Who is Responsible?

As I am about to write this post, numbers are crossing my mind. They are random. 2; 4.56; 7.23; 9; 10.34; 15.67; 12… They arrived simultaneously, without any kind of knock for their arrival.

Do numbers really play an important part in our life? As one of the greatest English Poet and Playwright, Shakespeare said ‘What’s there in the name?’

Likewise no such quote is made by anyone for numbers. Is it because rather than a name, a number attached to a person signifies a lot about him/her?

Let us play with these numbers. If you signify them as a:

Date and Month, it would be someone’s Birthday or it signifies someone’s Obituary;

Percentage sign, it would be someone’s Marks in Graduation or someone’s Attendance in a class round the year;

Currency sign, it would be someone’s salary for the month, or someone is deceived to the amount of that.

A 10 digit number signifies which person you are referring to.

Also, a same number would give pain and pleasure at different times.

We lend someone money, though moneylender concept is outdated, for say a interest of 12%, it is an amazing feeling for us, and we are more delighted to have interest payment rather than the loan amount.

But, if we have a bank providing us a loan at above mentioned interest rate, we would never even think of having such a bank in our region.

Big or Small, but numbers do certainly play an important role in shaping up our life.

A student consistently making good grades is assured of a better placement or future prospect, than a student consistently making bad grades. Again the grades are composed mere of these numbers alone.

I feel rather than common names, we find out numbers being common in between us and the people we know. Like with many people around us, we share common birth year or even a birthday.

So, do they really affect our life? Are you satiated by my reasoning or should be there some serious talk now.

The number would really affect us and it has done so in the past also.

Try recalling what the below stated numbers signify:

1857; 17.56; 1930; 17.97; 1947; 16.22; 1983; 17.65; 2001; 16.49; 2008; 12.63.

You would be really smart enough to judge the big numbers over here, as they represent some of the major happenings of India as well as Globe.

1857: Uprising of 1857;

1930: Great Economic Depression;

1947: Independence of India;

1983: World Cup Win of Indian Cricket Team;

2001: Crash of Twin Towers in USA;

2008: Economic Financial Crisis.

Like these, there are number of happenings that have taken place over the years. Now, just think if you have missed the bold ones, and can you make any sense out of them. One must be surprised, as if what these numbers are doing over here with the gigantic ones. Are they really the trivial ones in front of large numbers?

1857; 1930; 1947; 1983; 2001; and 2008 were just numbers, but, as soon as a year and a happening is attached, they become momentous.

Like this the minuscule are really not to be bothered about for, or should I add a notorious word and a symbol against it, to give these numbers a real dishonorable look.

How about, ‘Food Inflation Rate’?

Yes, the numbers given here in bold reflect the rate of Food Inflation in India from January, 2010 onwards. I am sure every one of you must have already heard about it a lot and must have felt the pinch, if ever gone to market to shop for Food Items.

To give it a deep thought, reflect once again the big numbers, and think why the things attached to it happened. Who was responsible for making those numbers glorified or terrible?

1857: Would be remembered as the First Uprising of India against the Atrocities of then ruler of India. The people responsible to make this happen were: Rani Jhansibai; Tatya Tope; Mangal Pande; and many more.

1930: Would be remembered for Great Depression that preceded 2nd World War, and had the roots in USA. Also, the person responsible to large extent to get USA out of it was: Roosevelt and the economic policies of his government.

1947: Who would forget this momentous year of the Independent India? Again people responsible: Mahatma Gandhi; Bhagat Singh; Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose; and the list go on and on.

1983: First ever Cricket World Cup win of India, beating the then Champions West Indies, at the ground of Lords. The responsible people who gave the nation time to pride: Kapil Dev; Mohinder Amarnath; Sunil Gavaskar; Bishen Singh Bedi; and many more.

2001: The date 9/11; and name Osama Bin Laden were more popular than never before. Invasion of Afghanistan; and Iraq done by: George W Bush and its allied forces.

2008: A very fresh happening still lingering in the minds of people. Responsibility shared by: Financial Giants, like Goldman Sachs; Morgan Stanley; Lehmann Brothers; and many more.

These big numbers or rather now say years were made momentous by some or the other people who were part of the happening. Likewise, may I now ask you a question: Who do you feel is responsible for the numbers adjoining Food Inflation Rate?

Don’t jump on to the conclusion like:

1) Failure of Monsoon;

2) Government Policies;

3) Post Harvesting Infrastructure and many more on which we the Aam Aadmi of India don’t have the hold on.

A staggering figure comes from an estimated report which is supported by a link given here under: Rs. 58,000 Crore of Food items were wasted in India in 2008.

Link:

href="http://seekingalpha.com/article/179191-food-inflation-in-india-causes-solutions">http://seekingalpha.com/article/179191-food-inflation-in-india-causes-solutions

There are some reasons given in this link regarding the amount of food wasted. But, rather than giving these reasons, is it a time to introspect ourselves.

I do agree the reasons given in the link are responsible for the gigantic Food Inflation Rates to which we are abided by.

Don’t you think that we the Aam Aadmi of India are also responsible for the creation of Food Wastage?

Give a look at the following things given hereby:

1) I live in a fully residential campus of Birla Institute of Management Technology, Greater Noida. Doing MBA program. We have an amazing facility of Food over here and the Mess is responsible daily to put out the figures of Food Wastage for the day before. The figures are amazing: On an average 100 to 150 kg of Food is wasted daily by a population of around 800 students served in this mess.

Now, just think about this:

This is not the only mess facility in India. There would several like this, and being into hostel life for more than 7 years now, I can assure you of more than 1 Lakh such mess facilities all over India. All these facilities around the country would not be of same size, but, still they are producing waste.

2) Hotels being major source of Food Wastage.

3) Marriage Ceremony:

It holds a memory of life time for everyone in Indian Culture. Do we really take into account how much amount of Food is wasted in a Normal Marriage Ceremony in India?

Just check this out: On an average, a Hindu family wastes around 5 kg of Rice in a marriage ceremony. For such occasions, Rice is treated as a very sacred ingredient. It is used to: Throw on Bride and Groom during the very much Sacred 7 Pheras, and also used for many other rituals happening at the marriage ceremony.

So, if we take into account all the Hindu Marriages taking place over a span of 1 year, then just think of Wastage of Rice. Let the wastage of other food items, are not questioned as of now.

Being an MBA student and also from childhood, I was taught a very basic concept of Economics:

If a waste is created in an organization, then who is going to pay for that? It is, but, obvious for an organization to add the cost of Waste created to the product being sold to the customer. So, at the end it is we the People of India, who are going to pay for the waste.

If wastage is created today, then the same amount of Food is again demanded in the market tomorrow. More waste will lead to the creation of more demand of Food Items in the market.

Now, a basic Economics of life teaches us: If demand increases, then Price of an item increases.

You will say Supply can balance with demand, but, again our agriculture is mainly dependent on Monsoon, to which we are having a negative response from past several years, due to many reasons like Global Warming; Deforestation, etc.

So, next time you see media flashing up the Breaking News of: Food Inflation Rate, just stop blaming others and ask yourself a question:

Who is Responsible? And you will find an answer to this, into your own self.