Girish's Blog

I have been travelling by road on the National Highway from Mumbai to Navsari regularly for the last two years. It was always a pleasure to drive in Gujarat as the qualitative difference in the highway tarmac once you passed from Maharashtra into Gujarat was telling. Maharashtra has always collected toll as a matter of right to make money and not for maintenance of roads which is the purpose for which tolls are collected. The Mumbai High Court has also passed strictures on the state government for collecting tolls without maintaining the roads. Gujarat used to be different – the roads were a carpet and the drive a pleasure – the drive to Navsari used to take about four hours as opposed to the bumps in Maharashtra. This was till about eight months ago, when the NHAI (National Highway Authority of India) in all its wisdom decided to start construction of the Mumbai-Delhi Industrial Corridor with the plan to construct bridges to enable flow of fast traffic. In principal, the idea is brill...

This is from a mail by received from a fellow Chartered Accountant. Total Scam Money (approx) Since 1992: Rs. 73000000000000 Cr. (73 Lakh Crore) Hard to digest ? Just check the below given details 1992 -Harshad Mehta securities scam Rs 5,000 cr 1994 -Sugar import scam Rs 650 cr 1995 -Preferential allotment scam Rs 5,000 cr Yugoslav Dinar scam Rs 400 cr Meghalaya Forest scam Rs 300 cr 1996: -Fertiliser import scam Rs 1,300 cr Urea scam Rs 133 cr Bihar fodder scam Rs 950 cr 1997 -Sukh Ram telecom scam Rs 1,500 cr SNC Lavalin power project scam Rs 374 cr Bihar land scandal Rs 400 cr C.R. Bhansali stock scam Rs 1,200 cr 1998 -Teak plantation swindle Rs 8,000 cr 2001 -UTI scam Rs 4,800 cr Dinesh Dalmia stock scam Rs 595 cr Ketan Parekh securities scam Rs 1,250 cr 2002 -Sanjay Agarwal Home Trade scam Rs 600 cr 2003 -Telgi stamp paper scam Rs 172 cr 2005 -IPO-Demat scam Rs 146 cr Bihar flood relief scam Rs 17 cr Scorpene submarine scam Rs 18,978 cr 2006 -Punjab's City Centre project sca...

This is adapted from a mail I received. In these days of daily scams, here is some food for thought - Learn the "Art of Giving" The Art of Giving "Rivers do not drink their own water, nor do tree eat their own fruit, nor do rain clouds eat the grains reared by them. The wealth of the noble is used solely for the benefit of others! Even after accepting that giving is good and that one must learn to give, several questions need to be answered. The first question is: When should one give? We all know the famous incident from Mahabharat. Yudhisthir asks a beggar seeking alms to come the next day. On hearing this, Bhim rejoices that Yudhisthir his brother, has conquered death! For he is sure that he will be around the next day to give. Yudhisthir gets the message. One does not know really whether one will be there tomorrow to give! The time to give therefore is now. The next question is: 'How much to give?' One recalls the famous incident from history. Rana Pr...

I was not as prepared for this marathon as the 2010 edition as most of December had gone indisposed due to cough and cold. Nevertheless, more than a year off drinks and a more scheduled and disciplined lifestyle meant I had increased stamina. In fact I was doing 10km in just about 65 minutes. I did the 21km trial run on the Sunday prior to the marathon in 2 hours 25 minutes or so. On the earlier Saturday, I tried matching my younger daughters’ folk dance steps and matched to tweak the muscle tissue on my left knee. The older you become the younger your mind thinks it is, but in actuality the body does age and if you listen to the mind and do something stupid the body says, “boy, are you stupid!” and promptly gets damaged. I called the physiotherapist and she told me to rest for a week, and when I told her that I cannot rest as the event just a week ahead, she said ok, apply ice packs and take Combiflam, if required. So that’s what I did for the entire week and just ran 7 to 10 km every...

Over the years PP Gurudev has been telling us about the benefits of meditation and its effect on the aura of the person. He has told us that before any illness manifests in the physical body it is first visible in the aura of the person. Hence if the aura could be analysed first, then it would be possible to provide a medical solution before the illness occurred. This is now happening with the introduction of Resonant Field Imaging. A non-profit organization “Institute of Technical Energy Medicine Inc" was established in 1994 in the US to research and develop cutting edge technologies in the fields of energy medicine and bio-energy science. The company changed its name in 2002 to Innovation Technologies and Energy Medicine Inc. The company has developed a system Resonant Field Imaging System with which you can easily monitor the auras of humans, animals and even plants, as well as evaluate the energy fields of non-living objects. With the use of RFI and other available modern alte...

If you happened to view the above two BBC TV serials, I am sure most of you would remember these rib-tickling serials of yore. The mention of these serials is necessitated by the fact that these were a commentary on the British bureaucracy whose Westminster model we inherited. The bureaucrats used to confuse the ministers with their bureaucratese to perpetuate their perks and control over Government, with the assumption that it is not politicians who run Government but the bureaucrats. In a large part it is true, as the bureaucrats form the crucial backbone of the Government to ensure the policies and program of the Government of the day are executed in a silent and efficient manner. In theory this is all fine – but with reference to India – what does happen in reality? In view of the various scandals which have seen the light of day recently from the CWG scams, Adarsh Housing scandal, Karnataka land scams, Maharashtra mining scandals, and the list could prove endless – someone needs t...

I wonder if one realizes the cost of corruption in Rupee terms unless one sits down to analyze the monetary impact on the common man. Corruption in India is rampant and a cancer which is eating away into the moral fiber of the country at the same time making the population cynical, with most people saying “what can we do? – our country is like this only”. For one, you can say that you will not participate in corruption at the individual level – it could be as minor as passing on ten bucks to the traffic cop who stops you for a traffic violation. If citizens participate in corruption, this becomes a self perpetuating cycle with everyone wanting to take the easy way out. With this attitude what happens? The people in power (read Government) or wearing a uniform as a symbol of power, know that they can always extract their pound of undesirable flesh as the common man does not have a choice. One pays to get legitimate work done, even with all legal clearances in place, thus the cost of exe...