Have you noticed how expensive eating out has become all of a sudden? Are Indian restaurants ripping off customers, or is it the general price rise all around that has started to pinch us?

I am not quite sure if this eating out inflation has been felt in the rest of India, but in Delhi whoever I have talked to has felt the difference.

It seems to have happened during the past one or two years; not only have the prices on the menu of most restaurants skyrocketed but so have the amount of taxes you pay on the bill. Yes, taxes, and not tax; because while earlier you would only pay a VAT (value added tax) on your bill, you now pay VAT, service charge and a service tax. During a recent visit to a restaurant when I got a highly inflated bill, I realized that almost one-third of the amount component was made up of these taxes and charges. Let me post it here to put things in perspective:

1 MUSHROOM ON TOAST ………………… 140.00
1 HASHED BROWN POTATO………………. 70.00
1 SPICY CHEESE TOAST…………………… 155.00
1 FRESH FRUIT JUICE………………………  90.00
1 GARLIC BREAD……………………………… 70.00
_________________________________________
Sub total ………………………………………. 525.00
SERVICE CHARGE 10%………………………  52.50 
10.3% SERVICE TAX + SC…………………..  59.48
12.5% VAT……………………………………….  65.63
_________________________________________
Net Total (rounded) …………………………. 702.60

That’s exactly the bill I got when I went for breakfast with a friend at The All American Diner restaurant in India Habitat Centre, New Delhi. On a more recent trip to a restro-bar in Connaught place, a bill for two came out to Rs 1700 – for two drinks and two starters!  In any case, I lost that one so I have put up for analysis the one above. Let us rip into it:

Out of the total bill of Rs 702.60, about Rs 177 was taxes and charges. Now two questions arise:

1. Since when did restaurants start adding a service tax to the bill?
   This seems to have been a recent phenomenon, because at least till a year back it used to be either just VAT or VAT + service charge. Probably it was a recent government directive to fleece more money from the common man. In any case, the service charge bit leads us to the second question…
2. Is forcing a service charge on customers legal?
   This article in Economic Times makes it quite clear that service charge in restaurants is illegal. Its understandable that a restaurant has to pay taxes to the government…but why have a percentage based service charge on an already over-priced menu? This is what the ET article says in brief:

Please be clear that a service charge is not equal to or equivalent to service tax. The service tax is a government levied cess and you are obliged to pay the same if you are a citizen of India or an alien visiting this country.

But there is no such cess called the service charge. This is a fabrication of the hospitality industry. You are not supposed to pay for the service of carrying the food to your table. That cost is included in the cost of the food that is indicated on the menu.

If you think Indian restaurants are copying the west in levying a service charge, think again. Top restaurants in London have already scrapped the service charge, even as more are following suit. However, in India, the tribe of service charge levying restaurants is on the rise, and in a massive way. As the article in ET says: “If India and Indians are rising as a nation, we should also step up our awareness of consumer rights. Currently, eating lunch and gladly contributing to the fund for the proprietor’s new car is nothing sort of foolhardiness.”

We need to protest both the service charge and the service tax in restaurants, its like triple taxation. While the former has to be put up to the restaurants, the latter will be have to pushed to the Government of India. If you have any ideas how we can implement this, please share them in the comments section.

I had earlier questioned – Will Delhi be able to host the Commonwealth Games? We have had an egg on our face a bit too often thanks to our corrupt politicians and bureacrats. But it seems things have finally fallen in line at the last minute. Lets hope it lasts..

Looking at the pictures, I believe now you can agree with me that the Games opening ceremony will be superb (as long as no untoward incident takes place of course). Can’t be too sure about the rest of the games just yet…

Disclaimer: These pictures have probably been shot by a volunteer who is part of the preparations. I have not clicked any of the above pictures myself.

The goal scored with Shashi Tharoor’s resignation has been so powerful that it has rebounded upon the scorer himself. The self goal has meant that Modi stands suspended from the league he himself created, and faces a slew of corruption charges.

So much information has been leaked from various ‘sources’ with each passing day that the average cricket viewer’s attention has been forced to move away from the games being played on the field, to those off the field. It is indeed a sad state of affairs that a tournament which gave India immense international recognition, and brought on India’s domestic talent to the forefront, has been so tainted with corruption.

Adding fuel to the fire are the match fixing allegations. If they turn out to be true, there will be immense public anger, and the BCCI can then bank upon the fact that TRPs for any future editions of the IPL will never be the same again.

In spite of the information overload, there are many things we do not know; and though Modi had threatened to reveal the dirt in the game once the tournament concludes, he is yet to open the promised Pandora’s Box.

It is ironical that at the beginning of this year’s tournament, Lalit Modi made the team captains sign the MCC ‘spirit of cricket’ pledge.

The spirit has been murdered.

In a country where the rich and the powerful almost always escape the clutches of the law, will the spirit ever get justice? Even if Lalit Modi is convicted and prosecuted, there are bigger pawns (read politicians) on this chessboard, who may yet again subvert the system to save their skin. And the common man‘s faith in democracy will be further diminished.

Pop, Reggae and Bollywood enthralled a packed house at the home ground of Deccan Chargers team (Hyderabad having been replaced due to violent protests there).

Meanwhile the first match of the tournament saw a big upset when a seemingly victorius Deccan Chargers were defeated by Kolkatta Knight Ridersby 11 runs. Batting first, KKR lost two wickets in the first over and two more by the start of the sixth. Chaminda Vaas struck with the first and third balls of the match to remove Manoj Tiwary and Sourav Ganguly. Cheteshwar Pujara and Brad Hodge departed to leave the Knight Riders wobbling on 31 for four after 5.1 overs.

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However, England batsman Owais Shah and Sri Lanka all-rounder Angelo Mathews united in an unbeaten fifth-wicket stand of 130, the second highest recorded in professional Twenty20 matches, to take Kolkata to an above-par total of 161.

Although Deccan started at a gallop, with Adam Gilchrist and V.V.S. Laxman putting on 61 for the first wicket in less than six overs, they lost their way after both departed and finished the match scratching around for singles and overthrows. Pace bowlers Ishant Sharma and Charl Langeveldt exploited the damp conditions as Kolkata won by 11 runs.

IPL also created history by being the first major sports tournament to be telecast live on YouTube. All matches of IPL 3 will be broadcast with a 5 minute delay on the popular video sharing site. However, all did not go as planned because YouTube was ‘experiencing technical difficulties’ during the first half hour of the match. Hopefully things will be more streamlined as the tournament progresses.

Sadly, IPL fixtures this year have been set in a bad calendar with most of the international teams busy playing one another. Therefore we shall be seeing a lot more retired and not so great players play bat and ball this season. Already the Indian Premier League resembles a retirement destination of Aussie cricketers. Need I say more?

India’s batting legend Sachin Tendulkar smashed a world record 200 not out against South Africa at Gwalior in the second ODI of the three match series.

It is the highest ever score by an individual in a one day international, the previous record being 194 runs by Charles Coventry of Zimbabwe. Tendulkar reached the milestone in the 50th over of India’s innings, as the Proteas tried their best to keep him off strike. The pitch was described as a batting paradise by its curator and turns out he was true to his word; for all but one of India’s batsmen contributed magnificently in India’s massive 401/3.

The crowd at Gwalior’s Roop Singh stadium turned ballistic as the Indian batsmen reigned supreme with a stupendous display of fireworks from their bats. Skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni scored 68 off 35 balls hitting 7 fours and 4 sixes.

Earlier Dinesh Kartik and Yusuf Pathan hit 79 and 36 respectively. Only Virender Sehwag failed to contribute, scoring a paltry 9. We can expect a good fightback from the Proteas with excellent batsmen in their line up on this great batting wicket. Hamish Amla in particular is a dangerous player and South Africa do have the potential to chase a 400 plus score. Lets hope for further entertainment!

After sehwag fell and India were 309/2, a quick tumble of wickets followed. Captain MS Dhoni who was partnering Sehwag after Tendulkar’s departure made 72 off 53 balls. Sureh Raina, Guatam Gambhir and Harbhajan Singh fell succesively and cheaply and it looked like India would not be able to cross the 400 barrier until Ravindu Jadeja took on the mantle towards the end of India’s innings and scored a brisk 30 off 17 deliveries, including 2 sixes.

Meanwhile for Lanka; Kulasekara, Welegedara and Fernando took 2 wickets apiece but none of them could check the scoring rate and went for over 6.00 run an over. Tilekratne Dilshan was the mot expensive bowler giving 26 runs in his 2 overs.

Firstly, let me put in my reaction on being in the capital after almost a year. I feel instead of growing better, its become a bit worse to live in. There’s much more traffic on the roads leading to many more jams, roads are still bad in many places, traffic rules are still not strictly enforced, people still spit on the roads with gay abandon, men still urinate on any wall they see (is that why dog is a man’s best friend…similar habits?) and you are still pestered by beggars at traffic lights.

Now the main question – Can Delhi host the Commonwealth Games? From the look of it, Delhi’s on the losing side. Whatever construction sites I’ve seen look far from completion. The Municipal Corporation of Delhi, which manages Delhi’s civic amenities (known as the most corrupt and inefficient body in this part of the world) is yet to to even begin work on most projects alloted to it according to this TOI report. Why the hell did they assign any work to the MCD in the first place!

The only silver lining for Delhi seems to be the Delhi Metro – its new and shiny underground rail transit which people swear by. Thanks to the dynamic leadership of Delhi Metro Rail Corporation director E. Sreedharan, almost all phases of the Metro have either been completed before time or on time. While major parts of Central, North and East Delhi are now connected, many parts of South and West Delhi shall be connected well before the Gamest start. A link to the Indira Gandhi International Airport is also on the brink of completion. The airport itself is under renovation since the last two years and it seems that this work too should be completed on time.

But hell-o, we need the games venues and stadia to be completed on time to host the ‘Games’. Mr Concerned department, do you think we’ll play them at the airport and metro stations? Please do the needful soon!

I’ve copied this excerpt of the accompanying blurb from the Amazon UK website:

“Nine people, nine lives. Each one taking a different religious path, each one an unforgettable story. Exquisite and mesmerizing, and told with an almost biblical simplicity, William Dalrymple’s first travel book in a decade explores how traditional forms of religious life in South Asia have been transformed in the vortex of the region’s rapid change. Nine Lives is a distillation of twenty-five years of exploring India and writing about its religious traditions, taking you deep into worlds that you would never have imagined even existed.”

This promises to be a cracker of a book, and if you want to get a taste for its contents, you can read this article on the devadasis in the New Yorker magazine.

These are the kind of books that ought to be read by all established and aspiring travel-documentary photographers, since they provide ideas for photo-documentary projects, and intellectual/historical texture to successfully develop such projects.

Just before traveling last month to India, I recently re-read parts of Dalrymple’s City of Djinns; parts dealing with the Sufi dargahs in Delhi, and this enhanced my appreciation of these sites while I visited them.

There is a sinister co-incidence about the fact that the tragic terror that struck Mumbai on November 26 happened on a Wednesday. Only a few months ago a low budget Bollywood film on terrorism called A Wednesday received critical acclaim worldwide. It is a must watch film for any seriosu film buff, and for people who are fed up seeing their country attacked by terrosists repeatedly.

As you have noted I am not going into the details of the ghastly attack – you have already been bombarded with horrific images and bone-chilling statistics by the news media. A terrible tragedy but a real scoop for the media the world over. Every country’s media got a local news angle thanks to people of various nationalities that were killed by the bullet sprayers. As I write this piece news comes in that the US had prior intelligence of such an attack and had warned its Indian counterparts.

The Gateway of India with the Taj mahal hotel in the background on the left

If that is the case, then this whole government should resign. The Indian public is fed up of its politicians whose rhetoric speak larger than actions, who have been mute witnesses as the country has been subjected to brutal assaults on each and every one of its major cities. Terrorists haven’t been able to launch another attack in the USA after 9/11, why should India be such a soft target? Manmohan Singh may be a very apt candidate to be a prime Minister – with his impeccable honesty and his economics background – but history will not forgive him for being soft on terrorism.

Sharing a border with a country that is now infamous for exporting its global jehad factory products worldwide is one problem. Living in an overpopulated country is another. People look the same – attitudes and ideologies are different. While pakistan’s civilian government led by President Asif ali Zardari and Prime Minsyeter Yousuf Raza gilani wants peace and friendship with India, its military and intelligence agency veer off in the opposite direction.

Today however, in Lok Sabha (Upper house of Indian parliament) speaker Somnath Chatterjee’s words,

“The parliament of India has reached the lowest position, its nadir.”

What prompted Mr Chatterjee to say that?

As most Indians would know, today the Manmohan Singh Government would be facing a trust vote in Parliament. The present government has been in the doldrums ever since the Left parties withdrew support over the “nuclear deal” issue. And just before today’s crucial trust vote… a BJP member shocked the House by walking in with a bag full of currency notes which he claimed was given by a Samajwadi Party leader in return for his support in the trust vote.

The alleged bribe cash being displayed in the parliament by BJP MPs

That was enough to create a ruckus. Amidst the flutter, Deputy Speaker Charanjit Atwal adjourned the House briefly, leaving members surcharged. Trouble broke out when Ashok Argal, a BJP member from Morena and some others took out wads after wads of currency notes to substantiate their claim that horsetrading had taken place and heavy cash was used to “purchase” MPs for the trial of strength.

Looking at the press gallery, the BJP members alleged that an SP leader promised three of them Rs three crore each, of which Rs one crore was paid in advance. As Atwal asked SP member Mohan Singh to speak on the motion, the BJP members trooped into the well with Argal carying the black leather travel bag full of currency notes.

Argal placed the bag on the table of the Secretary General in front of the Speaker’s podium and fished out 10 bundles of currency notes of 1000 rupees denomination.

Shouting “shame, shame” and alleging horse trading by the Samajwadi Party, the members took turns to flash the money, prompting Atwal to adjourn the house hurriedly.

The incident caught the entire House unawares and members from both sides looked perplexed. When the House reassembled after the brief adjournment, there was no improvement in the situation as the opposition kept blocking the well. Atwal then adjourned the House for the second time on the issue till 1700 hours.

‘It’s a conspiracy’

While SP Chief — Mulayam Singh — accused the BJP of hatching a big conspiracy and said that saffron party’s role in the entire episode must be probed. He further added that the BJP has maligned the reputation of the Lok Sabha.

And who knows, today’s important event might even be suspended after the sad blemish on the Indian parliament. People who call Indian democracy a sham, have found a new confidence today.