arm vs reich...

....in German translates as poor vs rich. and no better article epitomising the wide gulf between
arm and reich in Indien. (forgive the German usage,am learning it, so would like to show off). an
excellent article published by TIME tries to analyse the divide. found this article through this link.

now lets start one of my favourite sections of this blog i.e. my attempt at analysing the
article.

the last three years of my life have seen a total metamorphosis. from being a rabid capitalist
who cheered whenever the stock markets rose to someone who believes in the naxalite ideology
(though not their means of achieving it..[but again one should remember Che Guevara's dialogue

in The Motorcycle Diaries "A revolution without guns? You must be crazy"...); the journey has
encountered many "tale-tirugiso" (head turning) incidents.

The first was the defeat of the TDP in Andhra Pradesh followed by the defeat of the BJP at the
centre and the "i have to kick you out, but have to keep you too" verdict for the Congress under

S.M.Krishna in Karnataka. Of course there had been similar ousters previously like these in

Madhya Pradesh (Digvijay Singh) and Rajasthan (Ashok Gehlot). But this stung since 2004

was the first time that I voted. BJP at the centre and the Congress at the state level (Karnataka)

screamed my vote as I cast it into the ballot box at the KREC school. I must admit that

the India Shining campaign of the BJP government at the centre and the Bangalore-centric

agenda of the Krishna government had blinded me so much that i had forgotten that

there were places like Dharavi, Telengana, Vidharba and Wayanad.

Vidharba raises another interesting question. The HQ of the biggest scoundrels in the

country namely the RSS and hence indirectly the spiritual and ideological HQ of the BJP,

Nagpur is the biggest city of this area. wtf were they doing with regard to the farmers?

The second major influence happened when I came to IIT Delhi. It was on a winter night in January 2005, I was returning from Connaught Place where I had seen all the post new year revelries still shining. About 400 metres from IIT is a crude home of migrant labourers. These homes are nothing more than tents and to the credit of the males among these labourers (Learn, all ye female foetus exterminators), the women and the girls were huddled in the tents (and a good thing too, God knows who might have kidnapped them in a moving car and raped them..Delhi is the rape capital na???) while the male folks shivered outside. Chivalry apart, the quiet and determined nature by which these guys braved the cold while many of us fortunate ones ranted and raved about the chilly winds, cursed the temperature and longed (foolishly) for summer to arrive.

The third one is of course, 'The Motorcycle Diaries'. This one dragged me towards socialism, a
kind of socialism which encourages the 'bade-bade log' to progress but ensures that distribution

of wealth is done by an independent honest regulator of course aided by some efficient and

impartial tax collectors.

Coming back to the TIME article, there are certain statements and quotes that show how

much of poverty is being thrust into our face and yet we bury our heads in our sand with

our asses jutting out in the air like ostriches. no wonder the naxalites are butt-fucking us

currently in dandakaranya. Sample a few:

Fifty years ago in newly independent India, castes mixed in the street and overt
displays of wealth were more than crass—they were suspicious. But today

rich and poor lead wholly separate lives. The rich shop in malls, patronize

private schools and hospitals, and relax in gyms and spas. The poor live in

slums, send their children to work, and can't afford health care.

This economic partition means that a two-bedroom flat in south Bombay, with a view of
the 700,000-resident Dharavi slum, may sell for $750,000. Construction giant Sahara offers
Swiss-style chalets and Burmese-style teak villas in a secure 2,025-hectare park outside Bombay.

Manager Seemanto Roy says Amby Valley will have artificial lakes, a golf course, an indoor ski

slope and a dial-a-nightclub service enabling residents to order lights and sound to their

own patios. When residents venture out, they can be whisked by a high-speed train to

downtown Bombay, which Roy says will cut a three-hour trek through the slums to

20 minutes in comfort. In the words of Delhi University politics professor Achin Vanaik,

those on the train will avoid the "angry humiliation" of India's backwardness.

Slumped in her Patilpada doorway, Jaie Bhambruy, 32, struggles to pull her one-year-old
twins onto her breasts. The children, one wailing, one limp, are too weak to suckle.

"We went to the hospital," she says, "but they sent us away [so as] not to embarrass the
government."

This article goes on to state that "growth never trickles down evenly. its only by opening the
economy, producing the odd billionaire who produces thousands of jobs that poverty can be
overcome". True, and this is also what I preach. But what does one do if that billionaire is a
tax evader, hoards wealth and the share of money that trickles down is miniscule? This

situation is not even going back to square one, it is negative because in the process of

making one man super rich, how many people would have been unsettled, just for the sake

of the crumbs that he would have thrown at them with the contempt that he would not have

reserved for even his dogs. Something we all need to think about.

No country seems to have sorted this issue out. Donno who will be the pioneer in eradicating
poverty. But it certainly won't be eradicated by silly concerts and G8 declarations...

I'll just say "All my people right here right now; do you know what i mean?"

or as the Germans say, "Alle, wissen sie?"