THE PROBLEMS OF SCARCITY AND PLENTY

Generally it is believed that if there is scarcity of the items belonging to "daily needs" category, there will be  dissatisfaction in the society. On the contrary if the things or facilities are available readily in abundance  there are different types of problems which also lead us to unhappiness !


When I was child and later till I was 30  I indeed experienced and  still remember  scarcity of items like  milk ,suger,wheat,rice etc.

For hours we used to wait for the  Government  milk van  and the restricted quantity of milk was distributed to people standing in the long queue. Some persons in the queue used to wait for their turn even  without taking their morning tea. ....Suger was available only in the  ration shops and at other places it was illegally available on premium price.  In 1964 red wheat  distributed on ration shop was of horrible quality ....Later I came to know that in USA this  red wheat was fed to pigs or thrown in sea to feed fish . 

Plain Rice of reasonable quality was considered delicacy..Items like Suger , Cooking gas,kerosene ,cement and many more were permanently in the list of short supplies.

As a result of this scarcity black marketing was thriving all over the places and authorities who used to control used to make easy money.

Due to" Licence Raj" policy there used to be scarcity of two  wheelers.There was long waiting list for getting a two wheeler and getting the telephone connection was considered a luxury,

For two wheeler Vespa scooter  people used to wait for their turn for several years and if someone gets gas refill cylinder within a week people used to envy him.


 The most common thing  for all these scare Items was,  they were readily available if one was  ready to spend more money.

I think for the benifit of persons  whose age is less than 25  I will explain  meaning of Buying in black.Buying things in black means paying more money than the actual price.That  had become habit of the  people .so much that  even cinema tickets, many people used to buy by shelling off more money .There will be  agents who used to charge extra money and make things available. Police used to get their regular share and only when there will be lot of noise they used to catch some culprits.


 Today's generations might not be  even knowing that what type of problems due to scarcity  people in our country faced for over 40 long years.

Slowly India was  witnessing  several revolutions including 

1 Green revolution related to  crops like wheat , rice and sugarcane after 1967 led by late Mr Jagjivan Ram

2. white revolution of milk and  milk related  items led by founder chairman of NDDB late Dr. Kurian .

3. Yellow revolution which  solved the scarcity problem of edible oils in late eighties.

4.Revolution in computerisation and  communication led by late Rajiv Gandhi 

Some of these revolutions led to secondary and tertiary revolutions .

For 20-25 long years Indian people used to have entertainment on  only Radio and very few used to have Gramophone and tape recorders .Then came TV........I remember I saw the moovie in 1967  named "Love in Tokyo" because the TV was shown in that moovie . There were several changes as TVs from black and white to color TV to  flat screen LCD/LED TVs.

AND. THEN CAME MOBILE REVOLUTION

 Of all the revolutions mobile phone revolution affected the thinking and life style of the masses most significantly.

Globalisation in 1990-91 started  changes but mobile sets have changed  things so much ,that today we have problems because  of plenty and not scarcity.

As a result of all those above mentioned revolutions Everything is in abundance today including cricket,musical programs , umpteen number of channels on TV , Number of vehicles on the roads, Movies produced every year, Hotels,Number of flights and trains, Smart phones etc etc.There is also sharp increase in unemployment ,population,  but  opportunities to overcome the problems have also significantly increased.

Many of us may start wondering what they will do if there is no WA or  FB. and...if there is no TV for 24 hours.

The mobile revolution led to several secondary and tertiary revolutions as a result  there is sudden increase in number of Singers , Actors , Dancers Quiz events,  Sport events etc.


 Too much of cricket has spoiled the interest of majority of people in it and elections every now and then have reduced the interest of people in politics but number of political debates have increased considerably. 

 Cameras are rearlly seen as they have reduced but number of photographs snapped and  exchanged with others have drastically increased.


 These days one finds mindless constructions of cement roads and multi storie buildings every where and one is sick of seeing  so many cars on the roads leading to traffic jams and pollution .Large number of malls are flooded with so many clothes and people with excess money keep themselves busy in shopping to release the excessive tension. 

So many shirts in my wardrobe more often confuse me about which shirt I should use    and my wife too face similar problem about her Sarees. 30 years back there was no such confusion.


Person of my generation have experienced problems because of scarcity and now we are facing problems because of plenty as well.

I am sure  in the era of Information Technology  there will  be plenty of apps to overcome the problems of plenty.

The conclusion is .." life is and will always be full of problems ,".

We have to either find the solutions to those problems  or learn to live with them happily , The onus of getting solutions to the problems is on us and our society.

Let us all try to improvise our skills and  remember that the  'IMPROVEMENT ' starts with   'I' . 

For all my actions and inactions only  I am responsible....No point in blaming others .

....................................................

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