FAMOUS BOULEVARDS NEED A SECOND LOOK

 

I am from Lucknow and anyone who has visited Lucknow must have walked down the famous Hazaratgunj, soaking up the history, the feeling, the nazakat and nafasat of the city. The bookshops, the apparel shops, the studios and the curio shops, the cafes, the hotels, the cinema halls, the church and the hanuman temple all add up to offer an excitement like no other. The crowded street corners and the densely packed Lover’s lane, the fiercely bargaining and yet polite street hawkers and the beautifully bejewelled and bedecked ladies all by themselves or with their handsome partners  all add to the beauty of the place and being in the midst of this cultural and culinary extravaganza is a divine experience called ‘ganjing’!   Hazaratgunj has changed with time and my generation remembers the ganjing experience of the past with nostalgia, but I cannot deny that the periodic beautification has kept her young and vibrant!

 

Swanston Street is one of the main north-south streets in the city of Melbourne, lined on either side with a number of iconic landmarks and heritage buildings. Once a very congested and polluted street, it is today an example of pedestrian-oriented and transit-priority street design. Always a cultural epicentre, with excellent shopping and culinary options, the changes over time has kept it vibrant and enjoyable. These periodic changes have strengthened the identity of the city and enhanced user experience and access for shoppers, visitors, workers, cyclists, and transit users. It has created more attractive, democratic, and safe public spaces, provided spaces where people can gather and meet and organize art exhibitions, and events. There are tram stops for important landmarks like City Square and the State Library and private cars and taxis are not allowed. Increaseing the sidewalk width, creating dedicated cycle lanes and raised tram platforms has allowed universal access.

It's hard for travellers to resist the allure of a famous street whenever they visit a new city. It all seems so simple: one thoroughfare in which you can soak up local culture, do a little shopping, have something to eat, enjoy a few drinks, and maybe even spend the night. All in one location! It is not surprising when tourists flock to the world's best-known boulevards, its pre-eminent pathways and immortalize it for posterity. After all how can you not like the likes of the Royal Mile in Edinburgh, the Via Dolorosa in Jerusalem, Chandni Chowk in Delhi. Everyone should see these places and soak up the atmosphere.

 

However, plenty of the world's most famous streets have become victims of their own success, and are in dire need of a spruce up. Streets such as these…

Champs Elysees, Paris

I haven't walked down Paris's most famous street in a good 5 years or so. There's a reason for that, too. Last time I was there it just seemed to be a strip of high-rent chain stores and touristy, overpriced cafes. Why would you? And it seems as if Parisians agree, going by the recently announced plans to give the whole thing a $395 million makeover, which includes cutting traffic, extending pavements and creating new green space. Plenty of other cities could learn.

Hollywood Blvd, LA

You expect film-star glitz and glamour on one of the best-known boulevards in the world. What you get is grit and grime, an underwhelming and – depending on the block you happen to be walking on – occasionally scary thoroughfare that leaves you scratching your head for days after. Was that it? Yes, there are stars on the pavement with famous names printed on them, and a well-known theatre or two. But as a tourist attraction, Hollywood Blvd could use some serious work. I would advise you to instead try Sunset Blvd, just nearby, has a lot more going for it.

Jalan Alor, Kuala Lumpur

There's a rule in life that every traveller can pretty much swear by: if Anthony Bourdain ate there, it's going to be good. The guy had a knack for sniffing out every city's best eats, from fine-diners to dives. And in KL, Bourdain ate at Wong Ah Wah, a well-known purveyor of chicken wings on a well-known eat street, Jalan Alor. And WAW, as it's affectionately known by locals and travellers is good…. extremely good! The rest of Jalan Alor, however, is surprisingly average, particularly compared to some of the other foodie precincts in the Malaysian capital. Tourists love it, but plenty of KL residents steer clear. I would also advise you to try Jalan Raja Muda Musa which has some amazing options too.

La Rambla, Barcelona

Barcelona's most famous street is great – if you want to be robbed or ripped off, or pick up a tacky souvenir T-shirt and eat a massively overpriced paella. In a city with so much to offer, it seems bizarre that one of its most famous locations is so risky. You only have to step a few metres either side of La Rambla to find something far better: the stylish Gothic Quarter to the north-east, and the rough-and-tumble Raval on the other side. I will advise you to try Carrer del Parlament, in Sant Antoni, you will not be disappointed.

Orchard Rd, Singapore

It depends what you're into. If you like shopping, if the idea of mall after mall filled with high-end stores selling luxury items has you drooling in anticipation, then you really will enjoy Singapore's most famous street. You've got it all here: shoe shops, handbag stores, fine-dining restaurants, see-and-be-seen bars. But what you don't have is thriving culture that feels accessible and enjoyable for all. I will advise you to try Geylang Road. This is everything Orchard Road is not – for better and worse.

Times Square, NYC

Technically, this is not a street. But one of New York's most famous locations makes it to the list thanks to its incredible ability to maintain its tourist-drawing fame while offering absolutely nothing of any substance for those tourists to enjoy. Times Square itself is just an open space, not particularly lovely or inviting; the attractions that surround the square include Madame Tussaud's, Ripley's Believe It or Not, and a giant M&Ms World. Is this really what you came to New York for? If not then go to Union Square, which has far more going for it.

Khao San Rd, Bangkok

I'm a little torn here, because to change Khao San Road would be to lose its very essence. This notorious backpacker haven, popularized in the '80s and '90s, is just as sleazy as you would expect, filled with rowdy backpacker bars, cheap-as-chips hostels, and street stands selling some of the city's worst pad Thai. It's famous, but that doesn't mean it's pleasant. Still, would you want to change that? There are plenty of other places in Bangkok to go. Maybe Khao San Road should be left as it is. Phra Athit Road is Khoa San's classier cousin but perhaps my liking for it over Khao San is because I am not so young anymore and Khao San has not lost its youth!

Philosopher's Path, Kyoto

Kyoto is beautiful, stunningly, achingly beautiful, more so in the cherry blossom season. There's so much to love about this city, so much beauty to soak in, so much history to enjoy. Every street seems more charming than the last; every temple more mind-bogglingly lovely. And so for the famous Philosopher's Path, a winding walkway in the north-east of the city, you have high hopes. And those hopes, unless you arrive during cherry blossom season, will probably be dashed. The Philosopher's Path is oddly bland, a canal-side track that winds through a nondescript neighbourhood, leading nowhere in particular. The Arashiyama Bamboo Forest is an Instagrammer's fantasy and I would advise you to visit this place.

Abbey Rd, London

You only have yourself to blame if you arrive at Abbey Road in London expecting something amazing. This is a street that's famous for one thing, and one thing only: a pedestrian crossing that made it onto the cover of a fairly well-known record. Beatles fanatics and curious tourists flock here to recreate the album cover in their own special way, and then look around and realize there's nothing else to do. London's Carnaby Street and Brick Lane are also seriously underwhelming.

 

Boulevards give a city its soul and are canvases on which the culture of the city is painted. They are invariably pedestrian and cyclist friendly and have shops and cafes, cinemas and theatres, studios and curio shops and lots of open spaces for outdoor entertainment, florists, musicians and hawkers. Such streets can accommodate commercial activity; improve public participation, and sustainable environments that benefit the surrounding communities. Boulevards falling prey to civic negligence and decay need to be resuscitated urgently.

DISCREDITING AND TAXING THE RICH WILL KEEP US POOR

 

This is a very unique habit of our sub-continent; we always discredit the rich and blame them for all our miseries. Post independence, with shameless socialism inflicted upon us, we have been groomed to grudge the rich and assume that their wealth is ill-gotten. Successive governments to have victimized them with atrocious taxes, and after taking their tax money they have mostly wasted them and so we still remain ‘developing’ countries. Japan and Korea who started the race with us are now icons of financial success but we still remain in our poverty wonderland. We think rich are evil, profit is a sin and we must distribute our national wealth evenly irrespective of our talent and worth.

Nobody is making a case for the Vijay Malyas, Nirav Modis and Mehul Choksis of this world. They are cheats and the law should come down upon them like a ton of bricks but to hold a case against the luminaries of industry and to burden them with unpredictable taxes and penalties which drives daring entrepreneurs to commit suicide (remember V.G. Siddhartha of Café Coffee Day) is no prescription for industrial boom. Have you ever wondered why politicians are considered as nation builders and not industrialists like Tata, Birla, Reliance, Singhanias and Dalmias? Why are industrialists never considered for Bharat Ratna, when they are the ones creating the 'ratna'(treasure)?

As per Forbes magazine and Google Wikipedia Adar Punewala is 10th richest Indian ! The left leaning media is now flooding us with messages which say that he is marketing his vaccine at a huge profit per dose and taking advantage of his monopoly. They are up in arms against such profit. It is exploitation of the poor so that the rich can get richer they cry! 

There are many problems with this line of thinking.

1. It is not a crime to be rich

2. Profit is not evil. If businesses fail to make profit how will they spend in R&D and how will they invent newer goods and services?

3. If businesses do not make profit then how will they expand and employ more people? How will the problem of unemployment be solved?

4. It is the job of the government to subsidize the vaccine not Mr. Poonawala's

5. Mr. Poonawala is surely paying taxes on his profits, so why hold any grudge against him?

6. We have not yet been told by the government the agreement it has reached with Mr. Poonawala in terms of pricing of the vaccine. All discussions are on the basis of conjectures and theories propounded by the left leaning thinkdom.

7. The crab mentality of pulling down a successful individual or institution into the mud and sludge of mediocrity will not let India shine. These are rare islands of excellence in the ocean of mediocrity, let us leave them alone to prosper. They will provide vaccine to the entire world and make us proud.

In our lifetime we have seen a gradual shift in our Indian society from shameless socialism to shackled capitalism. It is the breaking down of these shackles is what is termed as 'economic reforms'. We has the first set of reforms in 1991 when Dr. Manmohan Singh, under the able guidance of Prime Minister Sri P. V. Narsimha Rao ushered in a whole new way of life. Endless waiting for a landline telephone connection, a gas connection, a Vespa scooter was soon history and the only available Ambassador car disappeared, being replaced by a world of choices. Indian businesses were encouraged to compete with the world's best and competition improved quality and performance. So many people got employment and so many families were pulled out of poverty. Then why did we, as a nation, remain timid and our tentative baby steps in this path of reforms did not grow into confident long strides?

The license raj was not completely dismantled and the babus in the governments convinced the politicians that their control on economy by unexplainably complicated and bizarre taxes was mandatory. So even when with a comfortable majority in Parliament late Sri Arun Jaitley floated the GST it was in multiple slabs and extremely complicated. The theme behind this was typical sarkari babu thinking - don't make it simple, if a common man can understand it then what will remain for us to do? I will give you just one example and you will understand the babu logic - the popular start up ID Fresh Food is in the business of ready to eat foods like rotis, chapatis, parathas and batters of idli and dosa. They were selling roti, chapati and paratha all at 5% GST. A smart babu of tax office had a brainstorm and slapped 18% GST on paratha because roti and chapati are flat bread but paratha is not! It is layered bread. So true to the sarkari babu culture our multipurpose babus are now turning into gourmet chefs only to invent new ways of taxing people. 

Taxes have to be simple and they should be less, only then we can achieve maximum compliance and aspire for a 5 trillion dollar economy. In this connection the 'sin tax' on 5 star hotels, beverages, air travel, comfort goods like air conditioners, plasma TV, SUVs are also bizarre. Why do we tax them so harshly, when it is actually counterproductive?

Let me tell you why, and for that let me use the '5 star hotel's as my model. A 250 room 5 star hotel in my city generates direct employment for around 500 people - waiters, housekeepers, receptionists, concierge staff, cooks, chefs, managers, clerks and a host of others. Then the gym, the gift shops, the spa, the swimming pools, the gardens all has hotel employees. The hotel also generates indirect employment in ancillary areas- it buys beds, linens, furnishings, rugs, carpets, furniture, air conditioners, cutlery, electrical appliances and fittings. It also purchases vegetables, meat and poultry products, fish, dairy products. It also outsources work to dhobis (washer men), security agencies, plumbing agencies and safai karmacharis (cleaners). All these generate income for farmers, construction workers, manufacturers, artisans and many skilled, semi skilled and non skilled workers. Our 5 star hotel also generates foreign exchange from rich overseas visitors and this has a direct bearing on our FDI. 

Now if you tax these hotels to death it will attract less customers and all those whose income is dependent on the hotel will suffer and remain poor. If a visitor feels that the hotel is too expensive he will drop the idea of his visit and spend his money in some other country. So this is a classic example of how high GST is keeping us poor. I can take so many other examples like expensive cars, airfares, real estate, breakdown their employment opportunities and tell you how we can get our economy up and running only if we give up the idea that being rich is a sin, and they must pay taxes to absolve themselves. 

As the Honourable Finance Minister prepares herself to present perhaps the most important budget of our country she must make all efforts to see that the rich and upper middle class should be encouraged to spend more. Our economy is demand deficient and she needs a budget that can create demand. Once the rich spend, the poor will get employment and prosper and more people will move up the value chain. Then more people will buy homes, vehicles, TVs, refrigerators and air conditioners and then even more people will get employment. This is the chain reaction which she has to start. But if she keeps the GST high and complicated the luxury items will remain out of reach of consumers and no new demand will be created and India will remain poor.

Let us decide on a list of objects that are tax exempted and on all the remaining ones let us have at the most 2 tax levels 5% and 12%. This will simplify the tax system and surely improve compliance. Madam Finance Minister must remember what the former British Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill once said “A nation trying to tax itself to prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself by the handle.”

When the upper and upper middle class will find goods and services affordable they will spend more, increase demand in the industry and fire up the productivity engine.  This in turn will generate employment, which is the need of the hour. God bless Mr. Poonawala, may he open another vaccine manufacturing plant and give employment to more Indians and make India proud.

BOOKS - MY BEST FRIENDS

This is a two part blog and this is the second part. Be sure to read the first part in http://surajitbrainwaves.blogspot.com/2015/09/the-fading-art-of-reading.html

This was a blog I wrote in 2015 and how wrong I was. A misconception has clouded our brains that reading book is on a decline in India. Statistics and study reflects that the size of the book market in India is over Rs. 26,000 crore and the book market is double the size of the Indian Flim Industry in terms of its value! It also suggests that the literary industry is six times or more than the music, radio and gaming industry combined! And by 2020 the book market was expected to grow over 19% per annum and touch a size of almost Rs. 74,000 Crore. I cannot tell you today what the pandemic did to this projection but when you were staying put at home, I guess you must have read a few extra books!

Electronic Books (or e-books), can potentially bridge the gap between printed media and other, more interactive, forms of media. Recent research shows that books read on electronic devices, such as the Kindle and the iPad, satisfy users as much as printed books, despite reading speeds being generally slower. The top 10 advantages of an e-book are 

1. One Device, Many Books
2. Portable and lightweight, making it easy to carry around
3. Accessible Everywhere
4. Easily Update
5. Shareable Content
6. Augmented Reality Experience
7. Easy on the Eyes
8. Read Aloud Feature
9. Interactive Elements 
10. Environment friendly 
11. Affordable in the long run. 

However, I still like the old fashioned book as between its pages there is a familiar smell, a sense of privacy and there is no glare being bombarded into my eyes. 

Books have the unique and magical ability to take us on a journey that we create in our own minds, to garner our creativity and allow us to be swept away into our imaginary world. Unlike a film where the setting is created for us, reading is interactive and allows us to participate in the story and paint the characters and their surroundings. This is exactly why books and reading continue to be the pastime of choice for so many people worldwide and will be in the future, no matter how advanced our technology becomes. Are you an avid reader and a lover of the written word? Or maybe, on the contrary, you regret that you haven’t picked up a book in a while? 

These 18 beautiful and inspiring quotes uttered by some of the greatest minds in history will surely make you crave a good book. 

1. “Books are the quietest and most constant of friends; they are the most accessible and wisest of counselors, and the most patient of teachers.” -Charles W. Eliot 

2. “An hour spent reading is one stolen from paradise.” -Thomas Wharton 

3. “You know you’ve read a good book when you turn the last page and feel a little as if you have lost a friend.” -Paul Sweeney 

4. “Books are a uniquely portable magic.” -Stephen King 

5. “Reading gives us someplace to go when we have to stay where we are.” -Mason Cooley 

6. “A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies… The man who never reads lives only one.” -George R. R. Martin 

7. “I have always imagined paradise as a kind of library.” -Jorge Luis Borges 

8. “Reading takes us away from home, but more important, it finds homes for us everywhere.” -Hazel Rochman 

9. “A room without books is like a body without a soul.” -Cicero 

10. “It is what you read when you don’t have to that determines what you will be when you can’t help it.” -Oscar Wilde 

11. “That's the thing about books. They let you travel without moving your feet.” -Jhumpa Lahiri 

12. “The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who can’t read.” -Mark Twain 

13. “A beggar’s book out-worths a noble’s blood.” -William Shakespeare 

14. “Maybe this is why we read, and why in moments of darkness we return to books: to find words for what we already know.” -Alberto Manguel 

15. “Let us read, and let us dance; these two amusements will never do any harm to the world.” -Voltaire 

16. “Think before you speak. Read before you think.” -Fran Lebowitz 

17. “Books are the plane, and the train, and the road. They are the destination, and the journey. They are home.” -Anna Quindlen 

18. “Just the knowledge that a good book is awaiting one at the end of a long day makes that day happier.” -Kathleen Norris 

For me, reading was not just moving through the pages or rolling eyes over the printed page just to finish off the text, it was more like living in it and making acquaintance with those characters and actually getting connected to them in a way that when the book would finish off I would actually miss them!

With the advent of the age of social networking sites and the glorification of digital media, the time that was earlier invested in leisure reading has now been replaced by spending hours and hours of reading status updates and other meaningless banter on these pages. The abating reading habit amongst today’s youth is certainly an issue of concern and if it’s not remedied, there’ll soon come a time when we’ll find books in museums instead of libraries.