Quality of life

Time was when summer was marked by a number of mango pickles and jams made at home. Along with the regular pickle, there were different types of 'chhunda's and 'takku's. The chhunda made after grated raw mangoes were kept in the hot Sun for a few days was mouth watering. The chili powder gave it an inviting orange-red colour. The pickle had to last for a whole year and it had a special glass container. 'Sakharamba' and 'gulamba' were favourite sweet jellies.
Fewer and fewer people left at home and so the quantity of these has become very small. This year I could get good (or so I thought) raw mangoes in May and all the above varieties were made. We kept them out for a few days and then put them in the refrigerator fearing that they would be spoilt otherwise.
Takku which tasted divine when made had to be thrown away the other day. It had got fermented in the refrigerator. Chhunda also spoils quickly no matter how much seasoning you do in the Sun. Oil is used liberally in the pickle and yet it gets covered in fungus if left outside the refrigerator for a few days. Sugar in the 'sakharamba' got crystallised in no time at all.

What is happening?

Tomatoes do not taste sweet. Vegetables look fresh but are not tasty. I cannot eat many fruit.

The politics of garbage

Time was when rag pickers were the lowest of the lowly urban poor. It was hard to find an adult male among them. Women and children made up their ranks.

Garbage collection has now become organized. NGOs of rag pickers have been set up for collection of garbage from housing societies. Men are visible in garbage collection and processing now that it has become a visible and even important activity involving interaction with the well off. Men are crowding out women and children.

 Local municipalities are trying to get away from this work. Dumping collected garbage at some far away spot is not possible any more as violent protests are made by the locals. So citizens are asked to segregate wet and dry garbage themselves and housing societies are expected to treat their own wet garbage.

Bigger housing societies must start carrying out this work immediately. Otherwise municipal authorities levy a big fine.

Our society is small and so the above rule does not apply to us right now. Still, as a part of planning and adopting possible best practices, we have set up a vermi-composting plant for wet garbage in our society. It is not cheap and so other members were not interested. The office bearers of the society persevered and the plant became operational from 1^st August 2019. The day-time watchman has been trained to process the wet garbage in it every day and his salary has been hiked for this additional work.

The NGO that picked up society garbage was not amused. “You have suddenly stopped our collection. We will tell the supervisor and he will call on you”, its collectors threatened.

Members of the society do not segregate waste properly. The watchman has to do the segregation himself. So rubber gloves were issued to him. However, the person who collects the garbage by going from door to door is another fellow. He comes every morning and his wife sweeps the premises. The watchman was asked to give a pair of gloves each to them.

Two days ago, I saw the garbage collector working with only one glove.

“Where is the other glove?” I asked him.

“The watchman has kept it with him in his cabin and cannot find it.”

“Nonsense! Tell him to give it to you immediately.”

On the second day also the sweeper came with only one glove. I told the Chairman about this and requested him to fire the watchman. I called him up and asked him to give me the sweeper’s gloves. He showed them to me and promised to hand them over the next morning.

“I will do that.” I told him but he protested.

Today the sweeper came with gloves on both his hands and he was looking happy. His wife is yet to get her pair though. Then we want to issue face masks to them and are prepared for another round of feet dragging over it. The watchman has been told that new gloves will be given to him as soon as the present ones wear out but his stinginess and guile know no bounds.

Back in 1985 I participated in a public information experiment by a well-known public health NGO – FRCH. Pamphlets were prepared to give information to villagers about various welfare schemes of the government from which they could benefit. The free pamphlets were distributed directly, through postmen, village Sarpanch (chief of village local body) etc. to the villagers. It was found that these middlemen just sat over the pamphlets and did not issue them. They made it out to be some big, confidential matter and demanded a large sum of money before handing them over.

Designing programs for the down-trodden is one thing. Ensuring that they actually reach the intended beneficiaries is an altogether different proposition. Implementation therefore remains a big problem.

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Household accounts

Yesterday was 1^st of August. The day for turning the pages of calendars and the morning devoted to writing up household accounts. All cash expenses incurred in the last month have been religiously entered in a notebook. Bank transactions, card payments are noted by me separately in my diary.

The first step is to find out the cash on hand as per the notebook and the balance actually on hand – kept in an old black purse, a pouch and a red plastic box for coins. Cash on hand is short by Rs. 748.

I report the matter to my mother, Amma.

“Ah, I paid Rs. 750 to the gardener on 30.7. That explains the difference.”

“Why did you not enter the amount in the notebook?”

“The gardener was paid on 6.7. After that he has come only twice. He is to be paid only in the next fortnight.”

“Then why did you pay him?”

“I don’t know. He asked for it and I paid him and then realized my mistake.”

“But the point is that cash outgo has taken place. So you should have recorded it.”

“I suppose so.”

I alter my calculations and sure enough, there is a difference of only Rs.8. I am not Gandhiji and so I am not going to investigate this difference. However, I am overjoyed. This is the first time the book figure and the actual are so close. Usually there are wide differences and they are mainly due to Amma who has stashed money at different places in her cupboard and merrily takes it out and mixes it with house cash in the name of getting ‘chhutta’. She will never admit it though.

My accounting system is elaborate. The above – the notebook and my diary – are primary records of day-to-day transactions. The secondary record is classified just like a ledger. It has separate groups for groceries, milk, ready-to-eat items, medicines, newspapers, stationery and books, clothes, repairs etc. Whenever there is need to check some past expense, Amma keeps going through the notebook and is unable to locate the expense in spite of spending a long time. My classified system gives quick answers.

I have used it in my class of Personal Income and Wealth Management course and I have appealed to students to use it in their homes. Wonder how many would bother. Some students staying in hostels had assured me that they noted all their expenses. Nobody is going to enter them in a diary but a record on the phone or laptop is easy. Factual information about expenditure is necessary for expenditure control which in turn is necessary for wealth creation.

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