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STUMBLING   to   MUMBLING Stumbling…  Bubbling … Struggling …  etc etc. Lets have a look at what all happens in life through these similar sounding actions. We all have had numerous tumbles in our life. As toddlers we stand up to walk, STUMBLE and get up to do it all over again. Stumbling, getting up and doing it again are part of learning; whether learning to walk or learning to cycle.                           Bruised shins, knees or elbows are hidden from mothers in the eagerness to learn cycling. And then the sheer joy of cycling. It put wings to us ! As evening draws near, we run out with our cycles to roam the mohalla or park with friends. Doing an errand gave an opportunity to cycle, and we were always ready to do it! We grow up. Schools start with the daily SCRAMBLING to get ready in time with school bag, uniform etc to catch the school bus. It involved scrambling by mothers too, to pack our tiffin box for us ! Reaching school there was scrambling to

BONDED  EMPLOYEE Human Rights either by an organisation or a nation or the society, want all forms of bonded labour to be abolished. This is desired also. The dark ages and age of slavery is long gone. The bonded labour concept continued with the Jamindari era, and is still in practice in some places. They could be in small factories, brick kilns, tea stalls, dhabas, even homes. Poor people take loans from moneylenders for various occasions, and when unable to payback, the moneylender usually grabs whatever house / property he can. In absence of property / house he takes a family member to work as labourer to pay off the loan. The rate of interest is so high that paying off the loan by this method does not happen in the person’s lifetime. The holder of the bonded person can ‘sell’ the person to another holder and now the bonded person works for the new ‘master’. All the above is well known, and several laws are in place to prevent this happening, punish the perpetua

ENERGY EFFICIENCY Will using Energy Efficient gadgets reduce your Electricity Bill ? The government is going all out to push energy efficient electrical appliances, and is serious about it. All of us wished to use these LED bulbs but were slow about it, due to their high cost. During the past year (2015-2016) it has sold directly to consumers excellent LED bulbs at less than market prices. It is now doing the same with ceiling fans, which every household uses in good numbers. The fans offered are of 5 star rating. Those of us who have gotten these bulbs are glad they did so. This has started reducing our electricity bills to an extent which is visible to us and the public is happy. But it shall be affecting the Electricity Organisations of every State (going under different names in each state) in at least two ways … (1). Demand for electricity shall gradually reduce, with the use of such energy efficient gadgets. But the population is increasing; livi

SUPERLATIVES   In the English classes of school time,   we were taught that adjectives which are to be used to describe anything can be – Good, Better or Best. I believe this is still the practice and the present generation is being taught in the same way.   All of us grew up with these – good better best - notions. A simple nourishing daal- roti- bhindi sabji- rice   meal was good; if sabji was matar with chatpata mango achaar then it was better; but if the meal was matar pulao with kheer it was best ! We wrote 100 word essays on this topic in class tests, or 200 to 300 word essays in final exams to that effect. Everyone – the class teacher, the examiner were happy that we had learnt proper English usage, the children were happy to pass out, and the parents were happy to see us getting good scores.  Time passes and suddenly in the last decade or so we see that mentioning something as even ‘Best’ is not good enough !! Switch to any channel telecasting any kind of