The economy of Petrol price hike

A Rs.7.50 rise in petrol price seems whopping by any standards, and after periodical increments in fuel prices in recent times, petrol cost is now in excess of Rs 75 a liter across India. I am not an economist, and I wouldn’t understand the nuances of national economy but I understand that cost of anything is based on the simple rule of ‘demand and supply’. I think most of us as aware of this little fact.  Sometime probably in the seventies, my father owned a scooter, which he used only on Sundays to take us on pleasure rides just because he couldn’t afford petrol at Rs 8 a liter for daily use. And now, even at Rs 77-78 a litre, I’m sure the teenagers won’t hesitate to zoom their bikes across the towns for no reason at all. Even my dad, now retired, and unlike in the seventies, won’t hesitate to use his self-start scooter for his needs. So, for my dad, petrol in the seventies, @ Rs 8 a liter was much more expensive than it is @ 77 a liter now. I’m sure this little calculation would apply to almost all of us. Just look at the roads- Fully choked with traffic at all hours, and impossible to maneuver through, during the peak hours. I’m sure this is not going to change, the compulsory whimpering among the masses after every price rise notwithstanding, and the traffic conditions, and hence the air-pollution conditions, and hence the sedentary lifestyle-related diseases would continue to be on the rise. Automobile manufacturers proudly announce their sales growth each year saying that sold these many more thousand units of their vehicles this year compared to last year. I touched my first automated two-wheeler at the age 24. These days children as young as 11 years drive activas and whatnots. And now imagine the situation if the fuel prices were to reduce to Rs 50 a liter, something I think most of us dream of happening if we changed the government at the center. Vehicle manufacturers would increase their production even more thinking that there would be more purchases owning to cheap fuel costs. People would choke the roads even more with their vehicles. Is this what we really want? The fuel prices would drop automatically if the consumption falls. Just for the sake of imagination, think what would happen if ALL of the bikes on the roads are replaced by bi-cycles, and the number of cars are reduced to about 25%. Less consumption of fuel would lead to stock-piling and that would lead to reduction in prices! So, in a way, we, the consumers, are the only ones responsible for the increase in the fuel cost! Everyone wants to use a vehicle but does not want to pay the market price of his fuel, something that gets decided by consumers like them! I have seen people comparing fuel prices in India with that in other countries. How can this be justified when the gross economy of every country is different? We all go for vacationing in foreign countries. Do we not notice the difference in prices of various commodities? Then why not fuel? In Singapore, a one liter bottle of mineral water costs Rs 90 in INR. See? In the middle-east water  is more expensive than fuel. 

Another thing: We all customarily fume at every rise in fuel prices. I don’t. Am I a millionaire? No, but for me, economy has always been RELATIVE. My economic position in the Indian society will remain the SAME even after the price rise because the price rise will affect ALL of the society, and not just me. I’d have been damn worried if the price rise had affected just me and not my neighbor, coz then, my neighbor would get a chance to be richer than me by spending lesser than me on fuel consumption! Everybody would adjust economically to the price rise in their own ways, but the economic sum-effect of the price rise would remain the SAME across the society. Some, who can do without the use of vehicles, would find an alternate way to travel, such as car-pool or metro trains. Others who cannot reduce fuel consumption, would reduce their expenses in other things like cutting out on ice-creams after dinner. What I mean to say is, in the end, a societal commodity becoming expensive does not change the gross appearance of the economy, because it affects all the members of that society in equal way. As I said, economy is always relative. For my dad, at Rs 8 a liter, petrol was far more expensive in the seventies that it is at Rs.77 a liter now. 

Movie review- Ishqzaade

Sadly, the banner of Yashraj films has stopped being reminiscent of the great Yash Chopra. It is high time he removed his good name from the banner if he is unable to contribute in any way other than his name to the productions because the people who have succeeded him are not doing justice to his name. Ishqzaade has the signature undertone of Yash Chopra’s works in the past but hardly has the same effect. In fact, Ishqzaade has disappointed me thoroughly. One factor that I guess has contributed to this film’s failure to leave an impact is the fact that the entire cast and crew is rookie- from the director, lyricists, actors to the music director.  The storyline appears promising in the beginning, but couldn’t be developed into a great story, and the acting, dialogue delivery by the main actors leaves a lot to be desired. One major flaw is that the male lead (Parma, played by Arjun Kapoor), who is to be shown to be having grey shades to his character ends up being portrayed more grey than white. In fact, for most part of the movie I hated Parma for his doings. Even when he is supposed to be actually nice, he is unconvincing, and appears as if he’d back-stab any time. He’d have been better as a proper anti-hero, rather than a hero.

Parma (Arjun Kapoor) and Zoya (Pareeniti Chopra) are scions of rival political families in a town, probably in Uttar-Pradesh, who have grown up together under rather a unfriendly political and personal atmosphere, with the opening shots the showing school-going version of our protagonists  indulging in generous exchange of gaalis (Not the BC, MC kinds but the haraamzaada, kutta-kameena types). Both families have gun-totting goons around them all the time who never think twice before shooting a volley of bullets on anything and everything. Zoya’s father (Aftaab Qureshi) is a sitting MLA, and Parma’s grandfather (Surya Chauhan) is the rival, and the assembly elections are imminent. Both families are hard into preparations for the elections and keep looking to scoring brownie points over each other. Parma is a spoilt brat, and moves around with his goons in open jeep on the streets of his town terrorizing and plundering the local people at will. He sets fire to a local diesel supplier’s depot just because he is reluctant to sell him diesel owning to a prior commitment. How can the director expect the audience to fall in love with such a guy under any circumstances, no matter how much time has elapsed in the movie? Zoya is shown to be a pretty girl with political ambitions who doesn’t think twice before swapping her ear-rings for a gun. She too drives around in an open jeep, chases Parma’s goons on it when needed and fires upon them as well. Once, while she is holding a ‘rally’ on her dad’s behalf, addressing mostly college students, Parma shoos off the audience with a string of crackers and pee’s upon her dad’s poster. This infuriates zoya who slaps him in the full view of everyone. The story takes an interesting turn here with both of them falling in love with each other after this episode but I can’t tell you what happens because it’ll spoil whatever little bit of interesting stuff  there is in the movie for you all. The rest of the story is about the drama of these two young lovers trying to be together and their respective families trying to separate them off.

The movie theme might be reminiscent of ‘Veer-Zaara’ with the same theme of inter-religion love story but I’d say Ishqzaade is nowhere close to being anywhere near Veer-Zaara. The location, photography, the selection of local dialect, everything is to order but the story as a whole disappoints.

The performances are ok, below par, I’d say. Arjun Kapoor might appear hot to girls with a muscular raw body with a stubble on his chiseled face, and Pareeniti Chopra’s girl-next-door looks is sure to attract a lot of young men, but their acting skills leave a lot to be desired. Their dialogue delivery is poor and unconvincing. Pareeniti’s giggles, at times, appear so artificial that I felt like pulling my hair out. There are explicit sex scenes involving the two lead actors, but I’d say that the storyline needed them to be there, so if you have children along with you in the movie (Ishqzaade had a U/A certificate), you might need to close their eyes just a bit, but then, on second thoughts, WTF…

The numbers are ok..they might need to be heard several times before I start liking a few tracks but they’re not great for sure.

My rating: 1.5 on 5