WASSUP?

Cricket

The best comment that I heard on the Indian Cricket Saga:
“Aren’t we trying to make a scapegoat out of Chappell for our non-performing players? If it was any other nation than India then these non-performing players would have been kicked out a long back. In a cricket crazy nation of billion people can we not find another team of performing players?”
I’m not a cricket crazy fan. But having watched the huffing and puffing of our Non Performing ‘Assets’, I have to conclude that these guys, the BCCI included, do not possess any strategy – save the strategy of making money. When I started putting my heart and soul into teaching 17 years ago, a person was beginning to give his heart and soul for Indian cricket. Mind you both of us weren’t doing it for free. I raked in the moolah just as the other person did; albeit he in crores, I a few lakhs. Aspersions have been cast on his commitment and his continuance. I haven’t had that misfortune. I have matured gracefully, and god willing, have many years to go before I decide to retire. Sachin is on his way out. His shelf life is up! The problem is that, he hasn’t realised it. Hence his ravings and rantings to an eager press; while his ‘bete-noir’ – the coach, maintains a dignified silence (Leaks to the press do not qualify for comments!) Wassup?

Inflation

The government is baffled at the way the inflation has been creeping upwards. So drastic measures have been lined up. The CRR rate, a useful weapon in beleaguered times, has been used to suck money from the market. The latest hike sucked in a whopping Rs. 15,500 crores from the market. The spectators called foul and went and bashed up the sensex. There was a ‘Monday Massacre’. Wealth evaporated. A 1% cess has been levied on home loans; so as to discourage people from borrowing and investing in land. The price of land has been sizzling. Look at a II tier city like Mangalore. Good apartments are being sold at Rs.1,850 per square feet, whereas 18 months ago, the rate was just Rs. 1,200 per square feet.
With land prices zooming, farmers have decided to convert their agricultural lands into commercial properties and are selling them at astronomical prices. The new owners are filling these marshy lands thereby destroying the ecology. Hillocks are being flattened and the mud is used to fill fields and ponds. These fields and ponds were crucial for raising ground water levels. Today, they are gone and the ground water table recedes further. Wassup?

A natural swamp being filled up.

The disappearing greenery

Mangalore Warming

Huge climate changes are taking place in Mangalore. Temperatures are up by at least 2 degrees and the humidity is up by 10%. People sweat it out as the Mangalore Electricity Supply Company, MESCOM for short, messes your day with unscheduled power cuts. Water is in short supply. People crane their necks skywards searching for rain bearing clouds. The Nethravathi River which supplies water to Mangalore city is all but dry. The water level in its vented dam may last until May 10^th. After that…..?

The Nethravathi River

Don’t you see a pattern? Don’t you see the lack of planning? Be it cricket, inflation or climate changes, we aren’t planning. We seem to be blinded by money and greed for more money.