Day 18: Killer Chillar

Location : The Supermarket

I buy some grocery items and cosmetics. I stand in queue at the billing counter and when my turn arrives, the person at the counter scans the items and tells me the amount. It is 439 INR. I give him a 500 INR note and he hands me back 60 INR and one eclairs toffee instead of Re 1.

WTH!! Many of you must have faced a similar situation. Why am I unhappy with one of the most popular chocolates? Because

# It is not a fair exchange

# In reality I am being forced to buy something instead of getting money due.

# You know how a pot of water fills by drops of water. Similarly losing change at grocery stores and other such places regularly is actually creating a big difference.

# Chocolates and candies are bad for teeth so there can be an increase in dental bills

# Chocolates and candies are high in saturated fat, and a large part of the calories in this food come from sugars. This food also has Trans Fat.

# Most importantly I want my change and I DO NOT want an eclairs!

A survey conducted in 2012 by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), in response to complaints from the public, found that 44% of people in 12 Indian cities had the same experience; candies instead of coins for change.

According to The Hindu dated 4 April 2013, 18 bank branches have been identified to distribute coins daily and tide over the shortage

1. There is a dearth of Rs. 2, Rs. 5 coins in many cities across India

2. Banks say they distribute 10-30 bags, each containing 2,500 coins, every month

3. RBI has pumped in coins worth nearly Rs. 16 crore over the past year

After RBI’s decision, coin counters in banks have closed down and the shortage of small-denomination notes and coins has hit the roof. Small-time traders and merchants depend heavily upon these coin counters at banks. There is a huge bottleneck in the circulation of coins in the market. For my research for this post, I came to know that shopkeepers and retailers are forced to pay 8% premium to get 100 Re1 coins in the black market. This means they pay Rs8 to Rs10 extra to get 100 coins in Re1, Rs2 and Rs5 denominations. But why do they do that? Because of customers who want their change back and they are not wrong in doing that. But due to insufficient coin circulation, customers are not able to give change but want their due change. Moreover, customers are choosy about which coins they want; the 50-paise coin being the least popular. Though RBI has not discontinued 50 paise coins, people refuse to accept them including beggars. But there are some places where they are still in use.

Some shopkeepers blame the ATMs that churn out only notes of large denominations, some shopkeepers allege that the coins are all taken to Tamil Nadu, melted and made into razor blades.  Confused? ’The one rupee coin after melting can yield six to seven blades, making its total worth over Rs 50. The shopkeepers are turning to beggars and eunuchs for help! But even the beggars are refusing to part with the precious change and if they do, they charge extra for it. Shopkeepers also procure coins from temples and churches, who also don’t give it for free.

Some of the coin counters still functioning are predated by agents who are actually into this very business..they have an understanding with bank officials at the counters and get coins easily instead of shopkeepers standing in queue. Later they sell these coins at a profit to desperate retailers.

A possible solution to this problem, the note to coin change machine made by UK-based Thomas Automatics has been acquired by the government and 150 of those have been installed in banks, railway stations and temples across India since 2003 as of 2007. But it has its own set of issues like equipment failure, low public acceptance etc.

That day is not far when we, the consumers, have to start giving eclairs toffee to toll booths, shopkeepers etc. Toll booths have not started giving eclairs toffee yet but I think they are the ones who should. Maybe the toffee will have some calming effect on drivers and help prevent accidents. 🙂

or maybe RBI can just declare the eclairs toffee as the new Re 1 coin.

P.S. Chillar means change in Hindi. Candies as change can kill us with diabetes hence the name “Killer Chillar” 😀

Appeal to the Public from RBI Website

The Bank, with active co-operation from various agencies, has endeavoured to distribute the coins in an equitable manner to all parts of the country. The mission cannot be successful without unstinting support from the people at large and the various voluntary agencies. Members of public are requested to avoid holding on to coins and instead, use them freely for transactions to make sure that there is a smooth circulation of coins. Voluntary agencies are requested to educate the public about the various facilities available in their areas for distribution of coins, exchange of soiled notes and proper handling of notes.

P.P.S I missed again on Day 17. I was physically and exhausted due to a tiring day at work.

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Mother’s Love

No language can express the power, and beauty, and heroism, and majesty of a mother’s love. It shrinks not where man cowers, and grows stronger where man faints, and over wastes of worldly fortunes sends the radiance of its quenchless fidelity like a star. ~ Edwin Hubbell Chapin

Does your mother love you?

Does she care for you? Does she tend to you, comfort you, support you, provide for you, thinks for your well-being and comfort before hers ? Be the tree providing shade in the harsh sun called problems and difficulties which life gives to you?

Are you a mother and do you love your kids?

Does you care for them? Do you tend to them, comfort them, support them, provide for them, think for their well-being and comfort before yours? Be the tree providing shade in the harsh sun called problems and difficulties which life gives to your kids?

One Way or Two Way

I believe serious blogging comprises of four important things :

# Presentation – Writing good quality posts (whatever type one write about) regularly at one’s blog and being active.

# Communication – Actually reading subscribed blogs’ posts and commenting on them (and not just writing anything for comment’s sake..just to mark your presence).

# Reciprocation – Replying to comments on one’s posts.

# Networking – Checking out regular commentators’ blogs or new blogs..you know like friends of friend and possibly subscribing to those thus extending your network and acquiring long-term blogging relationships.

Proofs of Marriage

“Ek chutki sindoor ke keemat tum kya jano, Ramesh babu? Eshwar ka aasirwad hota hai ek chutki sindoor, suhagan sir ka taj hota hai, ek chutki sindoor, har aurat ka khawb hota hai ek chutki sindoor…”

Excuse me! I Beg To Differ. This is  Crap.

Students’ Employability – University’s Responsibility

Few weeks ago I had attended a seminar on the topic of structural changes in curriculum for enhancing employability through skill development in PLM conducted by a reputed company. As our state technical university was the co-organizer, members of all the Board of Studies were invited to attend.

Raising Kids or Warriors?

A conversation between colleagues that I witnessed :-

Colleague (Male) say A :- Sir, you are a PhD. You must be tutoring your daughter at home and helping with her homework.

Senior Colleague (Male) say B :- Ahh! No. My wife doesn’t let me teach our daughter because she thinks I am not strict enough. See, my ideology is when she wants to study she will. But my wife is always making her study like when she wants to go out to play, when she is watching tv…

Senior Colleague (Female) say C :- Sir, which child “wants” to study? We have to make them study.

B :- Hmmm..Few days back my wife asked her to write few words in small, capital and cursive. She mixed up and my wife slapped her. But I feel it is unfair to expect a child of 5 yrs to write all that correctly.

C :- Sir, in today’s world of competition, we have to prepare them to fight. Otherwise they will end up as losers and will blame us only that why didn’t we make them study.

Another incident at a bookstore that I witnessed :-

A lady placed a very thin book on the counter and proceeded to pay for it. The book was – Unsolved C.B.S.E. Question Papers for Class 1.

Real or Fake Essay?

This is a guest post by Nomad (my sister). Since she is on a break, she wrote this in an email to me and asked me to post it on my blog so that people can read her views on an email forward that many of us may have received some time in our inbox. She said :-

Forward this to people, so that eventually the creator of this joke will read my opinion. Or put in on blog.

So here it goes. Tell us your opinion and view point in the comments section!

Noisy Faith

There are several ways and mediums of expressing the faith in the Almighty. Temples are also one of these mediums. Several events are organized at temples for mass expression of faith. Such a religious event – Satsang – was held at the temple near my home for ten days. The organizers of this satsang were utilizing the power of loudspeaker to the maximum. The session timings were 8 am to 2 pm and 5 pm to 10 pm. Though the timings were within the norms, the decibel level of the loudspeaker was not. The norms say :-

Machismo and Crying

Recently, I had a discussion on crying with Prateek and he declared that guys who cry are not sensitive but sissy. And he even wrote a blog post “Guys don’t cry” to explain his stand. In his post he has cited 5 reasons why guys should not cry in the form of 5 situations. Like a guy should not cry for love or when someone dies etc etc. Anyway, as I strongly disagree to this conservative/orthodox belief, I decided to express my views and ask readers & visitors their opinions. There is an opinion poll at the end of the post. Do participate!

Three types of tears are generated by the human eye. Basal tears protect the eye and keep it moist. Reflex tears flush out the eye when it becomes irritated. And emotional tears flow in response to sadness, distress, or physical pain.

Twittiquette

Almost all of us have a comment policy on our blogs and any good blogger with decent content does not tolerate abusive language and ill mannered commentators on their blogs. So it can be assumed that there does exist a blog etiquette which every good blogger follows. What about etiquette on the recent social media phenomenon,otherwise known as Twitter? Unless you have been living under a rock, all of you must be aware of Twitter. Whether you are using it or not is a different issue. I had joined Twitter on 20th Feb 2008 but I became really active just few months back. Since then, I have observed few things about this social media as compared to a macro blogging platform like WordPress or Blogger. And these observations have forced me to raise a few questions about it.

Remarriage and Indian Society

A professor in my college had been in a terrible car accident last year and his wife had died on the spot. He has a 10 year old son and a 14 year old daughter. Few days back I came to know that he had remarried after six months. I exclaimed “In just six months??” My colleague who gave the news justified that sir by saying “He has two small kids,madam”. I thought to myself “then he should have got a nanny, not a wife!!”

The Dissection of Drona

If you want to read a spoiler-free proper movie review then go here. If you want to read my special opinions and their expressions on this movie then stay!! Hope springs eternal in the human heart. Even after reading Smita’s post, being the avid fantasy lover that I am, I watched Drona with a hope that likes and dislikes are relative and I may like it. But I was proved wrong and how!

So the basic story outline is that the gods after churning the ocean hid the amrit (nectar of immortality) on Earth (read:India) and assigned its protection to a human. This protection would be carried on by his heir and so forth. Now we have Aditya (Abhishek Bachchan) the last heir of this family who is oblivious of his heritage. But as he attains the right age and when he meets Riz Raizada (Kay Kay Menon), a Asur (demon) in human form; he realizes his true identity and the story begins to unfold.

Large Hadron Collider and Human Curiosity

When I came across people who questioned the utility of Large Hadron Collider experiment, of investing 8 billion dollars in it and of humans trying to control Nature by being curious, I was inspired to research on the topic and to write a post on my blog expressing my view. I remember in school, the first chapter in science textbook was about scientific method and various steps in it, namely, Ask a Question, Do Background Research, Construct a Hypothesis, Test Your Hypothesis by Doing an Experiment, Analyze Your Data and Draw a Conclusion and Communicate Your Results. Science doesn’t work like instant noodles. Many researches are carried out without knowing what is one looking for and along the way a new discovery is made. But in today’s world which demands instant results of its efforts, many people are asking “How’s the view from the top?” whereas the scientists at CERN have just started climbing the stairs. I quote someone’s reply in a forum discussing the same topic.