Thank you Moonlight. 31st March is not far away and all taxpayers in India are spending sleepless nights trying to figure out how to reduce their tax bills. We slog day and night to earn more money to pay increasing varieties of taxes such as income tax, service tax, value added tax, excise tax, customs duties, property tax, wealth tax and sweet little add ons called education cess, road cess and other excesses that we pay without knowing. Politicians and civil servants spend our money any which way they like without any accountability. Ordinary people have no way of checking on these criminals and voting in another set of crooks every five years does not empower us. This system of legislature, executive and judiciary is clearly not working. We need a fourth organ to represent the people and it can only be trade unions, not the corrupt organisations controlled by political parties that we have now but ones built like MNCs. They will be apolitical and work with companies to increase profits of companies. Company taxes should be brought down to say 10% but 30% of dividends will go to the union. This will give the workers a direct stake in improving productivity and reduce the likelihood of strikes for increased pay. Members will also pay fees depending on salaries. Unions will use this money to buy medical insurance for all, pay school fees for all children in private schools, advise on investments, and maintain a legal team to protect individuals against exploitation and bullying. There is a lot more to it but space is short. People are so fed up with the present system that in most countries fewer people are voting in elections because once the counting is over they have no further say in how the country is run. Power to the people.

Am I going mad or is there something seriously wrong with our entire system? My son just opened an account in one of our large private banks. First we recieved a letter giving us an account number and a customer id number which, the letter said, is very important and must be kept secret. Inside there was a sealed paper which has the pin number for the ATM card. The instruction says that once the sealed envelope is opened the four digit number printed inside must be memorised and the envelop destroyed. A few days later we received another envelope containing a cheque book, an ATM card and two more sealed envelopes containing secret numbers to be memorised for phone banking and net banking. Five numbers just for one account. To take advantage of varying interest rates and investment opportunities one may open three or four such accounts which would mean remembering fifteen to twenty numbers. Then there is the mandatory PAN or Permanent Account Number for filing income tax returns, a passport number, driving licence number, numbers on your car number plates, your telephone number and perhaps telephone numbers of spouse and children. Some of these such as telephone numbers have ten to twelve digits. Only some one like Dustin Hoffman in Rain Man could possibly remember so many ridiculous numbers. So either we genetically engineer brilliant but autistic people or the scientists have to come up with an encrypted system based on biometrics which would entail remembering just one number and would be impossible to hack into. We could be talking about the first trillionaire of the world.

Driving from Delhi to Gurgaon yesterday I was surprised to see that all the buidings on both sides of the road were empty and partially demolished. Previously these same buildings had housed upmarket shops selling everything from clothes to jaccuzzis and fancy restaurants. Apparently all these buildings were unauthorised ( Indian political euphemism for illegal ) and were demolished by order of the courts. My question is why were these buidings allowed to be built in the first place? Which politicians and civil servants took bribe to allow them to be built? Have they been punished? Stupid questions. Today we read in the papers that well known politicians owe at least Rupees 50 million in back rent and the Supreme Court has had to intervene. Non Resident Indians or NRIs, as the Indian diaspora is known in official lingo, are an unhappy lot. They have written to the President saying that the awards dished out at the recent held Pravasi Divas were rigged and went to friends of the Minister involved. There are many other tales of political and beureaucratic crimes but the space here is too short too make a list of all. So what is being done to address this problem. One Minister has banned the tv channel AXN for showing sexy ads. I have not seen them but can imagine that they must have had scantily dressed women. The human body was designed by 3 billion years of evolution or by God according to your taste. It is a thing of mind boggling complexity and efficiency. It is also beautiful. An Indian politician concerned about morals. I would laugh if it was not so tragic.

The annual circus called the Budget is here again. We are told that all tax exemptions will be withdrawn no doubt increasing the burden yet again. We are also told that expenditure on primary education will be reduced. At the same time ministers had a meeting with industrialists to start reservation of jobs in the private sector for low caste candidates. Even from the gutter politicians of India this kind of cynical contempt for the people is hard to digest. Reservation helps only those children who have passed high school and is of no benefit to the vast army of illiterates. It helps the drug taking, violent children of politicians and civil servants and divides people along caste lines. Divide and rule was learnt from the British and the Congress has been using it for the last 60 years with other parties joining in. At the same time the son of a police official from Orissa has skipped bail after being charged for rape of a foreigner. The father denies any knowledge of the whereabouts of his son and rest of the police force seems helpless. I am sorry I do not buy it. Sack the father, cancel his pension and keep him jail until the son shows up and then give him life for skipping bail. It is this callous indifference to justice and fair play that gives rise to the grisly rape and murder of children in Noida. Is it any wonder that the police have made a mess of the evidence and the killers may go free? Was it done on purpose? Were politicians involved perhaps?

Yesterday's headline that India has 63% of all cases of rabies in the world is no surprise. India probabaly has the largest number of HIV cases and certainly has the largest number of 'chamchas' in the world. Of course rabies is preventable if one takes a course of vaccines immediately. Each dose costs Rs. 290 so five doses along with doctor's fees and a shot of Tetanus Toxoid comes to nearly Rs. 2000 over one month. This may seem a small amount to prevent a certain death but for labourers earning Rs. 150 a day it is a severe financial strain. If the dog is obviously rabid, dies within a week of the bite or the bite is in the head/neck area then Rabies Immunoglobulin is mandatory costing Rs. 14000 for an adult. No hope for a poor man. The solution seems simple get rid of feral dogs, cats and monkeys esp. dogs whose numbers are growing. It can be done in a very humane manner taking care that the animals do not suffer in the least and with today's technology that would be easy but a group of stone hearted, selfish people led by this female politician will not let that happen saying it is cruelty to annimals. They want to immunize, vasectomize millions of feral dogs at tax payers expense. This in a country where people go hungry. I think we should make these callous people pay for vaccines for the poor and then we shall see how much they love annimals.

I like to start the day with a large cup of tea and a look at the daily newspapers. Every day the news is depressing. Children murdered and cannibalised in Noida, people killed in battles between communists and farmers in Bengal over land acquisition, a sixteen year old girl killed by spurned suiter, Biharis killed in Assam by anti Hindi terrorists, unknown number killed in Somalia by U.S. bombing of phantom Al Qaeda, and of course the ever present Iraq. Yesterday was the same and no doubt tomorrow will also bring a new list of murder and mayhem, only the countries may be different. Old timers like to talk about the 'good old days' but were the old days really so good. History is replete with wars and revolutions. There was the thiry year wars, the hundred year wars, the French revolution, the October revolution and countless others. Then there were the heroes. Achilles, Hannibal, Alexander, Nepoleon, Robin Hood, Patton, warriors all. A visit to the room exhibiting the instruments of torture at the Tower of London will illustrate what I mean. War, rape and plunder were a way of life, a million today carry the genes of Chengis Khan. I think that sociopaths, psychos and assorted nutters are born in every generation since the beginning of time. In the olden days a war would happen every 30 or so years when all the nutters gathered at one place and hacked at each other with swords. When all were cleared out people lived in peace. Today they use missile from a distance or use remote controlled devices. I suggest that an island be set aside under UN control. All nutters will go there and fight only with swords or small arms. Neocons can devise strategy. UN will cordon off the island so that only the severly wounded will be allowed out. This way the nutters can satisfy their urge to kill while we wimps carry on with our peaceful if mundane.

You can walk into a room and say that you love to listen to Engelbert Humperdinck, or eat raspberry yoghurt or wear a kilt in bed and chances are that although the majority might think you slightly weird you will find a kindred spirit. But can anyone walk into a room and say that he likes to torture and murder children and eat their organs? Across the Jamuna river from Delhi police have discovered the bones of upto thirty children and women who were raped, tortured, murdered and then had their organs eaten by two men. One was an English school and college educated Sikh and the other his illiterate man servant from the north. For years people of this area, who are mostly very poor, have been complaining of missing children and women but the police the police simply shrugged their shoulders saying that the children must have run away from home. When the remains were discovered and parents recognised the clothes of their missing children they, understandably, were incensed. Not for them any psychiatric help or support from politicians who promise the moon before elections. They were beaten up with truncheons and U.P. government officials are conducting expensive DNA tests to see if they deserve compensation of 100 to 200 dollars for each dead child. We are constantly being told how how proud we should be of the progress the country is making. Perverted monsters who enjoy necrophilia and cannibalism have always existed and will continue to exist in the future but how does one such monster find another one like himself in a population of one billion? I would greatly appreciate an answer to this mystery.

For Indians it is that time of the year again. It is that stupid circus called the 'Budget' when all sorts of people go cap in hand to the Finance Minister who sits like a God promising to be magnanimous with the tax payers money while increasing taxes every year. We wake up to learn that another forty odd services will attract tax no doubt to finance luxurious living and foreign travel for the politicians and their foot-washing civil servants. Meanwhile in the south Delhi colony of Vasant Kunj water supply has dwindled to about 300 litres per family per day. This inspite of opening of a new wateer treatment plant and grandiose promises of 24 hour water supply for all. Supply did improve for a few days thus decimating the trade of water tankers. No doubt money changed hands and the water supply has been reduced to levels less than what we used to get. So bought 2000 litres of water this very morning for Rs. 210 of which ten rupees is service tax. I think he should have charged more, perhaps he forgot the 3% education cess. My suggestion still stands. Put 100% service tax on all medical services and when people die in great numbers then start a 10% tax on cremation, plus 3% education cess. Clean up on tax collection and reduce population in one fell swoop. Meanwhile a politician has suggested that the sexual torture and serial killing of thirty children in Noida, on the outskirts of Delhi, is a minor event. Of course it is. For these vultures who are sucking our blood for the last sixty years. It is shocking that some old people who have memories of British occupation say that life was better in those days.

Moonlight thankyou for your wishes. I wish you a very happy and prosperous new year and hope that you find reward for your efforts. I had gone to Bahrain for a month and returned the day Saddam was hanged after a kangaroo trial. All his fault really. Had he put up a bit of a fight and taken just five hundred Americans in the first days of the attack the Americans would have given up. He could have flooded the desert with oil and set fire to it when American tanks rolled in, he could have mined the highway, he could have targeted the first and last vehicles of the supply convoys and then attacked the trapped soldiers in the middle or he could have booby trapped his palaces to take as many enemy as possible. He definitely should have blown himself up with his captors but he did nothing. He did not even bother to switch off the lights on the highways so that the Americans had a clear drive on beautifully signposted highways straight on to Baghdad. I think it is disgusting that you hand over your country to invaders without any resistance whatsoever. Maybe dictators are not so clever after all. Maybe he was more afraid of his generals than he was of the Americans, hoping they would never find him or convinced that they would not dare to kill him against Arabic opinion. In the event the Americans were clever enough to find him and stupid enough to get him lynched by Shia militia after a grossly unfair trial presided over by a Kurd. Shows a Texan redneck is no cleverer than a murdering dictator. At least Saddam was brave at the end and has left a big headache for his enemies in the form of a video.

So two murderers have at last been convicted no thanks to our law enforcement agencies but solely due to public pressure. The son of the policeman was sentenced to hang while the son of the politician was sentenced to only 14 years in prison and will no doubt be released much before his date of release if his father has anything to do with it. His photo in the newspaper with a big grin on his face without the slightest bit of remorse or fear says it all. Meanwhile what about those who have managed to keep these bastards free for so long. It is not simply a case of fatherly love or misplaced sense of friendly loyalty. These are cases of subversion of the criminal justice system without which no nation can survive. Thus these were anti national acts and the perpetrators should be stripped of all post that they hold and sent to prison for a very long time. That this will not happen is the reason why a low level of anarchy prevails in India today. 'Sab chalta hai, it is part of the game' is a common refrain. If you were to point out that lying and cheating are criminal offences and not a game people, at least in the Hindi belt, will look at you as though you are completely insane. Punishment for politicians, civil servants and police must be double that of common people and they must be permanently stripped of office. But who will bell the cat?

Tuesday the 13th was a day of shocks. I have recently joined this new hospital in a small kingdom in the Middle East. The Health Minister was to inaugurate the hospital that morning. Shock no. 1 - she was bang on time. By 10 am all the guests were assembled and at exactly 10.15 am there she was as scripted. Contrast this with Indian politicians. Every year schools across Delhi have prize distribution days in May and children are kept waiting for hours in the boiling May sun by two bit politicians who are always more than an hour late. Every year tens of children collapse with heatstroke. If one has not died yet it may happen soon. Shock no. 2. Not a gun in sight. No Z squared security, no goons in uniform toting AK47s, no confiscation of cameras, no abusive restriction on car parking and not even a toy gun anywhere. The Minister came without any fanfare, inspected the hospital, shook hands with everyone and departed after an hour smiling charmingly all the while. The contrast with my country could not have been more stark or shaming. And they say the Middle East is the most dangerous place on the planet.

The Sensex has reached the dizzying heights of 14000 starting from around 3000 just after the dot com collapse. At the same time all the major indices have struggled to get up to the levels they reached around the time of the dotcom boom. Thus the DOW is just above 12000, the FTSE and the DAX have breached 6000 while the Nikei is still to get above 17000. Naturally the politicians are going around saying what a great job they are doing and how the economy will keep on growing like some dinosaur egg. About a decade ago the Nikei was trading above 35000 and the real estate sector in Japan was booming due to excess liquidity and Yakuza money being laundered into the construction sector. When the bubble burst the Nikei fell to below 10000 and Japan went into a long period of deflation resulting in bankruptcies and increasing unemplyment. Only today is Japan beginning to see the first signs of growth and the Bank of Japan has very timidly raised interest rate from 0 to 0.25%. Are there any parallels with India where land prices have increased by over 100% in the last few years. Plunder of the increasing tax collections can not be invested legitimately and land is the only avenue of hiding black money. I wonder if we will see a repeat of Japan. Only we have no Koizumi to rescue us.

So another humiliating defeat to South Africa. I am consistently amazed that people in India still want to watch defeat after defeat. It is no fault of the players that people exalt them to superstar status an build up expectations to unrealistic levels. I am sure that every batsman wants to score a hundred abd every bowler wants to take 5 or more widkets. after all there is big money to be made and that is the best incentive but unfortunately they are not good enough. Would any of the present team, except Dravid, be picked to play for Australia or South Africa? I think not. Along with the mediocrity is the lack of pridein playing for the country and giant bubble egos built up by public adulation and ready to collapse at the slightest criticism and being rotated out of the team. Apart from Gavakar the World Cup winning team of the 80shad no world class players but played with passion for team and country which brought them success. Another World Cup is a few months away. What are the chances that India do not make it out of the group stages? If that happens maybe the idiots will stop watching cricket on tv and allow us to watch some real sports such as rugby, boxing and American Football at prime time.

Accompanied my wife to the American Embassy in Delhi for an interview. It is on Shanti Path where most of the embassies are present. You have to go round the back of the embassy where the road is partially blocked off at both ends. Sadistic private guards armed with truncheons and shrill whistles prevent anyone from stopping on the pavement. Cars are not allowed to park. They take great pleasure in harassing Indian citizens in their own capital city on roads that the tax payers have paid for. This is overseen by Delhi police at their most rough and brutal. Delhi police's answer to terrorist threats is to treat Indians like dirt in their own capital city. There is no place to sit. People are made to stand for hours and herded into a line like cattle. My wife had to stand for three hours before she faced the official. She was given an appointment at 12.30 PM at which time it was lunch so most of the counters were closed with only two counters working. She finally got out at 3.30 PM and reached home after 4 PM completely exhausted. I wonder if our embassy in Washington treats natives the same way. I would like someone to let me know. Of course we are elated and eternally grateful that she was granted a multiple entry visa. If there was a God for American visa I would offer some flowers. 'Dogs and Indians not allowed' was printed outside Metro Cinema in Calcutta during British times. Independence? What independence?

Accompanied my wife to the American Embassy in Delhi for an interview. It is on Shanti Path where most of the embassies are present. You have to go round the back of the embassy where the road is partially blocked off at both ends. Sadistic private guards armed with truncheons and shrill whistles prevent anyone from stopping on the pavement. Cars are not allowed to park. They take great pleasure in harassing Indian citizens in their own capital city on roads that the tax payers have paid for. This is overseen by Delhi police at their most rough and brutal. Delhi police's answer to terrorist threats is to treat Indians like dirt in their own capital city. There is no place to sit. People are made to stand for hours and herded into a line like cattle. My wife had to stand for three hours before she faced the official. She was given an appointment at 12.30 PM at which time it was lunch so most of the counters were closed with only two counters working. She finally got out at 3.30 PM and reached home after 4 PM completely exhausted. I wonder if our embassy in Washington treats natives the same way. I would like someone to let me know. Of course we are elated and eternally grateful that she was granted a multiple entry visa. If there was a God for American visa I would offer some flowers. 'Dogs and Indians not allowed' was printed outside Metro Cinema in Calcutta during British times. Independence? What independence?

So Al Jazeera has started an English channel all over the world. I have been saying that India should have a free 24 hour news channel broadcasting all over the world. For years we have been fed with western propaganda masqurading as news by BBC, CNN and channels of their ilk. Their news stories are biased and they interview people who spout the answers they want and the questions are designed to get such answers. For instance after the Gujarat earthquake BBC was interviewing only white British aid workers who were minuscule in number, almost all the work being done by Indians themselves. Very sensibly the Indian authorities declined foreign help when the tsunami struck preferring to do without such stupid charade. So present stories on BBC show how the state has failed the victims of the tsunami. However the best example of propaganda on so called news cannels is the Iraq war where the correspondents were embedded with US marines. What does it mean? Was it a homosexual orgy on a gigantic scale or were women also in bed with the US army. Will there be videos of their carryings on on the internet like that of Britney Spears? Normally I am not interested in such things but this I gotta see. If we had a news channel broadcasting in major languages we could present our point of view on important events such as the reorganisation of the UN Security Council and the WTO. Unfortunately if we did so our slimy politicians and civil servants will have less excuse to take off for foreign climes with their fat, ugly wives and loutish children. We lurk behind a dark cloud.

A few days ago I drove from Dehradun to Delhi on so called National Highway 58. This goes past Roorkee and Deoband in Uttaranchal into UP where you go past the criminal triangle of Mozaffarnagar, Meerut and Ghaziabad. Three years ago there was one police check post at the botder of UP and Uttaranchal and one at a place called Mohand where the road starts to climb to Dehradun through very picturesque Rajaji National Park. Today, however, there are at least six additional check posts with police obstruction and long lines of trucks obstructing half the road forcing traffic to a crawl. I was told that to bring Rs 1000 worth of goods to sell in Dehradun you have to pay a total of about Rs. 2000 in bribes at the numerous check posts. As for UP it is the toile of India while Bihar is the cesspit. The road was full of pot holes which have not been repaired since the end of the monsoons. At two places workmen had blocked of half the road for repairs. Work naturally started after 9 AM which is the busiest time and was proceeding at less than snails pace. It took seven hours to get to my destination a mere 250 km distance which translates to an average speed of about 36 km/ hour. India imports 100 million tonnes of crude a year and it is easy to see the enormous savings that would generate if the politician, civil servant, contractor is smashed. A lot of foreigners go to Dehradun and Rishikesh along this highway of shame. Politicians and civil servants are proud of our progress.

That time of the year is here again when we start the yearly circus called thae budjet. This gives the finance minister to simper and pout in print and on tv. He is the star as chiefs of various industries come to him hat in hand for tax concessions. This is also the time for him to fine tune his instruments of torture against the citizen, consumer and tax payer. Every year sees a change in rate and nature of taxes. For instance one year capital gains will taxed at 10%, next year long term gains will become tax free while short term gains will pay 30% while the year after you may avoid taxes by investing in infrastructure bonds and so it goes on. The result is that the ordinary man is always confused and in a state of tension. It is impossible to understand the intricacies which keep changing and totally impossible to make any long term financial plans for retirement or children's education. It gives chartered accountants and tax lawyers a regular source of income but the biggest beneficiaries are the income tax officers. They resist any effort to simplify the tax structure because they can earn huge amounts in bribes by terrifying anyone and their lives unbearable. ' Scrutiny ' is a terrifying word for every honest citizen of this country. The rumour is that tax officers pay upto Rs. 10 million for a lucrative posting eg to Mumbai. If yearly budjet is abolished and their are easy uniform tax rates we would not mind paying but this gulag scenario is intolerable.

India has the highest taxes in the world. Direct taxes start at around 2000 dollars per annum and the highest rate kicks in at around 3300 dollars. Then there are a variety of indirect taxes such as excise duties, value added tax, central sales tax, octroi and many others to suck the bloodless citizens. What makes all this taxation unbearable is the fact that we get nothing for paying. For instance 60% of a car's value consists of taxes, petrol is heavily taxed and we pay road tax whenever we buy any vehicle. But there are few roads to drive. Roads are narrow and terrible condition so that we spend huge amounts in maintaing our cars. We pay property tax but water supply is so erratic that we have to buy water from private tankers at great cost inspite of paying water bills to the municipality. Electricity is erratic and voltage may swing wildly so every family has to buy voltage stabliser for each appliance and a generator or invertor to runs and fans. Any low level employee can decide to switch off electricity for upto 12 hours for repairs without any warning or consultation. If all the food in the fridge rots tough luck. Any appliance can burn out any time if the voltage rises suddenly so that stabiliser cannot cope. Manhole covers are left open and children regularly fall to their death. Built on quicksand the economy is growing at 8% and we are told that we have never had it so good. God help.

Poor Prince Charles who is visiting Pakistan with his wife and reduced to discussing religious tolerance and climate change instead of matters of the state and business. I think we are about the same age and where I had a tough life working in Britain, Saudi, Kuwait and India, learning new languages and customs, stuggling to bring up two children the Prince has been living in palaces all his life with all luxuries guaranteed. Unfortunately he has never been able to perform duties that he has been training for all his life because his mother will not let him. Like decrepit Indian politicians she hangs on to her gaddi refusing to alow her own son from doing something meaningful with his life instead of mucking about with dung in his organic farms and forever the butt of tabloid jokes. We Hindus believe that heaven and hell are both on this earth and I now understand what purgatory means. Poor Prince Charles.
On the subject of the Royals I do not believe that the Duke of Edinburgh arranged the death of Princess Diana as alleged by Dodi Al Fayed's father. I think the Duke would not have the wherewithal to arrange anything so complicated. Only a government would have the resources and the connections to carry out such a high profile killing without the slightest trace but it is hard to believe in such conspiracies. However I cannot erase an intriguing thought from my mind. Suppose Diana had lived, converted to Islam, changed her name to an Islamic name eg Fatma, married Dodi and had a couple of children. Now imagine the coronation of Prince William and his mother enters Westminster Abbey in a burqa with two boys wearing thobes and gutras. Knowing how instinctively racist and snobbish the British are I wonder what the reaction would be?