying on the road and Rick over me. Passerby rushed to the rescue, I was rescued first as I was visible from the derbies; I was surprised to see that I’m alive with all bones in place intact, I took a toll of my fellow passengers; they all were severely injured.

Within no time Police control room vans came rushing; they recorded the statements and arranged transportation to the hospital. Nobody took a toll of me, as it was already 1.00 am and I was getting late, I asked the cop for permission to leave the accident place to which he agreed but was also equally surprised to see me in one piece and without any injury.

I left that place, again in search of Rick who could help me in reaching my destination, with prayers on my lips for the injured one and ton of thanks for the Almighty for saving me in that close encounter with death.

Images source: scenicreflections.com

Discretionary Job

While ferrying in the taxis, cabs, buses and trains I generally chat with my fellow passengers, as I can’t sit idle and watch fellow passenger faces. Interacting with the fellow passenger gives me a better insight as to what they are, what they are with and what’s there lookout; and in case if I’m the lone passenger I never restrain myself in speaking to the driver even. I think that a person who is dealing with walking customer on a daily basis is the best informer for the ground realities in the city.

They have the first hand information about who’s what and have a better understanding of the type of cultural and behavioral difference prevailing within the city. If one is free enough and can spare time with Rick/taxi driver he can understand the entire city past, present and future in a day or two.

They are the people, who have been repeatedly measuring the same roads for years and they are witness to many happenings of the city. In one of my small journey I was chatting to a Rick driver, he told me that he is a post graduate and use to work in textile mill but post closure of the mill he pulled out his own Rick on to the roads and it has been years he was driving on the city road. He had two kids one being engineer in software firm and another one settled in US.

I congratulated him for the status quo of his kids and fired the next question in curiosity, as I wanted to know why he still drives the Rick, he could very well sit at home and enjoy his rest of life, to this his answer was that he can’t sit idle and he ferries passenger who are known to him as most of his customers are regular ones to whom he is a phone call away.

By this time he was like a open book infornt of me and was chatting to me as we are known to each others for years. He shared that he was way back to home for lunch and he is driving me to my destination as it was on his way to home, he candidly confessed that if it would have not been so he would have denied me.

He seemed to a satisfied man, who has scored his innings well and doesn’t carry much ambition and monetary expectations from the job he is pursuing. I felt jealous as I can’t have my job discretionary, I have to commit myself as I don’t have other choice to pursue, no matter what, I have to pull myself to the job.

I have heard a lot about "Job Satisfaction" but never felt satisfied, I’m a firm believer of an adage that “If there is a conflict between mind and soul the soul should win” but practically I'm not following it.

Image source: forteconsulting.wordpress.com

Paradigm shift

Of late Tweets and FB status updates have killed the scope of contents. It has been observed that the user stay duration on a page has reduced drastically; visitors don’t want to go through the entire mess of content but are interested in reading the snippets; which are in form of tweets and FB status updates.

Visitors landing to a Blog or article write-ups; generally jump off from the page without going through the content in depth. Being from an industry wherein “content is king” it’s gradually becoming a threat to the online assets.

Tweets and status updates have inbuilt advantage of sharing with multiple people, the moment one updates a buzz it is broadcasted to the known associates whereas articles and blogs have limited scope of sharing until and unless there is an explicit attempt to share it.

Tweets and FB status updates are transactional as they get feeds from all the associated connections. These transactional updates to a larger extend pacifying the inner feeling of individuals “Things are changing”, whereas the articles and blogs are static as they don’t share the feeds from other content write-ups.

Buzz option implicit posses a leverage to say “hi... Hello” un-aimlessly whereas the actual write up has to be backed up with a proper coverage as to why how and what one feels good about the morning. Mostly the buzz that I have came across speaks a common language in a form of snaps, funny video and slogans; which are at times boring, repetitive and irritating and sometime beyond the understanding of the person who is sharing that piece of information.

A first timer to tweets and FB can search his older associates and can connect to them and expand the circle by connecting to associates of associate and in turn can create a close group association through which he can share and get the updates, where as for the first timer as a Blogger one need to attract visitors who in turn start following to get the updates. Prima-facie the job of Blogger seems to be much difficult in getting the followers as compared to other participants of FB and tweets.

With mobile technology getting advance FB/ Twitter are on keypad, whereas to write Blog the keypad is still not matured enough.

You may call it a paradigm shift from bulky content to short message but the fact is there are few takers for explanatory notes and contents and blogs are no more a craze now.

Need inflate to WANTS…

There being three basic Needs of human being: Food, shelter and clothing, other requirements are treated as Wants. A Need is something you have to have, something you can't do without whereas a Want is something you would like to /desire to have. It is not absolutely necessary, but it would be desirable and a good thing to have.

In today’s scenario for common man it’s all wants for which he is struggling out, Inflation pushing food prices to an unprecedented level making difficult for poor class to make there ends meet. There is ample hue and cry for affordable housing but for a middle class having own house is a still a dream come true, on top of that land mafia and bureaucrat snatching lion share in every housing project announced.

Actions and reactions of government machinery to tame the inflation have met with failure and inflation roaring at much higher figures. Though the numbers doesn’t indicate very high prices of commodities but reality is something different. On housing front, to boost demand for lower budget home, subsidy has being recently announced but God know who will utilize the subsidy as target price (25 Lac) for which it becomes applicable is beyond the reach of common man and one would not find houses in metro at the mentioned price.

Clothing which was not on radar till this budget would become expensive post 1^st April 2011 as 10% excise duty has been imposed on all readymade garments. Manufacturers who are already facing a tough time in sourcing raw material are not going to absorb the duty, and will pass on to the customer, which means that all readymade garments will cost more.

This decision has attracted a protest on a national level and Garment retailers across the country will observe a day-long strike on Monday 7^th March-2011 to protest against the excise duty imposition.

For me a common man life is all together becoming difficult by each passing day. Is someone addressing this?

Image source: dukeo.com

Hold your breath

Days are not away when we may need to pay “Service tax” on air that we breathe; we can argue as to why it can happen or why it can’t. There are ample justification of this getting applicable, Government is bankrupt, there fiscal deficit is mounting on continuous basis and they have no means to abridge the gap. They plan to dilute their holdings through disinvestment and earn money; all collected still insufficient to do the balancing, this is apart from the collection they made after the 3G auctions.

They need more money, how much is more not yet defined; they could have thought of implementing new taxes but couldn’t pursue it looking at the upcoming assembly elections. Any increase in direct taxes would have damaged their image of being “common man’s” party, so they thought of new way of targeting “Services”. The term which is generally miss/ non- understood by common people and not many are able to give a demarcation between services and products.

Is it a very difficult thing to understand; any product/ service which gets under the purview of tax is passed to the customer, it’s not the provider who absorb the liabilities but in fact it’s the customer only who gets the hits.

With the budget set in few new services getting added to the service tax bracket and for few the scopes got increased. Hotels, travel, restaurants, hospitals, life insurance and what not; either the scope of the service tax is increased or new taxes has been imposed.

The biggest turnaround that being made is; The service tax will be payable on accrual basis from April-1-2011, So the moment a service provider will book any invoice in his books the tax will become payable, irrespective of whether he has realized the invoice amount or not. There might be some fine prints with this new change which are not very evident with me but prima-facie it doesn’t look like an intelligent approach.

How much money in the form of taxes a common man will be spending why can’t we have a flat taxation is a big time question?

I’m paying taxes on income which I earn through my efforts; after paying income taxes whatever left should be fully available for me to consume; I will buy property, will party, enjoy and do whatever I like; no one should take a biting in between in the form of property tax, service tax, vat, mat etc etc. Is someone paying an ear to this?

Image source: topnews.in