Budget and Indian Gypsies

Union budgets prepared by Indian Finance Minister every year indicates how the economy of country is and what changes are needed to augment country's progress in future. We all know that.

But there are few repetitive similarities we can observe every time; opposition parties always criticise (especially ex FM), deficit will never go away, inflation is always in god's hands (rain in particular), GDP (or 'real' GDP as the term is used now) will be better than previous year (comparison will be with neighbouring countries or with any one of 194 countries in world), prices of few items will increase (which will be criticised), prices of few items will decrease (which doesn't matter to opposition), once again, infrastructural growth will be ascertained, more measures to squeeze taxes from people and more measures to find ways of waiving corporate taxes, and finally statistics - data and data up to naya paisa, which will make your head to swirl making mind to search for a coffee but head intervenes and glorifies mind to go for more number of cups because from next day onward coffee prices would increase as per budget.

Media does a good job of making budget information available to people as soon as possible; making few retired economists giving their reviews as and when they could (they should have given these advises when they were in payroll - host never question them about it).

Next day few daily news papers go one extra step; they give statistics (as if there wasn't enough in budget!); for example, how many times Minister took sips of water while reading out budget, how many lines were there and how much time it was taken to read it out and how many times members tapped bench in appreciation or raised disapproval. All these make us to understand that our lives are (once again) not going to be easy next year too.

But if you can notice there is an intrinsic bond between government budget and our home budgeting. No, I don't mean the link between price increase / decrease of essential items; what I mean is - home budget too, while being prepared get dissent voice, small battles, external forces influence (may I say, in-laws?), and most importantly, we always find there is a deficit in end. That gap can never be closed. So, as head of family, we go sad, clueless and finally tries to put blame on ...well, that's your talent.

I travelled in Metro train from airport to Anna Nagar last week. I used to commute in Metro when I was in Singapore and Hong Kong. So I felt proud that in India, that too in our Chennai we have this convenient travelling facility now. 

But my pride didn't last long. In a station a small gang of 'Narikuravas' (shall I call them as Indian gypsies) boarded the train. A man, his wives (I guess) and his son sat near me. Pardon me for saying this - they were stinking. Even though they have a valid reason for not taking bath regularly (we don't get water every day in our sump, then how can they find water to bath), being a civilised and regular deodorant, perfume, eau de toilette user, I couldn't avoid feeling uncomfortable. So to avoid embarrassment I acted as if I was checking something very important in my mobile phone.

But after few minutes I felt that I was missing an opportunity to negate that stinking smell. It just grabbed my attention and I noticed how happy they were. It may or may not be their first travel in metro but they didn't hesitate to express their joy of travelling in Metro. Every time train pulled, they grabbed bar, giggled and spoke in their 'funny' language. It was pure happiness.

I started to think. They know nothing about budget, GDP, inflation, economy, statistics etc. They, I believe, surely don't know from where they'll get money for next day's food. Gypsies - so they may not be having permanent residence (of course, no EMI)... But they were happy. They were enjoying that particular moment, oblivious to where they were or who else were there!

I began to envy because until that moment I had so many thoughts about next day, forgetting it was my first travel in Chennai Metro from Airport to home.

Later I felt sad for not going near them and thank them for giving me an opportunity to write this in my blog.

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R. Bharathram

27 Sep 2018