A Win Down-Under

Finally the Indian Cricket team wins a match down under. I suspect it's all been one smart strategy - to not waste energy playing hard to win those boring 5-day so-called test matches and to focus on one-days and 20-20s, which are smaller in length, more exciting and more lucrative; and while Indian team did this, let the Australians get exhausted. It's too early to make this conclusion though, coz this last victory may just be an aberration. But still, what the heck... I'll make it nonetheless.

A funny comment I read under a TOI article last night said that India, Pakistan, West-Indies, Sri Lanka etc. should all voluntarily and officially move out of test-cricket altogether. And let only Australia and England play the boring version and feel proud about it if they will. I couldn't agree more.

Even if indeed this victory is not representative of the Indian team's abilities, the fact still stands that test matches are terribly boring and need to be gotten rid of ASAP. Although I am proud that it was a test match in which Bhuvan and his team defeated the angrez to shut their mouth that shouted teen goona laggaan, they really had no choice and power to decide or enforce the version.

Let's hope now that we win a few more matches and our team of uncles makes us proud. Don't stop expecting from them. Remember the times when the team had only one uncle - Robin Singh - who was more active and energetic than every youngster in the team. (Handsome kahaan hai aajkal?) I am sure he can still come back and dive like a kid, if only some of the youngsters could retire.

Got Some Change?

Let’s talk about one common problem with the available denominations of the Indian Currency – the fact that there are things available at prices for which coins/notes of right denominations are scarce, and which is forcing a lot of vendors in the unorganized sector to price their products at the higher and nearest round figures, or charge somewhat like that with the difference either covered with Dairy Milk Éclairs or just a plain simple thhenga. We may even be adding, as a result, to some inflation (unaccounted) and consumption (unwanted) in the economy. (Who would buy Dairy Milk Éclairs otherwise?)

There is one Panipuri shop in Magarpatta (Pune) where the shopkeeper refuses to give any change that is not in multiples of 10. But his Panipuri is priced at Rs.15.00 per plate. So you have to either pay him the exact amount of Rs.15.00, or eat 2 more Panipuris by paying Rs.20.00 or not eat there at all, which he doesn’t mind. Interestingly, he always readily accepts when you pay him exact Rs.15.00, but whenever I didn’t have change, he didn’t have it either, or he just said so, and he didn’t bother if I went away and ate somewhere else. And this kind of stuff keeps happening very often with me these days. And probably even with Chikni Chameli, jo pahua chadha ke hazaaron ke note khulla chhutta karaane aayi! Some vendors even forgo a few bucks here and there, as running around for change is not always worth the effort.

So the point is - most of India still transacts in cash and coins, but sadly, we are not minting them enough to allow ourselves all combinations so as to easily arrive at any odd natural number.