A Suicidal Divide

10

Skyrocketing is no longer enough to describe the salaries of top 'B' school graduates. But I'd leave it to that till oxford comes up with a better replacement of the word. I was anything but surprised when five ISB graduates got a package of a crore plus. Something like the upward graph of the sensex doesn't have a similar effect on my eyebrow. I in no way question the ability and merit of these fairly young corporates and entrepreneurs. But what I do question is how is it that a largely agro-based economy will benefit from this? What probably affects our economy more is not the closing of the Bombay Stock Exchange for a week but a poor monsoon and a failed crop! While these 20 something's were celebrating their mammoth salaries, a 32-year-old farmer in the onion belt of Maharashtra committed suicide because he could not....

When I first met Mahatma

10

Tonight while watching "Face The Nation", I was forced to recall, "When was it that I first met Mahatma?" The question thrown at me was "Are Gandhian ways of protest outdated?" It solicited the most obvious answers; 'yes-outdated' and 'no-still relevant'. But I had a more pressing question to answer. When did I first meet Mahatma? Was it at a school function? A history lesson in class? A passing mention in a politicians campaign speech? Or did I question the identity of the bald man present on every currency I used to buy my chocolates? My memory fails me and like many others I don't remember my first meeting with Mahatma. But whichever way I met him; this man left a lasting impression. In my quest to know him better I found out that clad in a dhoti, with the support of a lathi and armed with truth....