Inflation - 3 (Jan 29)

Finally some respite!

Some good improvement on prices or should I say some good decrease in prices - most notable is onion, tomato and drumsticks! Perhaps the measures taken by the Government are taking effect - let's wait and watch.

I haven't added green leave items (like Palak/spinach) since these don't appear in the market regularly; and also green chillies and garlic has been left out since we don't use them regularly. The list of 27 items I think should be good.

Inflation - 2 (22nd Jan)

After two weeks I think I pretty much have the list of veggies that one would typically buy. I had to make a second round to note down prices I missed on my first trip!

Seems interesting - there did seem to be plenty of beans and capsicums in the shop and the prices reflect it. Onions still seem to be pretty high though I thought measures were taken specifically to control onion prices in the last week; hasn't worked yet!

Inflation - 1 (17th Jan)

Buying some food items (or commodities as they are called) for home I just had this thought, "Why not keep track of the prices?" We hear about inflation almost daily; so I just thought of keep track of my own inflation and comparing with what is reported. Is it really 18% or something lower or something even higher?

So here goes the first one:

Once we have some good amount of data collected we could make our own inflation index!

Sold? Uh...

The news was flashed repeatedly on the bottom of the screen:

"Ganguly and Lara unsold at end of Day 1".

And then it went on, "Gambhir sold for Rs. 11 crore"

Doesn't it sound odd? No, not that Lara was still up for grabs but the very use of the word "sold"? Buying people and they selling themselves to the teams?

It just sounds so unprofessional and unethical to hear that a person was sold for some amount of money. It reminds of something that existed once upon a time and is even now existing in different forms across the globe - slavery. People used to be put up for sale and could be bought by a process of bidding - pretty much what happens in an auction. The more able the person, the more price to be paid. The only difference now is that the money goes to the player whereas in those days it went to the slave dealer.

I still don't get it as to how everyone in the system accepts this concept of "being sold"; couldn't they think of better words? You buy and sell commodities, not people. And you aren't buying a player; it's similar to just paying the player for their service for the team. Couldn't they say, "Gambhir signs a contract for 11 crores" or "Gambhir strikes a deal for 11 crores"? I'm sure they have enough people who could come up with better alternatives than saying "sold".