If there is any place that completely defies expectations it must be Ajanta.
We grow up reading about this place in our school textbooks, it figures in superlative terms when people discuss art and architecture, and it is even the name adopted by a popular brand of wall-clocks...and yet we know so little about the people who built this amazing complex of excavated temples - Chaitya's and Viharas - over a span of eight centuries, from 200 BCE to 600 CE!
Our journey started last month with a de-hypenation. Rarely is this site mentioned by itself - it is always paired as Ajanta-Ellora. So I had always thought that this was some kind of twin-site like Hyderabad-Secundrabad or Kochi-Ernakulam. It is only when I started looking up the logistics of our week-long visit to Aurangabad that I discovered the length of this particular hyphen - 103 km!
This is not a place for folks in a hurry. There are indeed tourists who fly into Aurangabad (the nearest airport) and do a day trip covering Ajanta, Ellora and even the fort at Devgiri (Daulatabad) but these trips can only be shallow and superficial. All the more so if you land up at Ajanta without a good guide.
Also, there are no good hotels close to Ajanta so like most tourists, we had to stay at Aurangabad and start out early morning for a two-hour road journey to the site. We were however very fortunate to get an excellent driver (Madhukar Kohli), who in his own quiet, gentle way, gave us the option of going to the regular entry point directly, or to approach it from the 'view-point' (an 15 km extra). He also suggested we take a guide from Balapur, the point where the road diverges to the view-point.
This guide was a youngster, a 12th-pass-aspiring-licensed-guide. He led us to this sweeping panorama -
Looking down from the undulating plains is the famous horseshoe-shaped valley created by the Waghora river. This was the view seen by an East India Company soldier who came here on a hunt in 1819, and saw a tiger disappear into a cave in the thick forest below. The cliff-turned out to be a vast complex of excavated Buddhist shrines and monasteries that had been forgotten since the time it was abandoned some time in 700 CE.
The stone is mostly hard volcanic basalt and layered like a cake. At one end of the valley, the river cuts through these layers in a cascade of seven waterfalls, and curves away further down the plateau. It is here that generations of Buddhist monks chipped away at the rocks, generation after generation, a space where they could congregate and meditate. The acoustics of the temple halls is quite amazing.
It is one thing to cut through solid stone to create and build a quiet place for prayers, and quite another to embellish it with sculptures and intricate paintings!
According to our guide the oldest caves - 9, 10, 12 and 13 - have paintings that use only five vegetable colours. The later ones have the additional distinct blue hue of lapiz lazuli which presumably was brought in from distance places in Central Asia. This may also explain why some caves have depictions of people who are distinctly mongoloid, as well as brown-bearded and trousered Persians.
The intensity of activity you see in the paintings leaves you with so many questions - what was the purpose of recreating a world in such exquisite detail by monks who came here to renounce all attachments? How did the monks sustain themselves? As in the case of Sanchi, which is at a safe distance from the ancient city of Vidisha, which is the nearest city where the monks went to beg of alms? Were they completely dependent on the generosity of kings or did they grow their own food?
There is nothing on the site that offers more information. As is the case in most sites under the control of the ASI, here too you have a bunch of shabby shops selling kitsch and cool drinks, the vendors go about trying to sell mediocre guidebooks and informal guides do their bit to make a muddle of site that certainly deserves the attention drawn by sites like the Humanyun's tomb in New Delhi.
Is there anything that compares to the sheer immensity and magnificence of the Himalayas?
Each year we spend about a week away from 'civilisation' pondering over this question. A week away from internet / mobile connections, roads, toilets and home comforts. This summer it was a trek to Laam Dal and Baleni Pass in the Dhauladhar Mountains of Himachal Pradesh.
On the maps it did not seem like a difficult trail - the pass was at a height of less than 4000m, the terrain seemed quite all right, and Google Earth told us that in this season we would encounter some snow, mainly on the ridges and mountain peaks. However unseasonal, heavy rains - and snowfall in the mountains - turned this 'easy' trek into a tough one. We had planned to cross from the Bharmour-Chamba region, across the Dhauladhar Range, to the Kangra Valley. Ultimately we had to turn back from Baleni Pass and retrace our steps because the snow-covered, steep valleys of Kangra were deemed to be too dangerous.
It has been raining all over North India for the past two weeks, and by the time we assembled at Chamba the chances of the trek getting called off seemed like a distinct possibility. Somehow the weather cleared up a bit when we reached our staging point off highway 154A - Brehi Village.
A few hour of trudging through forests and clambering over boulders and streams brought us to a Forest Rest House in Drakund. Here it was bright and sunny - a wide range of birds could be seen: the stunning blue Asian Fairy Bluebirds (Irena puella), golden orioles, yellow-billed blue magpies and parakeets. In the evening it was windy but the sound of distant thunder did not disturb us in our tents.
The next day too was sunny but thanks to the heavy snowfall over the past week we started seeing snow much earlier than expected. We had to cross about seven small glaciers to reach our next camping site at Dugga Goth, a rocky valley studded with massive boulders and ringing with the sound of streams emerging from under one vast glacier that spread from the camping site all the way to the snow-capped mountain peaks that surrounded us.
This area was well above 2500m and home to the strikingly beautiful Monal pheasants. They have the habit of singing while flying so it was quite easy to spot them flying past in the valleys below, singly or in pairs. There were lots of smaller birds too - redstarts that hopped boldly from one boulder to another, bushchats and flocks of numerous other unidentified birds. The ground here was riddled with holes which turned out to be a vast network of condos belonging to the cute, shy, and elusive Himalayan Marmots!
With our camp at Dugga Goth as the base, we set off the next way to see the lakes. About four hours of climbing through snow brought us to a vast bowl shaped valley at 3395m. There was no sign of any lakes here - just a vast expanse of undulating snow that turned into a sea of blinding white under the afternoon sun. High on the horizon, beautiful cumulus clouds emerged from the far side of the Dhauladhar snow-peaks and drifted past the cobalt blue skies. On the opposite side dark rain-clouds could be seen coming in from the Pir Panjal range.
Mercifully we faced only a small hailstorm on our way back to camp. Tiny pearl-shaped beads bounced off our raincoats as we slid down the snow slopes. While walking on the glacier the snow had loosened up and the guides kept cautioning us to be extra careful - large cracks could be seen in some areas and the areas near boulders and underground streams were particularly vulnerable to collapsing under your weight.
The next day we started early, hoping to cross Baleni Pass before the sun got too hot -- up at 04:00, a quick breakfast by the campfire and tents packed and ready to move by 05:30. The same snow that had buckled to your ankles (and, at times, knees) yesterday evening, was now hard as rock. As the climb got steeper kept urging us to dig our toes to get a better grip. An outcrop of rocks at Chid-Point provided a resting point where scores of crag-martins circled overhead.
It was 09:55 by the time we zig-zagged our way to the Baleni Pass ridge. What a different vista lay in front of us here! - unlike the snow-covered slopes we had just crossed on the Chamba side, a vast brown Kangra valley lay below us, with a river winding through it and disappearing into the haze. We were struggled to stand in the face of strong winds when the head-guide delivered his verdict - it was too dangerous to climb down the slopes leading to Kangra at this time. We had to turn back.
Climbing up had been a struggle and the very thought of having to go down the same route, at a time when the snow had softened under the sun, was rather disheartening. On the way down the guides urged us to follow their foot prints, digging in our heels first ("hill maro!"). Once the steep gradient had eased we all slid down the snow-slopes and soon we were back on the main glacier with not only our shoes soaking wet but wet bums as well!
It was a long trek back to Kathaid Valley, our last camping site below the snow-line, on the banks of Ravi river. It was 18:30 when we reached here - a welcome end a day of trekking for nearly 12 hours. Over here, our daily ritual of drying our shoes and clothes next to a bonfire, with a hot mug of chai in hand, was cut short by heavy rains. All of us slept well that night - cocooned in our warm, dry sleeping bags while incessant rains slapped the tent all night.
The downpour continued next morning so we had to pack out tents and move out in full rain-gear. Three hours of careful walking down slippery trails brought us back to Brehi. It was bright and sunny now but the guys at the tea-shop refused to believe (until pics were shown), that we had gone all the way up to Baleni Pass in this weather.
Coming to think of it, climbing up those steep slopes without snow-shoes and crampons, would have been quite impossible if not for the skill and confidence of our amazing guides!
While the English word for the snake has its origins in the Greek word Puthōn, the name of a huge serpent killed by Apollo, the Sanskrit word, Ajagar is a combination of "Aja" (goat) and "Gara" (swallow). So any snake that can swallow a goat could be called a python. The word can also be used for a boa constrictor or an anaconda.
In Sanskrit, the verb is the most important thing and the noun, or proper-noun is secondary and is derived or surmised from the meaning of the word used in a specific context. So, depending on the context you can have at least 12 different options for the word, "Friend"!
To be sure, these are things many of us learnt in our school lessons. Unfortunately, during those years, learning Sanskrit was was anything but fascinating - memorising Shlokas and the meaning of words by rote, the terror of being told to read out a lesson loudly in class, and the pain of clearing tests and exams. It is only now that I turn to look at the language with a fresh pair of eyes - thanks largely to videos like this one where the eminent economist, Bibek Debroy describes his efforts at translating the unabridged versions of Sanskrit classics.
Bibek started learning Sanskrit in his 40s and then amazingly, went on to translate tome after tome of the 18 Mahapuranas, a body of work that has more than 400,000 shlokas in over 12 million words! I have less than a passing acquaintance with most of these Mahapuranas - Bhagavata-purana, Markendeya-purana, Bramha-purana, Vishnu-purana, Shiva-purana, Brahmanada-purana, Matsya-purana, and so on. Even the one I am familiar with - the Mahabharata - has 10 volumes, 100,000 shlokas in about 2.25 million words!
I also learnt from Bibek that rhyming in Sanskrit poetry is of very recent vintage - from the 8th to 10th centuries through poets such as Jayadeva (eg., Dashavatara Stotram). Until then the emphasis was on the metres such as the Anushthup (4 verses of 8 syllables each). It seems word "Shloka" (verse) itself originates from its use by the poet Valmiki to describe "Shoka" (sorrow) at the sight of a mating crane getting killed by a hunter's arrow -
(You will find no rest for the long years of Eternity
For you killed a bird in love and unsuspecting)
Other commonly known shlokas using the Anushthup meter include -
The Ganesha Mantra
श्री वक्रतुण्ड महाकाय सूर्य कोटी समप्रभा।
निर्विघ्नं कुरु मे देव सर्व-कार्येशु सर्वदा॥
Shree Vakratunda Mahakaya Suryakoti Samaprabha।
Nirvighnam Kuru Me Deva Sarva-Kaaryeshu Sarvada॥
Tantroktam Devi Suktam (15 shlokas following a common pattern - "Yaa devi sarva bhuteshu.."):
या देवी सर्वभूतेषु शक्ति-रूपेण संस्थिता।
नमस्तस्यै नमस्तस्यै नमस्तस्यै नमो नमः॥
One big surprise was that even a very recent 'patriotic' Bengali song is structured on the same Anushthup metre -
ধনধান্য পুষ্প ভরা আমাদের এই বসুন্ধরা
তাহার মাঝে আছে দেশ এক সকল দেশের সেরা
Dhono dhanno pushpe bhora, amader ei boshundhora
Tahar majhe ache desh ek shokol desher shera
Thanks to Bibek Debroy, these familiar verses open the doors to world that I always thought to be intimidating, like trying to swim in the open oceans. I hope the kids who are now learning Sanskrit in the schools also realise that beyond those boring textbooks there are far better resources available for free the web!
The visa-on-arrival section was packed with folks from the Netherlands. "The Dutch have a special place in their hearts for Indonesia...", gushed the youngster standing next to me. Maybe this is the Dutch equivalent of the Raj-nostalgia but over the next few days it was amply clear that this sentiment was a wholly one-sided. The Indonesians certainly did not care much for the colonial period.
Unlike in New Delhi or Mumbai, or even Shanghai, it is not easy to spot colonial era buildings in Jakarta. The national language does retain a number of Dutch words. I was pleased to know that this includes one word commonly used in Malayalam as well - "kakus" - meaning 'toilet' from the verb "kakken"!
The airport was a bit of a disappointment though. As soon as we stepped out of the aircraft, long, dark corridors welcomed us. Apparently there was a power outage in this section of the airport that knocked out the lighting but the travellators were working. Having landed up here with more INR than USD it was disapointing to see that there were no money-changers ahead of the visa-on-arrival section.
In this section the first bay is for payments and the only currency they accept in either USD or IDR. To bad if you were not carrying $35 or R500,000! The second bay had long, snaking lines and I was lucky to pick one that was moving fast.
The money-changers stalls appear after this section but none of them accepted INR :( Even in the city the ones that do pay you 10+% less than the actual prevailing rates. INR 20,000 gets you IDR 3 million. Sounds nice until you realise that your should have got a much better rate.
One thing that is strikingly different about Jakarta's Soekarno-Hatta airport are its panel-murals. In the arrivals area, each fire-extinguisher goes beyond its regular utilitarian function has character - thanks to imaginative paintings. Similarly in the departure zones, the service panel doors take on myriad forms that invariably make you smile :)
In downtown Jakarta, one tall building is named SEMEN. It took me a while to learn that it belongs to a cement company - one of the many that are a part of the Salim Group conglomerate.
The broad roads are packed with two-wheelers - mostly Honda. It is the narrow bye-lanes that offer the widest range of affordable eating options. The western fast-food joints have their place in the malls but it is here that the people come for some real stuff. Interestingly even in an eatery with just two tables you will find a 'live band' - at least a guy strumming an ukulele and belting out local pop-hits :)
It is now one year since the Russia-Ukraine war began.
All through the murder and mayhem, the wanton destruction of cities and displacement of people that has been happening since 24 February, 2022, one thing has become increasingly clear - the whole thing is what we suspected it to be: a set-up. It is the people of Ukraine who are getting played by its 'friends and allies'.
The current situation reminds us of the African proverb - 'When elephants fight, it is the grass that gets trampled'. The trampling is happening not only in Ukraine but also on the rest of continental Europe. And yet, the amazing thing is that not one newspaper or magazine from the so-called 'free-world' had the guts to speak truth to power, and provide a platform to the most celebrated investigative journalist of our times, Seymour Hersh.
Thanks to this one journalist we now have a better understanding of how this whole tragedy played out. How the US ignored its own tacit agreement with Russia while expanding NATO; how it positioned nuclear missiles closer and closer to Russian cities until it created a situation for an 'unproved aggression'; how it resented Europe's closer economic ties with a rival to a point where it ganged up with Norway to blow up under-sea gas pipelines that belonged to its own close allies!
Now USA is in a happy situation where it (along with Norway) can sell overpriced fuel to its hapless European allies while at the same time, ramping up its own arms export export industry. Sell energy, sell guns, and go laughing all the way to the bank. So what if a few million Ukrainians and Russians die in the bargain?
Ever since this story came out I have been poring over articles, YouTube videos - anything to understand more about the life and work of Seymour Hersh. What an amazing life!
The United States of America redeems itself - to some extent - by not harming this journalist, and by letting him carry on with his work.
What is the difference between Tibetan and Bhutanese practice of Buddhism?
Most of the sights , sounds and smells of Bhutan are familiar to those who have travelled to Tibetan settlements across India. The meticulously hand-painted temples, fluttering prayer flags, the steaming hot momos and thukpa, monks in deep maroon, and the distinct smell of incense. One thing that is missing in Bhutan are the "Free Tibet!" stickers and t-shirts, and photos of HH the Dalai Lama. Why so?
It seems there are four main schools of Mahayana Buddhism practiced in the upper Himalayas and the Tibetan plateau - Nyingma (8th century), Kagyu (11th century), Sakya (1073), and Gelug (1409).
Padmasambhāva (aka Guru Rinpoche - 'Precious Master', Circa 700 CE) and Śāntarakṣita (725–788), are considered the founders of Nyingma ('The Ancient Ones'), the oldest tradition. A couple of centuries later Tilopa (988–1069) and his students, notably Naropa and Marpa, laid the foundations of the Kagyu ('Whispered Transmission') tradition, which focuses on the practices of Mahamudra. The great 11th century mystic, Miralepa, belonged to the Kagyu school.
The third school, Sakya ('Pale earth') derives its name from the landscape near Shigatse, where Sakya Monastery, the first monastery of this tradition was established. This time the founder was not a monk who travelled from India across the Himalayas but one who travelled the opposite way, from Tibet to Vikramshila university in present-day northern Bihar.
The first three sects are also referred as the 'Red Hat' schools because its monks wear red head gear.
The fourth and last major school, Gelug ('Virtuous'), emerged after the Mongol invasions of Tibet in the 1200s. Also known as the Yellow Hat sect, they aligned themselves with the Mongol Khans and became the dominant sect in Tibet and Mongolia by the 16th century. The present (14th) Dalai Lama belongs to this sect.
Most of the Buddhists in Bhutan belong to the second-oldest Vajrayana sect - Kagyu - one of the red-hat schools. This sect is perhaps more closely aligned with the traditions set by the earliest monks who introduced Buddhism to the areas beyond the Himalayas.
Maybe this also explains why the Dalai Lama is not so popular in Bhutan.
A man goes looking for the oldest living trees on the planet. He finds them in Chilean Patagonia and gradually buys up the area around these trees. Over the years this private property covers an area covering of over 3000 square km!
Initially it was a private nature reserve of Doug Tompkins, the founder of North Face, and his wife, Kris, the former CEO of Patagonia brand of hiking gear. Following Doug's death in 2015, the entire property (and a bit more) was donated to the Chilean government. This is is now the largest national park in South America.
And the tree that the Tompkins were trying to protect? It is called the Alerce in Chile. A conifer of the cypress family, some of them are over 4000 years old!
This amazing amazing nugget turned up in a DW documentary titled, "Carretera Austral" about the ambitious road that Chile has been trying to build across the length of the country, connecting a swathe of fjords and islands that line up on its western coastline facing the Pacific Ocean.
Some DW documentaries are quite amazing. The first one I saw was titled, "Iran from Above - In the Mountains", and provided a glimpse into a beautiful country that gets in the current political milieu. Highly recommended! :)
We all remember something about this from our school days: All matter is made up of atoms, which in turn are made up of protons, neutrons and electrons. We also learnt over the years that things are not so simple..
This engaging video presents one of the best explanations I have come across so far, of what the latest scientific research tells us, as well the things it just cannot explain.
It tells you about the universe made up of energy fields made up of Fermions and Bosons. Fermions are made up Electrons, the Up-quark (Uq) and the Down-quark (Dq). The familiar protons and neutrons each contains three quarks...all the beauty and complexity we see in the world around us is made up us these three components, over and over again..
Then there is the fourth one, a peculiar cosmic ghost flowing through us all the time - the Neurtino.
I have often wondered - if global warming and climate change is really a ticking time-bomb, why does it not bother most of us?
A part the answer to this question was found in an event I attended last week at the Max Muller Bhavan in New Delhi.
MMB is the German cultural centre in the heart of of the city. In the pre-internet days it used to be considered a cool hangout for its cafe, library and cultural events. This particular event was in two parts - screening ofa documentary titled, "Invisible Demons" directed by Rahul Jain, followed by a panel discussion on Art, Activism and Climate Change.
This is essentially about environmental pollution in north India, especially Delhi. The film starts in an arty format with a guy slowly fogging a DDA park in Delhi. This set the tone for the rest of the documentary - long lingering shots of the worst sights in the city: drains emptying into the Yamuna, turning its waters black and foamy; mountains of garbage dotted with rag-picking children; destitute families living on the streets of Delhi; endless traffic jams interspersed with shots of fishes packed in tanks and cattle crowded in pens; patients wheezing into a nebuliser and an endoscopic view of blackened lungs.
The film is meant to evoke disgust, and it does so quite effectively. The director too was glad to tell us that at every pre-screening event, the audience rushed to open the windows to let in some fresh air. The only hint of optimism in the the whole documentary is footage of an un-named young man showing the little forests he had created on the Yamuna floodplains. He is the well known Miyawaki forester, Shubhendu Sharma, but for 'artistic reasons' he remains un-named in the film.
I have seen plenty of poverty-porn coming from media houses sponsored by Western entities - the ones that find great delight in highlighting the worst from developing countries, without offering any viable solutions. This must be a new genre called environment-porn.
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LINKS & REFERENCES
- 18 Jan 2023 - Panel discussion on Art, Activism and Climate Change - Rahul Jain, movie director | Helene Bukowski, writer | Dr. Philipp Ackermann, German Ambassador | Philo Magdelene, Protect our Planet (PoP) movement
My first book for 2023 is a book Haruki Murakami wrote a few years ago - "Killing Commendatore" ((Japanese: 騎士団長殺し, Hepburn: Kishidanchō-goroshi).
One issue with eBooks - for better or worse - is the fact that it does not give you a let you get discouraged by the size of a book. This one has over 700 pages - not the regular, non-serial, Murakami but certainly not the sort I would pick up in a hardcopy format. Yet it is just the sort or engaging, fluid prose that keeps you flicking from one chapter to another, until you reach a point when it all seems to end rather abruptly, as though the author himself got bored of stretching the narrative for so long.
I have not yet reached the end though. Like a piece of chocolate that you keep in your pocket, and keep nibbling on it every now and then, to make it last long, I read Murakami's to slowly discover perspectives I am not too familiar with - food, classical music, and, this time, the world of painters and paintings.
Phobjika Valley is quite unlike the Himalayan Valleys I had seen so far. Located almost on the same latitude as Kathmandu and a lot lower than Kashmir, what struck me at first is the absence of intensive agriculture. This seemed like an indulgence in a mountainous country that imports a lot of its food.
The valley has bee left in its original form for a good reason. Except for patches of isolated potato fields a large part of it has been declared a Ramsar Site - one of the 2000 sites across the world that has been marked as wetland of international importance. Here the marshland attracts numerous migratory birds, especially the black-necked crane.
Hundreds of black-necked cranes glide into the valley every autumn. Always in pairs, these large birds are often heard before they are actually seen - especially early in the morning when the whole valley is covered by a blanket of mist. In the pre-dawn silence the birds sound like a bunch of children practicing their pipes and trumpets.
When these cranes fly over the snow-peaks, from the plateau of Tibet, it is said that they first circle the Gangtey Monastry thrice before settling down to roost in the sprawling Phobjika valley. The monastery itself looks like a bird in flight with its broad, layered roofs, intricately painted balcony's, windows, and perfectly symmetrical form.
Yet what lingers in my mind is not the form of the building or the broad sunlit courtyard in front of it, but the sounds that emerge from the rooms and corridors that ring the monastery. Sounds of the reed pipes being played by young boys dressed in maroon robes.
The reeds are tiny but the tunes from them seem to fill out the broad courtyards and echo far into the misty valleys below.
How does such a tiny reed make so loud a sound? I wanted to try out one of these reeds but this did not seem the right thing to do in post-Covid times, and they were also not for sale anywhere. Just as I was about to return a bit disappointed, one of the older monks at the reception handed me a piece lying on his table. "It is damaged", he said simply, " - no proper sound".
I am familiar with bamboo flutes especially the bansuri but this one was totally different. It had six largish holes cut along its length, one end was closed by the reed knot, and the other was, of course open. Unlike the lateral flutes, this one was played straight but the trick was to figure out the right way to blow.
At first, the only sound i could get were by pulling in air from the open end but these were feeble, so unlike the solid notes that the boys were playing. After a while i realised that the almost invisible slit near the blocked was they key. With a very fine blade, a cut and a wedge had been created on the underside of the reed!
What I had initially thought to be the 'damage' that the monk referred to was the very thing that gave life to this wind instrument! As we drove out of the valley via Lawa La, Trongsa to Tang and Bunthang, I wondered if it is the sounds of these reeds that attracted the black-necked cranes into Phobjika Valley.
In the age of digital payments it feels strange to carry around wads of currency notes.
This is exactly what happened to me last week in Bhutan. For the entire duration of the trip that covered about 800km, from Paro to Thimpu, Punakha, Phobji Valley, Trongsa and onward to Bumthang and back, I was unable to use any of my credit or debit cards, let along e-payment apps like PayTM, GPay or Bhim-UPI. At all hotels and shops, my attention was drawn to the fine-print behind every card issued in India - "Not valid for payment in foreign exchange in Nepal and Bhutan".
The question is why would any Indian want to make a payment in foreign exchange? India and Bhutan share open borders, and Indian currency is freely accepted everywhere, but the use of anything other than cash is quite difficult. While it is possible to withdraw cash from the Bank of Bhutan (BoB) ATMs in the capital city, Thimphu, a steep fee of N300 is charged for each transaction.
How did this strange situation come to pass? How much of tourist income is Bhutan losing due to these rules?
Explanations available online point to apprehensions at the central banks that these steps are in place to prevent Hawala transactions and money laundering across the open borders...yet, things do not seem to add up.
I was struck by this chart which appeared in a report published last week, titled, "The New India", by Morgan Stanley Research.
The tapering bars represent manufacturing wages inAsia, and India figures at the right extreme, with a wage-rate per employee that is among the lowest in the world. At US$0.8/hour, India's wage-rate was lower lower than Indonesia at US$1, China at US$7.1 and South Korea at US$22.3.
These might seem like random numbers until your place them in perspective. An hourly wage of USD 0.8/hour is about INR 64/hour. For an eight-hour work-day, the wage is just INR 512, or INR 13,412 for a 26-day-month. This leads us to an annual income of about INR 1,60,944 for the whole year (~USD 2,000)!
So the average manufacturing wage in India is not far from its latest per-capita GDP, which according to the World Bank, is now USD 2277 , or INR 1.82 lakhs. One just has to remember the average wages of a semi-skilled worker in Delhi NCR to realise that these depressing numbers are factual - a housemaid earns about INR 12,000 a month, a security guard about INR 15,000, and the sweepers & cleaners, or those employed by the unorganised sector, far, far lesser.
This also holds the answer to a related question - Why are the direct taxes collected by the Government of India so disproportionate to the population of the country?
Consider these facts:
The largest employer of wage-earners is the farming sector, and agricultural income is tax-exempt in India
A measly 5% of Indians actually pay tax. A maximum of around 80 million people out of 1.30 billion Indians (6.1%)
India has only seven income taxpayers for every 100 voters, among the lowest of all G20 democracies
Only about 40% of India’s population is currently employed or looking for work. So that cuts the 1.3 billion figure by more than half
Only 3% of Indians take home an annual salary of more than ₹ 500,000 - the government exempts all those who earn less than this.
The threshold of ₹ 500,000 is actually over three times the per capita GDP of the country. For context, it’s just 1.1x in Indonesia, 0.9x in Mexico, and 0.4x in the Philippines.
It is possible for the government to capture more people in its tax net, if it really wants to, but it may not be the humane or even politically expedient option, given the current state of affairs of the average wage-earner in New India.
The stock market in USA tanked a few days ago after Elon Musk finally decided to take over Twitter.
While it is the dharma of markets to swing and sway wildly to various sentiments, one data-point stood out - the loss of market-cap suffered by seven top companies of USA was bigger than the entire capitalisation of the Indian market!
Only a few months ago the newspaper headlines had announced that India's equity market had broken into the Top Five Club in terms of capitalisation for the first time. At $3.21 trillion, India was now UK ($3.19 trillion), Saudi Arabia ($3.18 trillion), and Canada ($3.18 trillion).
All is is small change compared to the total market-cap of USA which is over $47 trillion...We have a long, long way to go!
Is there anything in common between Dutch doors and English windows?
One interesting thing I learnt last week was the way in which taxation has a lasting impact on the way in which societies behave and evolve.
Apparently in the Netherlands property taxes were linked to the size of the main-doors facing the streets or or waterfronts. So, in order to minimise their tax liability, houses began to be built with narrow doors and large windows. So large pieces of furniture would either be lifted into the house through the windows, or custom-made inside the house!
If the taxman overlooked the windows in the Netherlands, the situation was quite the opposite in England where, at one time, property taxes were levied on the basis of the size and number of windows that a house had. Here too the response of the aggrieved taxpayers was rather predictable - houses began to be built with fewer, smaller windows. It seems this had an unhappy ending for the families living inside because the lack of ventilation and sunlight led to a sharp increase in the medical cases relate to smoke inhalation and deaths due to lung infections.
It took more than 150 years (1696-1851) for the government to realise that the 'window tax' was not a very bright idea. This of course did not stop the government from trying out to squeeze revenue for the state from a wide range of other option - beards, hearths, wallpaper, or even playing cards!
I was listening to this news-video on my way to work, and it had me laughing out loud. Here was a fine sample of the Western media being exposed for its slant, bias and bare-faced hypocrisy.
The title is, of course, misleading - "Does the World Want a Greener India? - International investors view India as both risky and vulnerable". At a time when the words 'risky' and 'vulnerable' would best describe the condition of the West which is confronting a multi-layered crisis emerging from the Ukraine-Russia conflict, Germany's official news agency, DW News, turns its focus on solar energy initiatives in India.
DW Asia Today has a byte from Kartik Sachdeva of Energific Solar, company that is unable to keep up with the demand for rooftop solar systems in Delhi; it talks of government subsidies to get rural areas to adopt solar energy, and then, and interview with Chandra Bhushan, CEO of iForest. It is this interview that takes the cake :)
The interviewer wants to know - "Does India have the financial responsibility, the transparency and viability...to convince international investors that it is the place to invest?"
I have been trying to figure out the relationship between booze and state revenues for a while now.
States in India seem to have a whole spectrum of different approaches to alcohol sales. On one end of this spectrum you have states like Gujarat that have had an official ban on alcohol sales for decades, and at the other end, there are states like Kerala that actually depend on taxes from alcohol sales for a major chunk of their revenue. The extent of this dependence is not something I had understood until I reeled in a thread on Twitter a few days ago.
On 23 Sep., 2022, @thekaipullai mocked the communist-led coalition government in Kerala for their dependence on alcohol sales and the sale of lottery tickets. Out of Kerala's total state revenue last year, which amounted to INR 1.03 lakh cr (USD 13,733 million @INR75/$), more than 60% came from:
Central Govt grants contributed to INR 36,000 cr (USD 4800 m)
Alcohol sales contributed INR 13,000 cr (USD 1730 m)
Lottery sales, INR 9000 Cr (USD 1200 m)
The point being made here was that the much touted "Kerala Model" is a sham since it stands on state revenues that feeds on the desperation and addiction of its people.
While there can be a debate on the way in which excise revenue is being calculated (or window-dressed), Kerala just happens to be just one of the many states that have turned alcohol sales into a state monopoly, and, in turn, driven up the levels of addiction.
There is an insect called the False Codling Moth - true or false?
True!
An insect that goes by this name is now at the centre of an an international trade dispute between South Africa and the European Union. The False Codling Moth (henceforth FCM) infects a range of fruits, especially citrus and is perfectly adapted itself to Global Warming (unlike the original Codling Moth) and a range of climatic zones. It is the fear of FCM infestation that has recently driven the EU to put up stricter measures to prevent its spread into Europe.
About 3.2 million cartons of citrus worth about 605 million rand ($36 million) is now rotting in European ports because of a change in rules that happened even while the fruit containers were on their way to the northern hemisphere. In face of a growing apprehension that its own horticulture may be affected by this moth, EU wants all citrus consignments from South Africa to go through a freeze treatment - an expensive add-on in the supply chain that makes the exports more expensive, and perhaps economically unviable for the African farmers.
This is not very different from the dilemma faced by Indian mango exporters. Different countries demand different post-harvest treatments before they allow imports of mangos - hot water treatment, vapour heat treatment or irradiation. Japan, UK and EU countries do not allow import of mango without vapour heat treatment - again an expensive process for small farmers.
So ultimately, the irony - countries that produces that produce the best variety of citrus or mangos are unable to export it to the very markets that pay the best rates.
The word "calculus", I discovered last month, has two meanings. The first is of course what we learn at school - a branch of mathematics that deals with variable quantities. The second one is common only in the world of pathology - "a stone-like concretion of minerals and salts found in ducts or hollow organs of the body".
It is shards of the second calculus that we see in the picture above, the 'concretion' that caused me much pain and discomfort last month. It was apparently a set of two minerals attached to each other, calcium oxalate and uric acid, one smooth and layered while the other one with its typical radial spikes.
Whatever be its composition and size, one first-hand lesson was that the degree of pain and discomfort depends primarily on where the stone is lodged. Mine was 6.4mm wide, and stuck at a bend on the ureter, just before it empties into the urinary bladder.
This was not a recent development. Call it carelessness or apathy but I had been carrying this one in my system for at least the past 15 years, and it used to show up with clockwork regularity during the annual medical check-ups. The radiologist would stop at a particular point on my belly and say, "There seems to be an obstruction here...do you feel any pain?...No? Well, then, drink lots of water, and maybe it will get flushed out on its own."
Years rolled by. I started every morning with a few glasses of water, I continued with my regular distance-running, trekking and traveling. At some point the annual check-ups ceased, and I all but forgot about the the radiologist's word of caution...until last month.
On a hot, humid July afternoon, I developed a niggling pain under my left ribs. Initially I assumed it was due to a particularly heavy lunch I had that weekend - rajma-rice followed by a double helping of ice-cream. I thought it would clear up on its own but the pain just doubled up, even after a bout of vomiting.
For the next few days, there was no let up on the pain, just the intensity varied during the day. Sometimes dull and deep, then sharp and persistent, there was no posture that eased it - sitting, walking or lying down. Even taking a deep breath seemed to take some effort; the elastic on pyjamas hurt, and a complete loss of appetite meant that that I was consuming only liquids.
At a nearby hospital the GP too read the symptoms wrong - it was misdiagnosed it as acute Gastritis. When three days of medication did not provide any relief from the sharp, persistent pain that kept me awake all night, an ultrasound test gave the first clue that the doctor was trying to solve the wrong problem. The stomach was perfectly fine but there was a significant swelling of the left kidney - "Left distal uretic calculus with moderate hydroureteronephrosis, and mild perinehpritic soft tissue stranding".
Translated from doctor-ese this simply meant that a stone in my left ureter had blocked the plumbing. The old 'obstruction' had travelled down the ureter to a point where it had got completely stuck at a bend. Fluid trapped in my kidney had not only inflamed it but the tissues had also started getting damage. Something had to be done immediately to remove the blockage, before the rot spread into other complications.
I was actually quite relieved to hear this. It is a blessing to have an 'ordinary' problem, one that has a handy acronym, KSD (kidney stone disease), and something that affects 12 percent of the population. This also meant that there were SoPs for dealing with this in almost every hospital with minimum of hassles from the health insurance companies. So the course of action was also quite straightforward - find a suitable hospital, and get the stone out ASAP.
We zeroed in on a hospital recommended by a friend, one that had an unusual name for an institution based in Delhi - Tirupati Stone Centre (TSC). Even though it was located at one of the busiest crossings I have seen in East Delhi (Karkadi Mor, Gagan Vihar), the hospital itself was an island of quiet efficiency, staffed by sensitive folks and a set of supremely competent nurses from Kerala.
At TSC, Dr. Ajay Agarwal took a look at the ultrasound and CT scans and concluded that immediate action was required. The very next day afternoon I was on an operation table for a spinal anaesthesia followed by a procedure that blasted my kidney stones with a laser-beam, and propped up my urethra with a temporary stent. The procedure took about 40 minutes but it took about four hours for the anaesthesia to wear off, and for the gradual return of sensation to my limbs - little toes, ankles, knees, hips, and then the big toes!
I feel perfectly fine now - only the stent needs to be removed later this month. As in the case of high-school mathematics, it is quite a relief to be spared of the pain and discomfort that emerges from an unresolved calculus problem!
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For those who may find themselves among the 12 percent of the population facing the same ailment, here is a checklist of precautions, tests and drugs that you too may encounter -
Precautions:
Get a second opinion on the initial diagnosis - tests are important. In my case it was the ultrasound that led us to discover that the problem was with the kidney, not the stomach.
At private hospitals that are run like Yatharth Hospital Noida, doctors can get their diagnosis wrong
Hospital admin & accounting rules are such that the emergency services the staff is very hesitant about using their own stock of drugs and disposables. Even in a critical situation be prepared to see your 'attendant' being sent off to buy injections and syringes!
Telemedicine may be the in thing but insurance companies want prescriptions on paper! On a Sunday the doctor sent us a message on WhatsApp recommending a CT scan but this became s sticking point for the mediclaim company (NIAC) and caused considerable delay in approvals.
Tests:
- Blood tests
- Urine tests + culture
- Ultra sound
- Kidney function test (KFT)
- Liver function test (LFT)
- CT - KUB - kidney, ureter and bladder
Medicines:
For Gastritis (mis-diagnosis at Yatharth Hospital)
- Pan 40 (Alkem) - Pantoprazole Gastro-resistant tabs: It's used for heartburn, acid reflux and gastro-oesophageal reflux disease (GORD)...proton pump inhibitor (PPI), reduces acid in stomach --- https://www.1mg.com/generics/pantoprazole-210457
- Lesuride (Sun pharma) - Levosulpiride tabs: atypical antipsychotic. It works by increasing the release of acetylcholine (a chemical messenger). This increases the movement of stomach and intestines, and prevents reflux (acid going up to the food pipe) --- https://www.1mg.com/generics/levosulpiride-210137
- Drotin DS (Walter-Bushell) - Drotaverine Hy: an antispasmodic medicine which relaxes the muscle gives and effective relief from pain, spasm or twitches of the smooth muscles in the stomach and heart --- https://www.practo.com/medicine-info/drotin-80-mg-tablet-20225
- Enzoflam (Alkem) - Paracetamol Diclofenac: pain relief - Diclofenac is a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) and Paracetamol is an antipyretic (fever reducer) --- https://www.1mg.com/drugs/enzoflam-tablet-64343
Post-Op:
- Exfaro 300 (Intas) - Faropenem Sodium ER: Anti-bacterial...can cause diarrhea as a side-effect
- Roliflo 4mg (Sun pharma) - Tamsulosin + Tolterodine: to treat benign prostatic hyperplasia...to relax the muscles of the bladder and prostate gland...to control urge to urinate https://www.1mg.com/drugs/roliflo-od-4-capsule-er-123224
- Drolgan for SOS only (Ipca labs) - Drotaverine (80mg) + Aceclofenac (100mg): to reduce abdominal pain and bloating...relaxing muscles of stomach and gut by blocking certain chemical messengers --- https://www.1mg.com/drugs/drolgan-tablet-64223
