SOTTO VOCE: Grin and Bear

Someone rightly said that economics is everything we know in a language we don't understand. That's why perhaps we see mainstream newspapers looking more and more like economic papers. One day we are told Sensex is sweet sixteen, the next day that it has come of age. Sensex has become part of our jargon now. Just the other day, my grandmother gave us all a shock when she announced that she was feeling dizzy as her BP shot up like the Sensex.Alarmed, we rushed her to the family doctor. We heaved a sigh of relief only when the doctor assured us that her BP was quite normal. My grandmother gave us a mischievous grin and said she was only showing off her knowledge of contemporary jargon. One thing that confounds me is why everyone goes berserk when the Sensex zooms. The newspapers tell us in no uncertain terms that this means the rich are getting richer. And that the Indian investors earned a little over Rs 5,700 cr a day! I don't find my humble self anywhere in that league. What i get is only my take-home pay. It's so called perhaps home is the only place where i can afford to take my pay. I wish my salary too surges like the Sensex, every six working days.
Did someone say that money can't buy everything? Make a lot of it before talking such nonsense as some wise guy said. Especially in these days of rising inflation. Again, I am totally confused about inflation. When inflation comes down, the finance minister and economic experts are happy and reel out statistics. But I find there is no change in my financial status. As i know to my cost, prices move only in one direction - up - contrary to the fin min's assertion that when inflation comes down, prices also come down. Even the interest rates make me tear my hair. Whenever the Big B (big bank), the RBI, lowers the CRR or bank rate, we are told that the interest rates on home loans will come down. I find the interest on my fixed deposit coming down but not the interest rate on my loan. Had I known that life would be like this only, i wouldn't have done a postgraduate course in economics.