SBI: Structural Rigidities That Refuse to Leave the System?

The State Bank of India (SBI) has always been an active ingredient in our generational bloodstream—like in that of almost all of India’s state and central government employees and their families who have either salary accounts or pension accounts or deposit accounts or investment accounts or all the beneficiary accounts required by the governments to enjoy the benefits of various schemes. No doubt, the pressure on the bank has always been immense across the nooks and corners of the country, impacting the performances of the various branches. But the bank has been marching well with the digital developments over the years and for many of us the branch visits have been reduced to the minimum. Besides, the SBI’s net-banking site which is indeed a very secure and user-friendly, and the YONO App have done their bits to ease the hassles of the accountholders. However, despite the tremendous advancement of banking a few rickety old rules or diktats that we’d refer to as ‘structural rigidities’ still haunt the system and dilute many users’ otherwise seamless experience. As a loyal accountholder with SBI since the days of my father I’ve had my share of some nasty experiences that I intend to dwell upon here.

Quite a few years back my wife and I had applied for a home loan. Thanks to our branch along with the loan-sanctioning RACPC office of that metro city the process had been very friendly and hurdles-free. The loan being sanctioned the EMIs began to be deducted from my salary/savings account every month. The lady bank executive concerned also took pains to explain to us that the initial EMIs would be much higher and then from a year or so later it’d be reduced and stabilized. Of course, the ‘systemic’ text messages/emails/even phone calls came to every month urging me to pay on time as if the bank were blissfully unaware of the automatic deductions!

One fateful morning, after about three years of paying the EMIs, I found that the deduction for that month didn’t happen. It was perplexing, for there was absolutely no intimation to that effect. Instead of phoning the branch immediately I decided to wait for the bank’s intimations which I was sure would come sooner than later. One text message did come a few days later; but that only managed to worsen my confusion.

The text message stated that about a hundred bucks was pending in my home loan outstanding which needed to be paid immediately, else it was going to adversely affect my credit score. So, I logged in to my net-banking page and tried to transfer the paltry amount to the home loan account. To my horror the payment was not accepted. I tried again and again for days with the same adamant result. I phoned up my branch and after a seeming eternity of endless ringing one employee told me that the branch had no information about that and asked me to contact the RACPC office. I couldn’t do that because I had no telephone number of the concerned officer there. As I was out of town during that period I asked a friend of mine to go there and inquire. The friend obliged me, but said that no officer or clerk there could give him the required update.

So, the text messages kept on coming month after month and I kept on failing to transfer that hundred bucks. I was at my wit’s end. I wondered why the largest bank of India would thus go on crying for that hundred bucks instead of simply deducting it from my linked savings account or allowing me to transfer! Finally, not knowing what was the best course to resort to, I decided to courier a cheque of that fateful hundred bucks addressed to the RACPC to my friend asking him to personally hand over that at the office. He obliged me again, but informed me that the bank clerk refused to accept that cheque too.

Feeling sorry for my predicament which was absolutely for no fault of mine, the friend decided to tap all his sources in the bank and finally, someone asked him to go to a particular officer hidden at a desk somewhere in the labyrinth of the RACPC complex. That officer gave the monumental verdict we waited so desperately for: the said home loan account had stopped functioning because the concerned builder failed to complete the construction for the next phase and therefore the funds to be paid to him had been withheld, and that we needed to close the said account if we thought there was no hope of the housing project progressing further.

I was astounded. Why was this simple information not conveyed to me? Why were my transfers/payments not accepted? Why was that meagre amount not deducted from my linked savings account? And indeed, the supposed non-payment of the ‘EMIs’ (read 100 rupees) over the months did reduce my credit score substantially! The credit score page still reflects those ‘lapses’ to the SBI home loan! It’s another matter that eventually I went to the RACPC office along with my wife and friend and closed the account permanently, and finally, the ‘debt’ of hundred bucks was cleared! It’s also altogether a different matter that we lost our hard-earned money to the builder who had no inclination to compensate! But the questions for SBI remain! If these are not the rickety ancient rules or structural rigidities that refuse to leave the digitalized system alone then what are they?

More recently, I accepted the SBI’s offer of a pre-approved personal loan to tide over a temporary crisis. Everything was done on my net-banking page—the amount, the tenure, the immediate disbursement, the EMIs and the automatic deductions every month. I was really happy with the convenience of the process and tried to forget the previous unsavoury experience! I think I had read all the terms and conditions associated with the loan properly and thus I was sure I couldn’t find the clause that ‘partial pre-payment of the personal loan not allowed’, unlike most private banks.

Therefore, one fateful morning when I found that I had some surplus funds, I decided to pre-pay a substantial part of the total outstanding so that I’d enjoy a reduced burden of repayment for the remaining period. I realized my mistake right after the transaction which was seamlessly accepted, unlike the peculiar previous instance of the hundred bucks refused again and again and again.

Absolutely nothing happened to the EMIs, although the outstanding amount got reduced considerably with the tenure remaining the same! The same amount continued to be deducted from my linked account as before. And as I feared the obvious scenario emerged eventually.

The day came when the EMI amount became bigger than the outstanding amount! Therefore, the monthly deductions stopped! This time the text message said that the remaining amount needed to be paid immediately for which a branch visit was mandatory.

This time I got plain angry! Why force a senior citizen to visit the branch after all the bank’s efforts to minimize it and the sit-at-home comfort offered through their YONO App, and that everything about the said loan account was done online? There was another matter that also contributed to my indignation. A modified fixed deposit account I opened long back got reduced to less than ten thousand and therefore I put my maturity instructions clearly online to close that account; but despite that the branch decided to extend the account for two more years.

My anger made me call up one higher SBI officer I knew for a long time and let him know of the issues. The higher officer must’ve issued some instructions to the branch manager; but instead of helping me out the manager put a freeze on that modified deposit account which made me realize the obvious! So, when I finally had to visit the branch to accomplish the pending hassles I noticed a palpable stiffness in the manager’s attitude while attending to me.

I think a revamp of the SBI’s digital banking system to rid it of the archaic rules would help the accountholders immensely. Thanks to the rigidities I incurred personal losses on at least two counts: first, the erosion in my credit score; and second, the apparent loss in my long good standing with the bank branch which would result obviously in debarring me from the bank’s periodic beneficial offers relevant for me. For absolutely no fault of mine!

India Post Temporarily Suspends Postal Services to USA from 25 August!

India Post has announced today that postal services to the United States of America will be temporarily suspended with effect from 25 August, 2025 with a few exceptions. The press release issued says that it has taken note of the Executive Order No. 14324 issued by the US Administration on 30th July, 2025, under which the duty-free de minimis exemption for goods valued up to $800 will be withdrawn with effect from 29th August, 2025. Consequently, all international postal items destined for the USA, regardless of their value, shall be subject to customs duties per the country-specific International Emergency Economic Power Act (IEEPA) tariff framework. However, gift items up to the value of $100 shall continue to remain exempt from duties.

Per the Executive Order, transport carriers delivering shipments through the international postal network, or other “qualified parties” approved by the US Customs and Border Protection (CBP), are required to collect and remit duties on postal shipments. While CBP issued certain guidelines on 15th August, 2025, several critical processes relating to the designation of “qualified parties” and mechanisms for duty collection and remittance remain undefined. Consequently, US bound air carriers have expressed their inability to accept postal consignments after 25th August, 2025, citing lack of operational and technical readiness.

In view of the above, the Department of Posts has decided to temporarily suspend booking of all types of postal articles, destined for USA with effect from 25th August, 2025 except letters/documents and gift items up to $100 in value. These exempt items will continue to be accepted and delivered to USA, subject to further clarifications from CBP and USPS.

India Post is closely monitoring the evolving situation in coordination with all stakeholders, and every effort is being made to normalize services at the earliest possible opportunity. Customers who have already booked articles that cannot be dispatched to the USA due to these circumstances may seek a refund of postage. 

The Department of Posts deeply regrets the inconvenience caused to customers and assures that all possible measures are being undertaken to resume full services to USA at the earliest.

Courtesy: ADPSR, Maharashtra Postal Circle, Mumbai.

India Post and World Trade Centre Sign MoU to Empower MSMEs and Entrepreneurs!

In a landmark step towards strengthening India’s international trade ecosystem, India Posht and the World Trade Centre (WTC), Mumbai have signed a historic Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) today in Mumbai to enhance global market access for Indian businesses, with a special focus on MSMEs and entrepreneurs.

This strategic collaboration combines India Post’s unmatched postal reach with WTC’s global trade expertise, thus creating a powerful platform to help Indian enterprises expand their footprint in international markets. The novel initiative is expected to boost exports, facilitate cross-border partnerships, and empower small businesses to go global.

The MoU was signed in the presence of Suchita Joshi, Postmaster General, Navi Mumbai Region, Dr. Sudhir G. Jhakere, Assistant Postmaster General and Dr. Vijay Kalantri, Chairman, WTC Mumbai.

The ceremony was also graced by Captain Somesh Batra, Vice Chairman, WTC Mumbai; Sangeeta Jain, Senior Director, AIAI (All India Association of Industries); Priya Pansare, Director, WTC Mumbai; and Vipul Mandlesha of Export Promotion Team.

Speaking on the occasion, officials emphasized that the partnership will act as a catalyst for MSMEs and startups, enabling them to leverage India Post’s extensive logistics network and WTC’s international trade facilitation services and is expected to open new global opportunities for Indian businesses and contribute significantly to the vision of making India a hub for global trade and entrepreneurship.

Courtesy: ADPSR, Maharashtra Postal Circle, Mumbai.

Getting Fretting Seething Fed Up!

It has become, particularly after the pandemic-driven desperation, extremely unsavory, unhealthy and irritating to avail of or buy any service or product from any service provider or business unit, ranging from an innocuous cup of tea to medical services, because once you do so which you cannot possibly avoid the marketing hawks of the concerned agencies will keep on bombarding you with text messages, WA posts, emails and also voice interactive or even live voice calls with no deadline for a most desired end, perhaps it's set to continue till the end of you or of the world! They holler and hammer you to rate them, recommend them, fill up feedback forms, take surveys and what not, and of course to continue buying from them. This is aside from the hawks of the bank/insurance/financial agencies who stop at nothing to lure you in, offering cards and personal loans even to hapless senior citizens, and the infuriatingly incessant reminders to pay up regular dues from about a month before the due dates, even though you've been extremely sincere in paying up on time everytime! Add to it the storm of the fraudsters who egg you on endlessly to click their dangerously spurious links. 

Particularly irksome are the brazen advertizing from the health service providers and medicine providers. Their messages on your personal accounts do not at all seek to hide their open invitation to you to fall sick asap, preferably seriously enough, and that it's evident that it's them only who would be deliriously happy if you oblige them! Well, on my part I immediately block their accounts or numbers, but the clever foxes change their accounts or numbers instantly and never even indulge themselves in commercial breaks! 

I've written about such issues quite a few times earlier too. What else to do? This perhaps gives me some vicariously avenging delight. If this is going to be the order of the digital age I'd have nothing of that! But how? I see no option of any kind. 

Can you think of any? 

All the Unknown Authors’ Money!

We’ve been very much used to lament ‘all the taxpayers’ money’ whenever we come across some embezzlement of public funds or plain acts of bribery and corruption. In this piece we’ve decided to confront a new but emerging phenomenon as should be clear from the title given. That day during a writer-authors’ conference one author made a disturbing observation on or perhaps lamented that ‘nowadays the number of authors has exceeded the number of readers’! That observation instantly found a sympathetic supporter in none other than this writer; because I’d dwelt on this post-modern phenomenon quite often and I’d even extended this realization to ‘there are more singers than listeners nowadays’ and of that kind. However, I don’t intend to analyze the nitty-gritty of such phenomena here apart from just saying that such brazenly emerging facts of life have been owed entirely to the social media and all digital formats that convinced a huge chunk of the users that they could indeed write and can be veritable authors, and due to which there’s been a tremendous boost in the recent decade in the self-publishing sector, indie sector, training agencies about how to write a book, formation of more and more award-giving organizations and in the advertising/marketing-of-books sector.

*I think this above mention is more than enough to indicate the kind of money the authors, unknown obviously, have been made to shell out in their dream of becoming successful authors. First, if they are not fully convinced by their skills embedded in social media posts they spend money on learning how to write a book in both fiction and non-fiction genres or how to write a novel or how to write a children’s book or whatever.

*Second, they spend a sizeable amount on their hard-earned money or in the case of the fortunate ones surplus money on publishing their books through the self-publishing or independently or hybrid publishing companies. Now, even though books should be considered as the genuine assets of any publishing company by promoting which they only stand to gain the maximum, such publishers put the onus on the authors on every possible opportunity of squeezing more and more money out of the hapless authors: like asking the authors to buy authors’ copes after dishing out the miserly complimentary copies or none at all; promote their books through marketing at their expense; asking for more money on the authors’ intention to change the cover page design or the blurbs or anything; asking for additional funds for reviews and press publicity; asking for astronomical amounts just to include their books in the international book fairs; and so on.

*Third, the authors, unknown mind you, are always vulnerable because after publishing their books they’d naturally want those to be read by as many as possible and to get some feedback, and therefore they easily fall into the ‘squeezing traps’ mentioned above. The publishers concerned understand this craving and so they keep on organizing interactive author events for which, again, they ask the authors to shell out more money just to attend and much more if they want to interact or launch their books or give self-promotion speeches cum display or participate in panel discussions.

*Fourth, the unknown authors never give up hope even after being handed out no-sales reports for months/years, and they naturally crave for some official recognition at least. Therefore, they give in to the lure of the award-giving companies some of whom sell the awards directly while others disguise it as taking the money for nomination/registration/participation fees, with some of them, again, are cruelly brazen enough to charge the authors even for nominating their books without a guarantee to win the awards. In the good old days authors, both known and unknown, used to get nominated for awards and get good prize money on winning the awards; but now one has to nominate oneself and that too after parting with a good sum of money.

*And not the least, although a few lucky writers, unknown of course, do get published by the traditional publishing houses who don’t charge money for the favor, these traditional publishing houses know very well that these guys are unknown entities or rather nonentities and so they do nothing to promote such books imposing the burden of the same plus innumerable ‘paid self-promotion drives’ on the already heavily-taxed authors.

 

While there’s no escape from the squeezing entrapment for which I cannot give any cure simply for the fact that every author has the right to aspire for attention or fame or recognition everything is not as bleak as seemingly suggested here. There are now several international digital self-publishing platforms like the Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) where an unknown writer/author can publish their books absolutely free of charge and in the case of KDP they get both e-book and paperbacks published with a free e-book enrollment in KindleUnlimited. Of course, the authors, as usual, crave for their books to be read and generate regular sales, and for that that they go on spending on advertising and marketing. The good thing is that on such marketing exercises one need not go for huge budgets and on account of the low-cost ads they can very well earn well through sales or being read on KNEP through nominal spending.

 

One must remember that even otherwise, meaning without having to go to make oneself an author by oneself only, every author or every book cannot expect to make it big; the tag of bestsellers is more of a magic than a thumping reality even for the celebrity authors. To not give up and keep on writing against all odds must have two basic considerations: that you are a writer by profession or passion or both, possibly making a living out of it, and it’s not just a hobby or pastime or ego; and that whether you are rich or not you must maintain a strict tab on your spends and expected earnings, preventing yourself from going over the top to finally succumb miserably to the luring offers from the publishers/trainers/marketers/reviewers/award-givers and so on. To end more positively, there's now no shame in self-publishing or indie publishing or anything of that kind; a good book can be a success irrespective of the platforms used. 

[Disclaimer: All the celebrity authors and all the authors that have made it big irrespective of the platforms chosen are respectfully excluded from this rather weird preview. And above all, this is not at all about complaining, it’s only about a fact of life in post-modern digital age.]

India Post: Business Meet to Provide Logistic Solutions for Speedy Delivery of Parcels and Cargo!

Maharashtra Postal Circle has today organized ‘Business Meet-2022’ in Mumbai with a view to announce the Circle’s new initiatives to its bulk customers in providing logistic solutions for the speedy delivery of parcels and cargo services. This Meet is a part of the National Postal Week-2022 being celebrated from 9^th to 13^th October with various daily activities wherein October 12 has been marked as the ‘Mails and Parcel Day’. The highlight of this Business Meet has been the presentation of the new initiatives in the presence of India Post’s major stakeholders from Mumbai and Navi Mumbai as regards the parcels and cargo services.

 

Amitabh Singh, Postmaster General (Mails & Business Development), made the presentation regarding the new initiatives taken up by the Department of Posts and apprised the Customers of the planned Logistic Post and Express Cargo Service revamp.

 

During the interactive session that followed discussions were held for ensuring better and speedy delivery performance, and also exploring new routes for the first-of-its-kind Rail Post Gati Shakti Project which had been initiated by the Western Railway in collaboration with India Post in Gujarat and Maharashtra earlier this year. Ganesh Sawaleshwarkar, Postmaster General, Navi Mumbai Region, made a very important point by emphasizing upon the need of better co-ordination between the Department of Posts and the Customs for speedy clearance of parcels at airports. If this objective is realized, this is bound to ease the woes of the concerned in near future.

 

More than top fifty stakeholders for Maharashtra Postal Circle from Mumbai and Navi Mumbai Region including the Election Commission, the Regional Passport office, Banking Institutions and other logistic providers, dealing in both Parcels and International mails, attended the meet. Pharmaceutical companies and Engineering product manufactures showed keen interest in the new Logistics solutions provided by the Department of Posts in co-ordination with the Indian Railways. 

 

Veena Srinivas, Chief Postmaster General, Maharashtra Circle, presided over the Business Meet. Shrikant Deshpande, Chief Electoral officer of Maharashtra State and Dr. Rajesh Gawande, Regional Passport officer were also present on the occasion.

 

A special Diwali Greeting card was released on the occasion which will be available for sale to all citizens through selected Post offices in Maharashtra & Goa.

 

(Courtesy: Department of Posts, Maharashtra Circle.)

Senior Citizens: Have Conversations of the Khatak Variety!

“Hello! Is this Mr. ----?”

“Yes, speaking.”

“Sir, I’m calling from the Khatak Life Insurance Company…!”

“Oh, welcome back! So, you’re giving me a job again, right?”

“Well Sir…it’ll be a part-time job…!”

“How much salary would you be giving me per month?”

“Well…err…Sir! First you’ll have to come to our branch to discuss it over!”

“Nah, my dear lady! I won’t come again to any branch of yours. Since you know everything about me please send me the appointment letter!”

“Hmm…mmm…um…ugh…ooh…!”

“Enjoy your day!” (Cuts the line … Khatak!)

 

*

 

“Hello Sir! I’m -----, calling from Khatak Bank. Can I have a minute with you please?”

“About what?”

“We’re giving you a credit card with a lot of benefits, specially designed for you…!”

“So, nowadays you’ve started issuing credit cards to granddads too!”

“Pardon Sir?”

“What pardon? I know a bit about how you get our phone numbers. Now, once you get my number you have to be knowing a bit about my user profile too, no?”

“Your privacy and security are our most important concerns, Sir! ...”

“Whoa! Really? Then how come you don’t know I’ve crossed the age of 65 and am a pension-earning senior citizen?”

“Sorry Sir…um…ugh…ooh…!”

“Enjoy your day!” (Cuts the line…Khatak!)

 

*

 

“Hi Sir! I’m calling from No-Khatak Bank! We have a pre-approved and lifetime free credit card ready for you!”

“Arre yaar! Why do you keep on harassing me? I’m 70, don’t you know that?” (Cuts the line…Khatak!)

 

*

 

“Hello! Am I speaking to --- please?”

“Yes?”

“Sir, I’m calling from Khatak financial services! Is this the right time to talk with you?”

“Forget what’s right or wrong! Tell me what you’d like to talk to me about?”

“Sir, there’s a great offer for you! A pre-approved personal loan of up to a million bucks with discounted interest rates and easy EMIs…!”

“You know my age?”

“Pardon Sir?”

“Let me know how exactly I’m supposed to utilize your loan since I’m 75 and so I hardly have any plans or aspirations of purchasing or investing or anything of that sort!”

“Hmm…mmm…um…ugh…ooh…!”

“Enjoy your day, dear!” (Cuts the line…Khatak!)

 

*

 

“Hello! I’m calling from Khatak heavenly travels and luxury resorts club! Can I speak to you for a moment?”

“What do I have to with you heavenly company, I’m heavily down on earth only and am sticking to that!”

“Oh Sir! This offer is irresistible! For a nominal annual membership fee it’ll offer you travel packages round the year in five-star resorts for 25 years, along with…!”  

“Hey my heavenly brother, wait! Why didn’t you check my age in advance? With a pension how do you expect me to afford your heavenly benefits? I’ve just crossed 80, you know!”

“Hmm…mmm…um…ugh…ooh…!”

“Enjoy your day, darling!” (Cuts the line...Khatak!)

 

*

 

“Hello Sir! I’m ---, from Khatak developers-builders!”

“Yes, how can I help you?”

“Sir, we have a huge project coming up in ----- site. Are looking for investing in property? You can book a flat early to have the early-bird discounts!”

“Are you providing me the millions of bucks needed?”

“Pardon Sir?”

“At the age of 85 how on earth do you think I’d manage a huge home loan to buy your property?”

“Hmm…mmm…ugh…um…ooh…!”

“Enjoy your day, honey!” (Cuts the line...Khatak!)

 

(Note: The hordes of leeches have unfortunately multiplied manifold thanks largely to the long pandemic slump. They pester you on whatever phone you’re using on a daily basis, asking for your money; they litter you text inbox with countless messages containing promos/videos/ links, asking for your money; they infiltrate your WA space too, inviting you to spend your money on a daily basis; you visit your favorite internet sites and suddenly they start asking for your money too; and even the money-rich famous religious places start hankering after your donations with daily reminders. You cannot possibly blame many of them as they’re desperately trying to make a decent living, apart from the downright hackers/fakers/fraudsters/greedy-for-money entities. Most of the other firms/apps are doing a thriving business by providing their databases liberally to the so-called telemarketers. In our modern digital age you cannot prevent that. However, my point is that when the service providers sell their databases why they don’t emphasize on the age-factor of the users so that at least the senior citizens are not harassed every day!

But to make matters worse, the senior citizens, mostly who’ve recently retired, are on special radar of some of the predating vultures like the life insurance companies. Their target is to blood-suck you dry, squeeze the last penny out of the varying pension packages hard-earned by the victims and reduce them to beggars on the street. Now, pensioners heavily depend on their savings to eke out an independent living and the tension increasingly gets heightened if they happen to live for many years after retirement. Beware then, senior citizens! Do never fall prey to their offers; never click a suspicious link; never seriously consider their job offers as they only want to make you spend at every step, indefinitely; never hand over your personal details to any entity; never make personal posts on social media. Remember that poverty among the pensioners has been rising worryingly across the globe.)

The Pandemic-Driven Desperation Is Worrying!

The two-year long COVID-19 pandemic (no signal that it’s ended) has jolted the Indian economy almost out of its roots, heightened by the fact that the economy had been under a lot of strain for at least two years prior the outbreak. The normal demand-supply equation has gone bizarre—the supply chain not yet being able to resume its normal course, with some of the key sectors suffering maximum damage, in light of insufficient demand as the common people now want to hold on to their savings fearing an uncertain future. Normally, with less demand and normal supply the prices should fall and this has led many experts to expect a recession soon or already in the process. However, prices only kept on rising, crossing a whopping level of 7% in the recent quarter that’s made the Reserve Bank of India increase the Repo rate twice in two weeks. With some knowledge of economics I feel that while the customers are not spending their money enough the suppliers not still getting the normal booming times want to break even or recompense by raising the prices, covering all the essentials as well the consumer durables. This brings us to the desperation displayed by almost all stakeholders to stay viable and to survive.

 

Millions of Indians have lost their jobs or regular sources of income, fully or partly, in the two-year slump and are now desperate to generate some sure income for sheer survival. Apart from causing more shortfalls on the demand side, these people are mostly trying to take up any casual jobs and try doing their best. Therefore, it’s no surprise that people like us, in some level of safety in terms of survival, are getting marketing calls from such desperate casuals, accounting for more than 90% of the daily phone calls. Invariably, these calls are designed to make you part with your income/savings or to give you income in the way of personal loans.

 

The casuals working for the telecom companies, the banks, the insurance companies and the like daily sit with their phone database and call up one and all at a daily basis. They want to convince you cutting a deal like get a new connection or to port the existing connection, purchase a policy, go for a new credit card or confirm for a personal loan so that they can earn their commissions to justify their temporary occupation and to generate some income. I’m appalled that they don’t even spare the retired people, offering loans or cards or policies without bothering to find out if they were eligible at all. On getting a call like that I ask them what I am going to do with a personal loan now, because a retired person normally doesn’t have too many plans for new purchases and that it’d be like just paying back the loan every month, losing a sizeable amount of money in the process. But they insist that all are eligible based on their credit score or something like that. Add to this the food or the cab or other aggregators who shower you with repeated messages/promos/discounts to go for it. With obstructed and declining economic growth such kind of desperation is not going to end soon.

 

The desperation is visible in other fields too. That day, being almost roasted alive inside the house by the grueling humid heat, I decided to go out for a relief in the evening. As I entered a restaurant cum bar the somewhat emaciated valet assigned to open the doors for every customer, leaned toward me while opening the glass door, and to my great surprise asked me in a low tone, “You’ll eat something inside?” I stared at him, not facing such a situation ever in my life and asked him, “What?” he repeated his question. Angry now, I told him that I was going to decide after browsing the menu only, and went past him, not courteously.

 

Taking a seat I complained to a waiter about this peculiar behavior. He didn’t look surprised, but assured me he’d talk to him which he did later. I ordered a beer and as I started relishing the cool relief going down my throat I couldn’t help wondering about that valet. I felt sorry for him, standing out there in the heat, God knows for how many hours a day. ‘Maybe, most of the customers enter here just to cool off a little without ordering pricey dishes and thus depriving him of a tip’, I thought. This, in fact, got somewhat confirmed when, paying the bill, I left a tip the waiter told me to give it to the valet outside and that from there the money would be distributed to all of them. I took the note back and went outside. Unfortunately, he was not there, perhaps taking a break for himself. I waited a couple of minutes looking around, and then left sadly.

 

While taking a flight at times, out of absolute necessity, I’ve been observing the airports too, and was always surprised to see a lot of un-uniformed people loitering around, offering help to one and all like the railway porters. And recently, I got a shocker.

 

An elderly lady in perfect health and posture had just got down from a cab at an airport, offloading her baggage. She was traveling alone, apparently. A sickly elderly person approached her immediately, offering help till the boarding is completed for a little over a thousand bucks. The surprised lady was not yet able to decide what to do when the man while arranging a trolley for the baggage unfolded a wheelchair and asked her to occupy it. The lady got very offended and angry now. She stoutly refused and taking hold of her trolley set off for the airport entrance.

 

Desperation and the resultant frustration cum anger is hardly good news for a society. If continued for an indefinite period of time this may lead to violence and crimes. In India, we’ve been helplessly watching violent rivalries, riots in various places on silly excuses, general crimes and crimes against women. Hope the desperation gets a solution fast and the looming uncertainty ends soon. Unfortunately, the epidemiologists are at the moment are debating if the COVID-19 Fourth Wave has hit India or not. 

Lord Shiva Dwells In Your Heart And Home Always!

Lord Shiva is believed to be the most powerful God in the Hindu Trinity with Brahma and Vishnu. Lord Shiva is described as a destroyer and also a recreator and transformer. He is also referred to as Mahadeva or Maheshwar—the Great God. In his benevolent form he lives like a simple householder with his family of other Hindu Gods and Goddesses and spends His time in Kailash with the simplicity of an ascetic. But when He is angry, he becomes the Destroyer in which form he can obliterate demons, impurities in human minds and even the whole world. He is everywhere like any other omnipotent and omnipresent God. You can find Him in your heart, in the environs of your home and do your prayers accordingly; and if you want to worship Him in the form of an idol you can install a Shivling or Shiva Linga, the mark or sign or symbol of Lord Shiva, in your home or visit a temple or a shrine or a place of worship even under a big tree that are found almost in every locality in India. There are even artistic priests available in the country who can come to your home, create a perfect idol of Shivling in clay and do a most gratifying Puja for you. You absolutely need not launch yourself in a journey of finding and discovering Him.

 

History is a process of evolution and change. Mother Earth keeps on changing through wars, conflicts, rivalries, reforms and recreation in an endless cycle. Mother Earth belongs to the whole of humankind, and not to any particular section of it. Since evolution has been the eternal cycle human discoveries and inventions definitely mark the progress of humankind. In modern times archaeological surveys lead to priceless discoveries of civilizations, scriptures and monuments. Such priceless assets add to our knowledge and should ideally be preserved in museums and research institutions. Such discoveries should never ever lead to disputes or quarrels over the rights of ownership as we just said Mother Earth belongs to all. Petty quarrels make Lord Shiva very angry and we’ve been watching the devastation caused by Mother Nature in the recent decades, and mind you, the Shakti or the energy of Lord Shiva’s better half Parvati or Durga or Kali gets channelized through the Lord only.

 

Throughout history many of the kings or emperors, irrespective of their religions, had either done a lot of good or did a lot of evil deeds and acts of destructions. Many invaders coming from various regions of the world ravaged and savaged our countries on many occasions leaving a trail of pain and suffering; however, the next rulers repaired again, and therefore, the process goes on. We cannot bring those to court for doing wrongs over the centuries, neither can we reward those benevolent ones in public events. But we can do indeed learn, gather knowledge and follow the good ideals.

 

We should consider ourselves very lucky to be living in a modern and digital world of today where everything is at our fingertips. We can even find our beloved gods and goddesses in our handy devices and sing or listen to prayers, either alone with oneself or with others, within them. If we find something objectionable or we disagree with something/someone we can always exchange our views openly in a peaceful and a virtually-built environment, instead of breaking out in open physical conflicts that definitely anger the divine powers, Mother Earth and Mother Nature. The best option is to go on enhancing our Gyan or wisdom rather than be vapid about it.

 

We should also shift our focus on how to further the all-round progress of our country in all fields of activity. We’ve seen how the Pandemic nearly destroyed us; how the economies have been hit; how the inflation is becoming uncontrollable; how the gas cylinder prices have shot up beyond the 1k mark and the fuel prices have crossed the 100+ mark, still rising; how the unemployment has been becoming a scourge; and what has been happening to our neighboring country Sri Lanka. We have much to ponder upon while keeping our prayers pure and within ourselves. Besides, should we go on with our relentless hunts/quests/pleas to overburden our courts that have already been reeling under extreme pressure?

India Play Holi Amid Frayed Nerves Over Russian-Ukraine War And Concerns For A COVID-19 4th Wave!

The Festival of Colors, Holi, began in India with the symbolic burning of Holika (a demoness of ancient times representing the evil or the Satan) effigy last night. This festival is celebrated every year in the last full moon night of the Hindu calendar year. Today, the colors are submerging the country in a spirit of joy. The Indians righteously feel and justify the celebrations across the country as they have missed this for the last two years, and after all, this signifies the victory of good over evil. For the last one month the country has seen a return to near normalcy with all restrictions except for the mask removed, the schools/colleges reopening; and just when they felt that the Pandemic had finally entered the endemic phase came the WHO (World Health Organization) warning that the pandemic is far from over and it has been spiking globally again with more than 11 million cases new cases and over 43,000 deaths in the last week. Combine this with the Russia-Ukraine war raging now for over three weeks. Therefore, the Globe is in a real soup at the moment with the heady mix of war, pandemic and inflation—the last being fueled by the firsts. Indeed, we need victory over the evil forces desperately now.

 

Most of the international powers, super or otherwise, are really getting ruffled up now by what they call the Russian belligerence. True to its strategic interests Russia has been talking peace with Ukraine (that once Ukraine agrees to Russian conditions there'd be instant ceasefire) while stepping up the attacks, particularly targeting the civil population as alleged by Ukraine. The Ukraine official media has released pictures of airports, hospitals, schools, theatres and so on being hit by Russian missiles. The siege of Kyiv and other major cities continue. As anticipated, Russia had ignored the order of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to suspend its war immediately. Somewhat inspired by the recent Indian trends perhaps, Putin’s government has decided to label all antiwar Russians as traitors.

 

Photo: cnn.com

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky, in his trademark green t-shirt, has addressed the US Congress recently, urging them to help now or never to avert the invasion. Although he has been renewing his appeals for a no-fly zone it was made clear to him that the no-fly zone declaration or sending MiG fighter jets was not possible as it would escalate the war globally. So, Zelensky asked for other military aid from the US and the European countries in his last address. President Joe Biden responded by granting a $800 million worth military aid in terms of anti-aircraft systems, anti-tank weapons and drones. President Zelensky’s passionately emotional appeal earned him a standing ovation from the US Congress while a sort of comedy was created too as one lawmaker raised the query as to whether Zelensky did not own a suit.

 

Unable to either stop or defeat Russia through endless rounds of economic sanctions President Biden used the strongest words so far calling Putin ‘a war criminal’ while maintaining his stand to not send US ground troops to Ukraine as any direct conflict between Russia and the NATO would result in World War-III. The US Senate also called for an investigation into the alleged war crimes by Putin. The US lawmakers are applying more pressure now on India to take a stand against Russia while India’s Indian Oil Corporation has bought 3 million barrels of crude oil from Russia reportedly at a heavy discount. It was also reported that an Indian judge in the ICJ had voted against Russia in support of the court’s order.

 

With no end in sight for the Ukraine crisis the pandemic resurge has added more problems. The WHO warning said that one of the three sub-variants of Omicron, namely the BA.2 variant, has been found to be the dominant virus in the recent surge in China, South Korea and Hong Kong—China already putting nearly 37 million of its citizens under lockdown after reaching the highest ever daily-infection figures since the pandemic started; South Korea registering a record daily new cases of around 600,000 only yesterday, a supposed peak for the country; and Hong Kong reporting a rising trend of deaths, particularly because a large chunk of its elderly population is yet to be vaccinated.  A few cases of the BA.2 virus, also called the ‘stealth virus’ due to its ability to escape detection through the normal RT-PCR tests, are also being found in Israel. European nations like Germany, France and the UK among others are also showing rising infections in recent days. The WHO warns that the surge may be heading toward countries in eastern Europe too including Belarus and Ukraine, and appealed to the nations to not lax the testing/detection/contact measures further. President Biden is also put under more pressure due to the surge.

 

Some studies have reportedly said that the new surge or the COVID-19 Fourth Wave may reach India by June this year and may last for four months. Amid the relaxations, the elections and the celebrations the Government of India had taken a high-level meeting to study the new threat. In all, we are looking at a very volatile and uncertain future at the moment, confounded by the Ukraine war and an obstinately resurging two-year-old pandemic. The crude oil prices had come down to around $100 a barrel on the hopes of a truce between Russia and Ukraine; but now the uncertainty is bound to come back. All the growth rates as far as the starting-to-revive economies are being concerned are set to be revised downwards at any time. 

Pray For The Citizens Of Ukraine As The Lust For Global Strategic Supremacy Leads To Russia’s Invasion!

Notwithstanding the complications and the stakes involved in the Ukraine crisis it is just incredible that in an ultra-modern age where the globe becomes one community, international diplomacy should fail so miserably to prevent a war that could have grave multidimensional impact. Again and again, the lust for the superpower status and strategic presence cum military bases has been driving the US and Russia with or without China launch military assaults, occupations, invasions and wars since the era of the cold war ended. With the same aggressive intent and lust Russia has invaded Ukraine just hours ago. President Vladimir Putin calls it a military intervention or operation that has become inevitable after the nationalist ambitions of the Ukrainians and Ukraine’s drive to integrate itself with the European Union and the NATO have threatened Russia’s national security. Putin’s justification has extended to his chilling warning that should any other country interfere in its ‘necessary’ war Russia will act immediately which may lead to consequences the world has never witnessed before.

 

President Joe Biden who seemingly knew the inevitability of a Russian invasion many days before and his western allies have, as expected, rather grabbed this opportunity to threaten severe economic sanctions as if they were waiting for just that. Most of these countries are extremely vocal saying the sanctions would be such as to hurt Russia extremely dearly and almost isolate it from the global network of trade and commerce; of course, they admit that these sanctions would hurt them too as is unavoidable in a closely-knit global unit. But why take only economic sanctions as the ultimate weapon leaving the Ukrainians to their fate? Why did they not try harder enough for a diplomatic solution earlier? The NATO reportedly is to mobilize its forces in the neighboring European countries; but they have to be wary of Putin’s threats to not allow this invasion snowball into a global war.  

 

We condemn the invasion. We want Russia’s aggression be stopped immediately come what may while we fail to understand who is going to accomplish that as we cannot justify the actions of any of the superpowers or powers of the Planet Earth with overwhelming stakes in Ukraine. There are reports of explosions and Russian shelling in capital Kyiv and several other cities. Ukraine claims it has brought down five Russian aircrafts while Russia says that it has completely destroyed Ukraine’s air defense systems. India’s efforts in bringing back the Indians have stopped as airports in Ukraine are shut now. Around 40 Ukrainian soldiers and 10 civilians are officially reported as killed so far among many more injured.

 

The panicky citizens of Ukraine are desperately calling upon the United Nations to stop the Russian advances. Huge traffic jams are seen in Kyiv as many of the residents try to flee the city to other possibly safer places. Sounds of bombings and shelling can be heard on the TV news channels across the globe. But a safer haven seems to an illusion. Russian troops had reportedly taken military action in eastern Ukraine days back where it has been supporting the separatists since the invasion of Crimea in 2014. Putin had already recognized two separate nations in that region and it is very clear that he wants the whole of Ukraine to be brought under its direct control for the so-called safeguarding of national security. Of course, many pro-Russia inhabitants of the eastern region have reached the safety by crossing over to Russia.

 

President Volodymyr Zelensky, a politician, actor and a comedian who was elected as Ukraine’s sixth President by the nationalist supporters in 2019, has in the meantime made it very clear that Ukraine is going to fight the Russian attack with all its might. This apparently means a fight to the finish just for the simple but painful fact that Ukraine is no comparison to Russia’s military power. Zelensky has declared martial law in the nation and has allowed all the citizens to arm themselves with guns for defense. This looks very ominous notwithstanding his patriotic feelings and that he expects arms, ammunition and forces from the western European allies. The Russian President calls the independent-minded patriotic Ukrainians as ‘neo-Nazis’ and this further accentuates the frightening reality.

 

Should this uncalled-for war be allowed to run its full course thousands of innocents on both sides are likely to perish apart from causing irreparable damage to the infrastructure of Ukraine. And then, the global citizens are also set to suffer in the disastrous economic aftermath. The crude oil prices have already climbed to unprecedented levels in recent times, and the stock markets in India and elsewhere ae already having a red run. Severe economic sanctions are going to provide no relief, but bring on more misery in terms of trade and prices in the global economy that has just started recovering from the pandemic.

 

The global citizens must rise to the occasion and create enough pressure on the main stakeholders to stop this war. As Russian troops are infiltrating into more and more cities and territories of Ukraine, we all pray for the safety of the Ukrainians. Stop this war!

 

(Note: ‘Reading’ readers of this site must be wondering how this fella has gone down on his pledge so fast! Well, if international cricketers can retire/resign and re-join at will why not his humble human being on this earth! Anyway, the story about that later, not in this grave and ominous time of war.)