Fastag Extortion

What India now has is an extortionist government. It raises the prices of everything on a daily basis. Petrol and diesel prices are just conspicuous examples. Today the price of cooking gas went up yet again. Do you know how many times the price of gas has been increased in the month of February alone? Probably, you don't. We have stopped thinking about price rises. We have got used to the mounting prices. Maybe, we have accepted the rising prices as the cost to be paid for keeping Narendra Modi as our PM. Maybe, this is what patriotism means: attaining multiple orgasms while being screwed wholesale by your government.

What are we to Mr Narendra Modi? Are we citizens or subjects?

In the olden days there were kings and subjects. Not citizens. We have been taken back to those old days by Mr Modi. Of course, he is in love with old days. He spoke to us no end about the greatness of the old days. Now we are there: king and subjects. No more citizens of a democracy.

The king has dedicated a stadium to himself. The Motera cricket stadium has been named Narendra Modi stadium by our President. Who is the President? Well, we know him, don't we? He will be remembered by posterity as the Head of a state who usurped a stadium from India's first deputy Prime Minister and freedom fighter and handed it over on a platter to a narcissist with the deference of a galley slave.

I was in hospital the other day attending to my wife who had been admitted for a few days with a rather serious medical situation. As I sat outside the intensive care unit, a message landed in my phone which read: "As per record, vehicle no PQR is not issued a FASTag. Non-fitment of FASTag is a violation of CMVR 1989 and liable for penalty. Get a FASTag today..."

I live in a village in Kerala and have never had to pass through a toll gate in all my driving years in the state so far. The nearest toll gate is some 100 km away and I don't think I'll ever have to go anywhere near it. Why should someone like me fit a FASTag to my car? Why does the government extort money like this from us? We pay road taxes, vehicle taxes, insurance and its taxes, fuel taxes, maintenance taxes... an endless array of taxes for the simple convenience of owning a vehicle. Now another burden which is nothing short of plunder for people like me who never drive on those elite highways. Moreover, banks are charging fines too for not keeping minimum prescribed amounts in these FASTag accounts. Indian banks have already looted Rs300 crore from FASTag users, according to a news report I read this morning. Not only the government has turned looters in Modi's India!

Has there ever been such an insensitive government in independent India so far? Yet why is this man still worshipped like a god? I know the answer but won't say it. Find out yourself.

The Adventures of Toto as a comic strip

'The Adventures of Toto' is an amusing story by Ruskin Bond. It is prescribed as a lesson in CBSE's English course for class 9. Maggie asked her students to do a project on some of the lessons and Femi George's work is what I would like to present here. Femi converted the story into a beautiful comic strip. Her work will speak for itself and let me present it below. Femi George Student of Carmel Public School, Vazhakulam, Kerala Similar post: The Little Girl

ICICI and I

My association with the ICICI Bank goes back by about twenty years when I opened my account at their Saket branch in Delhi. The first thing that struck me about the bank was the suave and deferential ways of the staff which was a stark contrast to what I was used to in the other two banks which I was compelled to associate myself with. The Punjab National Bank which had my salary account was an utter disaster with its rude and listless staff. The State Bank of India which held my PPF account was the pinnacle of inefficiecy. ICICI came as a pleasant and welcome contrast. However, that bank too underwent an evolution in the wrong direction as time went. When the number of clients rose and the workload became heavy, the gentleness of the staff was the first casualty. Nevertheless, the bank remained far superior to the other two. When I shifted to Kerala I transferred my account to the branch in my hometown. Here the staff were exquisite. But I hardly had to visit the branch because I

The Little Girl

The Little Girl is a short story by Katherine Mansfield given in the class 9 English course of NCERT. Maggie gave an assignment to her students based on the story and one of her students, Athena Baby Sabu, presented a brilliant job. She converted the story into a delightful comic strip. Mansfield tells the story of Kezia who is the eponymous little girl. Kezia is scared of her father who wields a lot of control on the entire family. She is punished severely for an unwitting mistake which makes her even more scared of her father. Her grandmother is fond of her and is her emotional succour. The grandmother is away from home one day with Kezia's mother who is hospitalised. Kezia gets her usual nightmare and is terrified. There is no one at home to console her except her father from whom she does not expect any consolation. But the father rises to the occasion and lets the little girl sleep beside him that night. She rests her head on her father's chest and can feel his heart

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