Need a Thick line

 

The line needs to be Re drawn

 

This is a piece that is just a subjective take on behavioural contours of people and how it has changed in recent years

 

The thought that I am sharing is coming from a constant cerebral fight that I keep

on doing always ends with a blurred question that " Is our political ideology and need to have an opinion on each thing, erasing the line of being separate at personal and professional front? Are we able to keep our offices ( read it as political expression) out of personal forums? The thing that I have felt and realised is that we as a country are on a mission of judging people just on their stand on something political, making ourselves so thin skinned that it has started affecting our best of relationships on a premise that his/ her religious bias/ political flavour does not match you. Where is our accommodating nature went of this humanity loving country?

 

.It's not a new thing that we have experienced different opinions / priorities. Examples of our each day life at offices where two people in separate department can be at logger heads at each sanction or at any junction of work, but it hardly came in path of them doing their lunch together discussing good things about their lives, planning family etc  and people remain best of pals after office too. But now,  with this need to be loud politically on each front / religion have created a black and white divide among best of the friends, colleagues, family members. Be it either way of political cursing or chest thumping the things have soured a lot . Even in best of the friendships people are ready to forget what all good things both people have done for each other ,those moments they created have vanished by some random venom on watsapp chat  or some fake news spread by a forum, this reflects of a very low pedestal that we have given to relations in life.

 

 I also want to enquire upon a point that genuine neutral people are afraid to start a conversation in some group where he/ she know that even if the topic is not even remotely related to politics and government, people will make it reach there and then go bonkers with  left/ right/ bhakt/ liberal / communal/ India Pak etc...endless and then majority among them will crush others opinion there are high chances that a fight will  start and need to be mediated.

 

 Accessibility to 24hour news format on all platforms & our double bass debates of prime time are also subtly playing there part to ripe their fruits in this divide as they are acting as stimulant to doing more and more political discussions now which is a big rise if can compare with even  early 2000`s .The other notion that I have which needs to be checked is that, still there are people which are caught up in a feeling that they were oppressed earlier sometime for benefitting others and  they need to clear score now and they propagate their thoughts like that and there by affecting their personal relationships too and they are ready to do it for fake pride of their own.

 

These all very basic but important things, I felt like should be discussed/ re written with an underline tonality of creating examples among common people or people in public forum that who are gelling well despite having a political divide to extreme. There should be more and more  talks/ discussions on topic other than politics like life morality, arts, culture, science, sports and there should be a constant push from all forums to keep redrawing the line that speaks that we should not intermix our political/professional affiliations tensions into our happy circle of friendship and a tea together or a laugh out call with all friends shall vanish these tans with less pain

 

Last lines to sum up my view

 

" Wo door jaa Raha hai Jo sabse kareeb thaa..is shor ka uspe kuch to asar hua hai..warna to wo Meri dhadkane bhi sun leta tha"

Tractor- Defeating the lockdown

 

It’s a regular Saturday morning and Uday Raj Singh, a tractor dealer from Jaunpur in Uttar Pradesh, who is in this trade for over 19 years, is receiving phone calls without a break. Although he is happy with the nonstop phone calls from customers enquiring for their tractor delivery, he is equally surprised about such a rise in sale of tractors, despite the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. Uday is just one of the many tractor dealers across the OEM’s in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh & many stretches across the country who have witnessed a huge increase in demand for tractors, along with restricted supply, during the Covid times.

 

Tractor, a product placed at an interjection of Automobiles & Agriculture industry, has shocked all trade pundits as it became probably the only product of its type that saw a huge uprise in sales, while the rest of the automobile sector, from two wheelers to four wheelers, reeled under severe pressure due to lack of demand.

 

"Why Tractors Only Got Traction"

There are many reasons attributed to the growth in tractor demand in the last 3-4 months, but before sharing about the reasons, one needs to understand the basic nature of tractor selling that many people not associated with the sector are unaware of. Tractors are the only product of its type, which despite being placed in the range of Rs. 4.5-7 lacs, gets “Advanced(i.e sold without giving full price of it)” in the market. The term Advancing means the tractor is sold to a customer through a dealer network to customers / farmers on the basis of the relationship, acquaintances and deep trust between the dealer and the farmer. This trust is core to tractor selling and a tractor buyer may pay anywhere between Rupee 1 to full cost of the tractor initially.

 

For taking delivery of the tractor, the customer has to usually pay around 30-40 per cent of the cost and the rest of the amount gets financed in a period of 0-3 months from the date of sale or if bought in cash sale, the rest of the amount is returned with the selling of the next crop or getting returns from tractor deployment into various commercial activities. As per my observations, this easy nature of the product selling was the underlying reason, along with a few other reasons, which propelled the sale of tractors despite the ongoing pandemic.

 

The Bunch Coming Together

For a big trend to click out like this, there must be various reasons that played their role and which included a good return on rabi crops harvest (with a 3-8 per cent increase in the minimum support price and satisfactory management of ad hoc purchases at mandis in bulk on major crops, among others. The satisfactory onset of southwest monsoon also gave impetus that a good kharif cropping season was ahead and mandated that farmers will start timely preparation of their fields for puddling and intercultural operations for major crop of paddy.  The government initiatives to keep the essential tractor workshops open at heartlands along with inputs such as seed and fertilizer shops paved the way for people to focus on their core agricultural activities -- agriculture.

 

Migration Exodus Settling down "Playing a Part"

In initial days of lockdown, we saw the biggest under estimation that our leaders creating ruckus with extreme level of tough migration exodus from South West metro cities to Hindi heartlands of UP, Bihar, MP at a large chunk throughout whole (march to may). There was a sense of restlessness starting May with people who returned from cities, looking at barren lands in their villages as a small hope for survival. This inclination of people again giving a try to farming looks like a farfetched reason for the growing tractor need, but it was one of the reasons and this was reflected in one of the conversations with Mr Ashutosh Kumar, Regional Head - Cholamandlam Finance (Tractor Loan Division- UP East), who said, "During the beginning of June, he was getting case proposals of tractor loans with borrowers having a local ID proof to show, but was not having the residence stability in the region / town from where he bought the tractor. Mostly these people were having a residence stability of one-two months. Upon going on the field investigations there, he found out that there was a small chunk of people who were buying tractors after returning from cities to work on their land, which earlier sometimes were given on batai / lease and they feel tractors are an earning product which will help them in agricultural operations and help them in any work of brick clin / crusher / or any commercial deployment going forward and giving them an earning in the long term.”

 

This was the situation with other financers too, though not in very small numbers, but there was a small trend setting in with same.

 

The Season Ahead and the Sustainability 

With the Pitra Paksha ending with Vishwakarma Diwas late September, the onset of better days will be arrived with an eye on the peak season starting from Navratri in October to Mega Dhanteras and Diwali brightening lights of tractor manufacturers and dealers with a hope of highest ever sale till the sowing time of Rabi crops. Tractor manufacturers are already getting inbound inquiries for the season time and that is reflected in bookings with dealers. The big question still remains around the sustainability of agriculture in the long term as the cost of agricultural production has not gone down for farmers. The government’s claim of doubling MSP is still a distant dream and the high dependability on weather still plays a big role in determining the fortunes of the farmers. The investment and physical strain that a farmer goes through is huge, and a tractor just provides some support and eases the work of farmers. Hope this tractor gives farmers the hope, the cushion and the required support in their long road ahead towards sustainability of their farm incomes.