Yellowstone National Park

I recently visited the Yellowstone National Park.  It indeed is a fascinating place and a giant of a park sprawling across three states.  It is also considered to be the first National Park in the whole world.  You will find many interesting facts about the park here: Wikipedia and Govt's site.

Each day of our visit we used to enter from the West Gate, for our hotel was to the west of the park. A shallow river runs along the road with vast meadows surrounded by hills.  The grass and vegetation looked green and healthy unaffected by the summer.  The river all along is shallow and looks black due to the stones lining the bottom.  The water is absolutely clear, though it must have a high level of dissolved salts and minerals from the thermal basins and geysers.  As you go deeper into the park, you see fumes emanating from various sites all around you.

The numerous thermal basins have geysers, ponds with the water steaming, boiling and spurting, and fumaroles.  Fumaroles are holes in the earth or small mounds that emit steam and smelly gases, mostly Hydrogen Sulphide.  The earth around these is mostly covered with white deposits which could be salts from the emissions, and the spewing water.  You see mudpots too which have mud bubbling and making sound like a very thick soup on a burner.  The mud in some mudpots is white and thick like white paint.

You also come across craters, deep pits containing very hot water and overflowing.  Some craters have very clear water which has hues of emerald and azure.  The sight is mesmerizing.

Almost as marvelous as the formations and phenomena in the thermal basins, is the way these have been preserved meticulously despite a footfall of over 3 million each year.  The ground in thermal basins is thin and if a person stepped on it, he may not only be damaging the delicate formations but also run the risk of sinking into boiling water or mud.  Extensive boardwalks have been built around the structures and visitors are required to walk only on these without touching the basin or pools or mudpots.  At some places you see warning that these are not only hot but acidic enough to burn the soles of your shoes!  The pungent smell from the fumes bears testimony to this.  Throwing any object in the basins is illegal and punishable and you find rangers keeping a watch at several places.

Since the ground in the thermal basins is so fragile and at many places around fumarole holes we could actually see how thin the crust is, we were astonished when we saw a bison standing near a bubbling pond.  Bisons typically weigh around 2000 pounds and we thought the bison was sure to sink into the ground.  It kept standing there for some time and then sat down.  We watched in fascination and returned the same way on our way back to ascertain its fate.  It wasn't there and there was no hole in the ground either!  We heaved a sigh of relief.

There are valleys full of herds of bisons.  We also saw bisons crossing the road at some places.  At one time we saw a bison roaming on a street bringing the traffic to a halt.  Soon enough a ranger came along in his car and nudged the bison away from the street.  We also had the good luck of seeing a grizzly bear near a stream.  A ranger there was there to brief the visitors and also to ensure that the animal was not disturbed.

A fascinating scene was a river and several small waterfalls from a vast thermal pool feeding it.  The pond was sparkling like a gem with several shades and there were several rainbow colours at the bottom of the water flowing out from it in all directions.  The plaques tell us that the colours come not from the minerals but from vast colonies of bacteria which live in the very hot water that no other organism may be able to survive in.  These bacterial are called thermophiles. A study of the mechanism which helps them thrive in such hostile environment has lead to discoveries that may find use in the medical science.

At one place we saw a stepped hill with hot water flowing from the top making a wonderful site.  It is called the Devils Lair.  Though, to an Indian like me it invoked the image of a Kailash or Ushn Kailash.  Adjoining it is an structure called Liberty Cap which looks like a huge Shivling.

The park also has a grand canyon complete with waterfalls and a river at the floor of the canyon.  The canyon has an Artist point where the hills are multihued and look like pastel colours on a huge canvas.

Of course, we also visited the famous Old Faithful Geyser, and witnessed an eruption.  This is the most predictable of the geysers with eruptions taking place every 75 minutes +/- 15 minutes.  Surprisingly, it was not as picturesque as many of the other sights that I have mentioned earlier.  And, yet, one cannot even think of skipping it when visiting Yellowstone.

Even in this abundant wilderness, the park has toilets in the parking lots.  There is no sewerage and these are just huge pits with a commode sitting at the top.  There are no wash basins but you have abundant supply of toilet rolls and huge containers of hand sanitizers.  The number of visitors was large, parking lots were all full, most toilets had a queue but we never saw anybody doing their business in the bushes.  Huge bear-proof waste bins are also kept in the parking lots and you never find any littering anywhere.  This, of course, applies to all parks and public places in this part of the world.

There also are visitor centers with gas stations and stores nearby where you can find food and beverages.

Yellowstone is surrounded by other parks and together they form a park system.  We visited the Grand Teton Park on our way back.  It is absolutely picturesque with a huge lake surrounded by the Teton range of mountains.  There still was snow on the mountains.  We wanted to boat in the lake but it was very crowded with the parking overflowing and we didn't have too much time left for our drive to the airport for catching the flight from the Salt Lake City.

All this sightseeing called for driving around 100 miles each day.  All the driving was done by my son, Anupam.  He is a great driver indeed.  I look back to the time when I taught him driving with great satisfaction and pride.  I may add that he has repaid that debt by teaching me driving in USA. Also, he managed the whole trip, meticulously planned each day to optimize our experience.  Thanks to his planning we could also see a few very quiet and scenic places that were not so crowded as the main points.

We were also assisted by a GPS based app called Gypsy Guide that keeps telling you about the location that you are passing through.

It was a memorable visit indeed, and worth sharing.  Hence this blog.

Why Must We Have Different Income Tax Rules for Seniors.

That old people in the final phase of limited human life span need a different treatment is recognized by the Medical Science too which has a separate branch for them called geriatrics.  Financial advisers too advise old and retired people differently as their risk appetite and needs are different and the time span under consideration is shorter.  Thus it is surprising that the government doesn't discriminate between retired and working people when it comes to taxing their income.  Some minor concessions given to them earlier are being gradually wiped out.

The first point of contention is the rebate given on long term investments.  These are often used by government to show that the actual income on which you need not pay any taxes is far more than the exemption limit.  It is indeed prudent and advisable for a young working man to set aside a sizeable part of his / her income for a reasonable retirement corpus in old age.  But to ask an old person who may not have much more than 5 years of life span left is illogical.  For a senior citizen it is time to draw down his savings to supplement his reduced income and she can hardly afford to set aside a large chunk of her income just to get tax rebates.  Thus it will be reasonable to raise the exemption limit for seniors over that for working people by the amount of total deductions for investments and savings that are permitted.

Again, contrary to what is believed by working people, expenses tend to go up after retirement.  There are several reasons for it.  When young you are able to do most of daily chores yourself.  However an old person with much lower energy levels one has to depend on domestic help.  One may also need a driver or have to depend on expensive private transport.  Visits to doctors become more frequent and the expenses go up not only on consultation but also on medicines and supplements which more than make up for any reduction in your grocery and food bills.

While working most of us were unable to attend many social engagements like marriage, birth of a child and many of the numerous celebrations that keep taking place in the immediate and extended family.  Once retired the calls on you to participate and give your blessings grow frequent and louder.  Now, we all know that social commitments also call for a substantial financial commitment.  In fact, expenses on social and family events form a huge part of expenditure in your budget.

Thus it can not be gainsaid that seniors also require a much larger standard deduction compared to young working people.

My submission is that it will be reasonable to give seniors a standard deduction of 2 lakhs along with an exemption limit of 8 lakhs. Also these limits should be linked to inflation and get automatically revised.

The Caste System (Varna Vyavastha)

I come from a Brahmin family that hovered on the boundary between lower and lower middle classes when I was a kid. My early schooling was in my native village and I came to the city of Faizabad for the middle and high schooling. In the city, I used to feel perplexed by the social conversation between classmates from a proper middle class urban background and they sometimes did frown upon my ignorance in certain matters and also the dress sense or lack thereof in kids like me who happened to be studying in the same government schools as them.  As an aside I may add that private schools in those days were few and looked down upon.

While I did find our economic status a little embarassinng, I have vivid memories of certain people who worked as domestic help, cleaner and washerman who seemed to be doing worse than us. I still clearly remember one Manohar who used to do the dishes.  A male domestic help was called Maharaa and female ones were called Mahari.  Manohar Mahara was a giant of a man.  As a kid I found him scary.  Apart from a meager salary, Manohar also used to get our left over food.  He had a large tin box and used to keep the fresh food in it.  Before keeping the fresh food, he used to take out the stale food from it and consume it.  I seldom saw him eating the fresh food.

Though alcohol was a strict no-no, a bottle was kept in the house for the washerman who used to visit the house for washing our clothes and then taking them for ironing.  He will arrive in the morning, will be given a cup or more of the intoxicant and get down to work.

Then there was the lady who used to service the dry latrine that was used by our large joint family. My father and uncle were first generation immigrants to a city. This lady used to speak Urdu laden Hindi in an accent that gave us a complex.  Must have converted a genration ago.

My cousins and I now agree that our generation managed to creep up from lower class to middle class.  I do not know what happened to the descendants of the persons I have described above.  I am convinced that the difference between them and us was not so much of class as that of caste.  It may have firmly pinned them down where they were.  Yes, some of them did manage to escape this tyranny just as some in our clan remained stuck where we were a generation ago.  Yet, now at this old age, I can see the disadvantage that the ones from lower castes suffered from.

I do sincerely hope that Hindu society will soon realize that caste is an anachronism today and must be firmly and decisively done away with if Hindu society is to survive, progress and thrive.

SFO to LKO on Air India: Customs at DEL

Normally a person travelling to USA from Lucknow has to first travel to N Delhi and then board an international flight from there.  This adds to the arduousness of the long journey.  Though Lucknow has an international terminal and there are flights for destinations in the Middle East and Singapore, getting a direct ticket from LKO to an USA destination is a problem.  The same applies to the return travel.

This time my son could arrange a direct ticket (single PNR) from LKO to SFO (via DEL) on Air India.  On the outward journey the luggage was checked through to SFO and I merely had to clear the immigration at DEL without having to bother about the checked-in bags.

On the way back, when I checked in at SFO, I was given a through luggage ticket to LKO.  I was expecting the luggage tickets to be only up to DEL as customs had to be cleared there before boarding the connecting domestic flight.  When I enquired with the lady at the counter, she told me that though the luggage has been booked through to LKO, my bags will be put on the carousel at DEL and I will have to collect them, clear the customs and then hand them over again to Air India at a separate desk.

I made an enquiry with a cabin crew too in the flight to DEL.  She admitted ignorance in the matter but said that the ground staff will be able to help me.

As we approached DEL, we were told that our registered bags will be available on belt number 2.  We cleared immigration and then when we reached belt number 2, we were informed that it is on belt number 10.  We reached belt number 10 and were looking for our bags when the crew from our flight happened to pass by.  I hailed the lady with whom I had a conversation in the flight and enquired about the ground staff that she had mentioned. She told me to look for people in red T-shirt with shiny jackets.  I found a few staff members that answered the description and were idly standing in a corner of the carousel.  I approached one and told him about my two flights and asked whether my bags will be placed on the belt for retrieval and custom clearance.  He replied that yes, I had to clear the customs and then hand the bags back to AI.  When asked if he could help, he nodded and came with me to the belt. His jacket bore legends saying "Air India," and "No Tips Please."  Yet I checked with him whether the service was free or a paid one.  He said, "Oh, you can pay whatever you wish.  I wouldn't insist on something like Rs. 500!"

Finally the bags arrived and we walked through the Green Channel.  No one bothered us and we exited and then entered from a separate gate marked Domestic Departures.  The bags were handed to the person at the counter who again enquired if there were any prohibited items in our bags and finally accepted them. The person who helped us with the luggage told us sotto voce not to pay him there.  Then he took us to a lift which was to take us to the domestic departures area and managed to wrangle Rs. 200/= from us as the prohibited fruit.

This reminds me of an earlier travel to USA where USA immigration and custom had to be cleared at Abu Dhabi.  You can read the details here.  Here we were not required to retrieve our bags and then hand them back to the airlines.  Instead they scanned the bags on their own and at the immigration counter we were shown pictures of bags checked in by us and asked to confirm that these were our bags.  I wonder why can the same not be done at New Delhi.  Passengers can be asked if they have any items on which duty is payable at the time of check-in at the starting point and accordingly be formed into two queues corresponding to Green and Red channels at the immigration point.  This would avoid the hassle of retrieving the luggage, putting them through the scanner if so required and then handing them back to airlines staff.

In case this can not be done, a suggestion for Air India is that their ground staff be provided a list of transit passengers who would need their help and each one assigned to one or more passengers proactively.  Also the passengers should be given in advance the name of the ground staff to whom they have been assigned.  This will greatly facilitate the passengers.

An Informal Presidential System Without Requisite Checks and Balances

Whenever a strong leader makes it to the top, her / his followers raise a demand for the Presidential system of Government.  It happened in Indira Gandhi's time and we have heard the voices in the current times too.

What has happened in reality is that we are already into a semi-Presidential system.  Do you say how?  Well, now every political party requires not only a symbol but also a face, a face for the topmost position if it gets a majority.  It is this face that does most of the campaigning, the actual candidates from different constituencies being of little consequence.  If there is resentment in a some constituencies agaist the local candidate on account of his being corrupt or a known criminal, the voters are plainly told that you are NOT voting for that candidate but for "the face:"  That the candidates are merely hands, mere instruments, in the hands of the face which is the seat of the brain too that commands these mere limbs.

A reaffirmation of faith in the true democratic principles is heard only when the face is uncertain of attracting the masses at the state or national level, as the case may be.  In such a case the concerned party will say that a person will be chosen for the top position in a democratic manner by the elected representatives and that the electorate should vote on the basis of policies and the manifesto and not personalities.  Otherwise as we said, they plead for one country one leader or somethig to the same effect.

In this day of strong leaders, the semi-presidential system is doing harm to the system which was not designed for this form of government.  As most of the legislators owe their victory to a single person and hence have little voice of their own, the whole system becomes a hostage to the strong leader.  This further fuels this person's ambitions for consolidating his hold and this leads to a corrosive approach to the other counterbalancing players and institutions in the system such as judiciary or media etc.  This would not happen if the person at the top felt that he didn't own the legislators but owed his position to them.  And in this case, the legislators will exercise the first level of control on the ambitions of the person at the top and keep it from trying to subjugate all checks and balances.

If we see merit in having a strong leader then we should also consider suitably modifying the Constitution to implement checks and balances that meet the requirements of a Presidential form of government.  Else we might end up having worst of both the worlds.

Power & Privacy

Human society survives on pretenses, on keeping up the appearances.  Both of these rely on privacy, on being able to hide something from your counterpart in an interaction, sometimes the world at large. We cover our body, cover our odors and cover our thoughts, all to maintain privacy and keep up the appearances. Children find it bewildering when we badmouth guests after having shown great bonhomie during their presence.  Only as adults do they realize that the first is important for sustaining the fabric of the society and the power relationships therein and the subsequent frank expressions just underscore the intimate relationship between parents and children that doesn't demand much privacy.

The level of privacy and pretenses required between two individuals or two groups of individuals or an individual and a group, is directly proportional to the Power Potential (PP,)  The power potential is the difference between power wielded by the two entities in the society or in the transaction at hand.  Need for privacy and pretenses diminishes to the extent the relationship is based on love and not power.  And the reverse is equally true.

This is underscored by an incident in Ram Katha.  When Ram and Lakshman were wandering through the forest looking for Sita, Sugriva was scared to see them coming.  He sent Hanuman as an emissary.  Hanuman disguised himself as a Brahmin, for he too was not sure of who these two prince like youth were.  Once Hanuman learns of their identity, he feels an immense love towards the Lord and that makes him appear in his natural form and the disguise falls off! "अस कहि परेउ चरन अकुलाई। निज तनु प्रगटि प्रीति उर छाई॥"

This being the case, we will agree that the highest PP is to be found in the interactions between the government and a common citizen.  Governments adopt a loving attitude towards their subjects in mass communications and advertisements just to distract them from the real dire nature of the relationship.

All status symbols and symbols of authority, be it the dress / uniform worn by you, or the position held by you, or the size of the office occupied by you, automatically bring the guards up in a counterparty that finds the PP high.  The spontaneity is gone and all interactions are carefully guarded.  This helps the weaker party avoids a confrontation and consequent damage.  But it also becomes a handicap for the person with higher PP as he is not able to gauge his subjects' true feelings.  This is a big handicap for a leader in a democratic setup. For that matter, even monarchs are afraid of a revolt by disgruntled subjects.

Hence the need for intelligence units that can gauge the mood of the public and inform the elected leader or the monarch.  The agents from the Intelligence unit do so by disguising themselves or planting moles to participate in group conversations as a peer keeping PP zero.  (Though it may be noted that human intelligence agencies are not really infallible as was seen in the fabled case of Indira Gandhi ordering elections on the basis of intelligence reports.)

If this intelligence gathering becomes more granular and invasive, it can lead to an Orwellian situation, but is less of a personal threat if only metadata is collected.  The metadata still gives the rulers the political picture to help them influence the voters through (mis)communication or even coercion.  Coercion was visible in the last Parliamentary elections when losing parties that had a hold on the local bodies made citizens suffer for water or other necessities as a punishment.

With the great strides in the world of computing, more reliable intelligence through Big Data and Artificial Intelligence is becoming a reality that can take over the intelligence functions from a human team.  Technology has already taken over many jobs and is now poised to take over the intelligence job too, at least for that section of the public that  actively vents its thoughts and feelings on social media.  With the powerful computing tools available today it is possible to generate a statistical geographical political profile of the populace or even track down individuals harboring certain political inclinations.  All that you need is access to the content created by the surveyed populace on the social media, by hook or by crook and a powerful AI engine to recognize the patterns.  This, of course, leaves out the not so small numbers who do not have access to or do not use social media.  This also explains why the opinion of the middle class can be molded rather easily in this manner and the reason for rushing to the likes of Cambridge Analytica.

Further, what Cambridge Analytica is doing to your posts to distill information about psyche and political inclinations, Aadhaar is attempting to do to your financial data by getting itself embedded in all your accounts and financial statements.  The complexity of tax regulations adds to a citizen's worries about such massive invasion of his financial data.  If BTT (click here to read) were implemented, ordinary citizens will not feel so threatened by this invasion for tax compliance will be automatic.  Keeping your laws complex and then snooping on the subjects is a sure way to threaten, torment and manipulate them.

And hence, it is no surprise that an ordinary citizen feels very threatened with the current developements.  This is why privacy has to be taken seriously.  Though, those like Nirav Modi, who feel that the PP is not too high, may not feel threatened by the system at all.  They even dare to threaten back.  Perhaps they have information on the ruling class that comes handy to them.

It is interesting to note that even governments with all their power need privacy from their citizens.  They achieve this through an Official Secrecy Act.  And not all guarded information relates to external threats.  And this is the reason that while citizens need privacy for them, they would like to weaken the privacy enjoyed by the Government, through tools like RTI.

Privacy is the cushion that powerless citizens have against all powerful governments.  If it is violated, the power wielded by the government goes up further and impacts are much harder on a targeted citizens.  It can lead to an Orwellian society.

A common citizen having little powers and limited means of exercising them therefore needs twofold protection.  One is right to privacy (from government) and right to information (to dilute the power added by the govt through Official Secrets.)

It is time we learnt from Europe and enacted Privacy Laws and strengthened RTI framework in India.

Drowning in Poop!

As part of Clean India drive, lots of efforts are being devoted to prevent open defecation and urination by citizens who sometimes do so because of deep aversion to defecating inside their homes and sometimes, especially in urban areas, for want of a proper toilet.  The campaign is indeed showing results and yet cities are drowning in poop, i.e., animal poop.

I believe it would be very difficult to find a city where you can drive, say, 20 kms without your tyres picking up cow dung or some other animal poop.  Same applies to walking.  Your shoes are bound to pick up excreta of one variety or another.  This, perhaps, is the reason that people normally take their shoes off before entering a home.

Where does all this poop come from?  Our cities are infested with stray animals of a large variety.  You will find cows and bulls.  You will find donkeys, mules, and pigs.  Monkeys have added further variety to the animal kingdoms interspersed throughout our cities.  Dogs are of two varieties, stray and domestic with the former outnumbering the latter.  Cats mostly are stray ones.  To be fair, I must add that pigs while contributing to the menace also help in containing it to some extent!

When I visited the USA for the first time, I was surprised by the lack of boundaries in most homes. Also most homes are built out of wood as the primary building material.  My first reaction was, "OMG! If they had stray bulls of the Lucknow variety, those houses will get razed to the ground in no time."

The total absence of animal poop on the streets in the towns and cities of the developed world is not entirely due to absence of animals.  They do have domesticated ones, especially dogs, in large numbers.  However the owners pick up after their pets.  Plastic bags for the purpose as well as covered disposal bins are readily available at most public places where animals are allowed.

Back home here, if you were to ask a dog owner to clean up after his dear pet, he may not actually murder you but the murderous rage on his face will be unmistakable.  Once he has managed to contain that rage, the standard reply would be, "And how about all the droppings of stray dogs here?  Will you pick it up?"

By the way, dogs are nice animals and quite amenable to training.  However it is surprising that we have thus far failed to toilet train them.  Naturally it will be vastly more difficult to train the others like bulls.  But the menace of animal poop can be resolved only in two ways. We either remove all stray cattle from human settlements or toilet train them and build toilets especially designed for them.

Any other suggestions?