I paid a visit to the Barber shop for a haircut. A congenial smile invited me inside. The interiors have changed again and so has the owner. In the last 2 years, this guy is the 5th owner of the shop. With a zeal for success all of them brought in changes, rearrangement, price alterations and even Vaastu, but they all ended up similarly - distraught. The culprit - I am led to believe is the Inflation that stays at 12.14% now. I wish the new owner the very best.
I still remember the owner who started this shop. Always wore a smile and tried to speak to every customer not caring if they knew Tamizh or not. About 2 years back, things started getting worse. The smile was not there any longer and all his helpers left him to move to opportunities in Malaysia, Singapore and UAE. He was disappointed to see how the lure of money could make people ditch their countries. I don't know where he is now, but I hope he is doing well.
Inflation - voices from the Society
It is no wonder that when prices rise, the worst affected are the poor. But yet voices we hear on news channels and other media is of either the affluent or the middle-class.
The Affluent: "We cannot take up overseas vacations. We cannot take the kids out for long drives to amusement parks as frequently. The regular outings to hotels have to be reduced."
The Middle Class:"Price of Vegetables, cereals are getting higher by the day. Fuel becoming costlier transport is a big cost. We are finding it a bit difficult to work within the monthly Budgets. Savings are dwindling."
The so-called "Brightest minds of the country" - the people from the IT & ITES industry leave me aghast with their responses.
"After working so hard the whole week, we can't afford to visit the discs every week. If we go to the pub, we have to have a few swigs less. Food is also so costly now."
The Hindu - Burden of Inflation The Hindu has been doing an excellent task of bringing attention towards the affect of the Inflation on the different strata of society and on varied professions. It provides a wake-up call for those of us too drawn up on our own worries. Every Tuesday a whole page is dedicated to a profession. There are stories of how Tailors have taken to the streets. Being on a mobile sewing machine gets them more orders. Stories of how washermen, tea stall owners, small grocery store owners, women's self help groups, vegetable vendors, house-maids and barbers are fighting to stay afloat in the financial crunch.
Of InequalitiesI have seen how the open sewages are cleaned in the city. A man strips down to his bare naked and with just a long stick lowers himself into the sewer. What clogs the sewage are possibly plastics or things that were not meant to be thrown there, but what gets collected in the clog is too disgusting to think of. No man in his senses would jump in like that. To numb his mind, the man ensures he is on a "high" after he has gulped a bottle of hooch (country liquor). 5 years back he used to charge Rs.200/- for his job. He still demands the same amount. Jet-rodding machines have just been introduced now, but they are not as effective as him.
I see him and I wonder how anyone else can complain they are not being paid adequately for their "hard work" and the "risks" they take. Rag-pickers and other people doing the scavenging work seem to be the most neglected lot.
Of misplaced priorities A couple of my friends from Mumbai were in Chennai. They grumbled about the lack of big shopping-malls, multiplexes and thought it was a crime to not have a McDonalds in the city. They believed people in Chennai didn't know how to make money from such unbelievable business opportunities. I think their statement reflects more on the mindset of people from Mumbai than it does on Chennai. I fail to fathom how investing in Malls, multiplexes and eat-outs will resolve graver issues of poverty and illiteracy. It is the evil of the capitalist mindset that the poor are always taken for granted.
The ideal capitalist economy would expect people to spend on everything equally. What would result is equal spread of money on all professions eventually making a uniform society where rich,poor or the middle-class are difficult to categorise. But, capitalist countries/cities are certainly anything but that. I am reminded of the song
Another Day in Paradise by Phil Collins. How some songs can still be relevant decades after they were sung remains surprising. Sad, in this case.
The Global Economy If there were to be an example not to follow, it might be Zimbabwe with its super high inflation touching 100,000% or more. But we should also be taking cues from the tumbling US economy, an economy that allowed people to purchase assets that were far beyond their means. What seemed inevitable finally seems to have happened. Somehow, the Rs.60,000 crore Indian Govt splashed to rescue farmers seems miniscule in front of the $700 billion being flushed by the US Government to bail out its economy. Yet, their overspending should be a warning to our own people following their footsteps.
