THE ANNUAL FESTIVAL

No I'm not talking about Holi or BARAWAFAT- was referring to the presentation of the Union Budget.
Not only does it give a perpetual topic to the "aam" gentleman "aadmi" of the country who decide everything from the India cricket team to the Indian Foreign Policy (except the mundane matters of bringing up the family). It give the Print-Media to fill up the unending pages of the ONE RUPEE newspaper (that costs Rs.12 to print).
It also gives an opportunity for the electronic media to fill those unforgiving minutes (as Kipling said) and invite tuppenny brokers, economists and politicians to their channel.
So strong is the attraction and presence of this annual festival that even my hair dresser asks if he should invest now or after the budget.
In fact a close friend from Dehradun asked the same question yesterday.
Today after the budget was nice and properly out and printed- people were not lauding the extra tax savings that the FM gave them- they were lamenting the rise of fuel prices by Rs 2.76.
Even my father-in -law mourned on the 4800 rupee rise of the vehicle that he's buying.
Did anyone hear a word when everyone's salary's were rising 40% after the 6th pay commission.
But then a person like me who's never paid a paisa as income tax has no right to comment.

However being a strongly democratic country (especially in terms of asserting our rights)- guess it is alright to celebrate this secular festival in times when wishing someone a Happy Holi becomes a risky considering the husband and wife may hail from different beliefs and it may be politically incorrect ( and hazardous) to do so.