Tuesday, Mar 01, 2005
Tuesday, Mar 01, 2005 |
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Advts: Classifieds | Employment | Karnataka
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Bangalore
THOSE OLD enough will remember the days before the liberalisation era when no hint of the proposals in the Union Budget would be available before its presentation. Back then, petty shops selling tobacco products would suddenly sport empty shelves; cigarettes would be sold in black. This time around, we are told cigarettes will be taxed more, but smokers exhibit less anxiety. Shopkeepers tell us that the price hike, if any, will be marginal on most brands, and in many cases the tobacco companies will absorb the taxes without burdening the dwindling number of smokers. Another addictive item that gets regularly taxed is liquor, but we may have to wait for the State Budget on this score.
IF YOU think beggars lead a hand-to-mouth existence, you are wrong. Consider this: a journalist, who was on his way to office, observed a woman and three children, all of them shabbily dressed, travelling in an autorickshaw. Out of curiosity, the scribe enquired with the auto driver, and he revealed that the woman had boarded his vehicle on Magadi Road. "She frequently takes an auto to Anand Rao Circle. Late in the evening, she takes her children and returns home," the driver said. Even as the scribe was looking on, the woman got out of the vehicle near Anand Rao Circle, opened her `jholi' (cloth bag) and took out three battered begging bowls and gave them to the children. They then took positions and started begging!
By K. Satyamurty and Afshan Yasmeen
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