Apples vs Oranges !!

 There is a tendency amongst people of comparing two extremes and this happens very
naturally. When I say people it includes “me” since I make this mistake often too. The idiom
“Apple vs Orange” rightly captures the essence. Two siblings would have straight opposite
characteristics though they inherit same genes, two students learning the art from the same
teacher may prove to be completely different from one another. End of the day each individual
is different or unique and each situation/context is different from one another, people seldom
understand this or I should rather say they don’t make an attempt to understand.

Covid crisis in India during Second wave:
India was literally devastated during end of April and May in the form of second wave and
personally it was very chaotic environment; I received calls from all round the globe asking for
Remdesivir and Tocilizumab; Opening Whatsapp was getting scary because there were steady
flow of condolence messages. Worst thing was India was running short of Vaccine; Bed and
oxygen availability were the talking points and hospitals were overloaded with Covid patients
and watching Ambulance was becoming more and more common sight. No vaccine, No O2
beds, limited supply of oxygen and no availability of life saving drugs made the equation as
challenging as possible. World media literally torn India’s image to low levels and COVID
situation in India was highlighted is many dailies of some of the world famous print media. One
thing which many forgot was India’s fight against COVID-19 was bigger than many nations put
together. Population of Madhya Pradesh is equal to Germany, population of Rajasthan is equal
to UK, Maharashtra’s population is equal to Japan, Telangana’s population is equal to Saudi
Arabia. USA’s population is 33 crores and Tamilnadu’s population is 8 crores (roughly 1/4 th ) so it
all boils down to Population. Social distancing is said to be a vital criteria to stop spread of virus
but population density plays a vital role in following this restriction. India stands at 403 people
per square kilometer whereas if you take developed nations like US it is 34, Russia is 8, Canada
is 4, and Australia is 4; In lay man terms I have seen many homes around 800-1000 square feet
in India where four people live and that is roughly the amount of space used for car garages in
US. When it comes to Literacy rate, Germany stands at Rank 8 in the world, US at 7, Australia at
16, Japan at 32 and India at 128 th rank with roughly 75% of the population being literates. When
people don’t have the fundamental basics in the form of education how will we communicate
importance of washing hands, social distancing and wearing masks especially when it is turning
out to be a herculean task to communicate the same to so called "educated people". Considering
India’s population, population density and Literacy rate I would say India did exceedingly well in
crisis – it exposed the healthcare system and made Governments work like hell, made people
realize the proverb ‘Health is wealth’ is no longer a whatsapp forward, made India major
powerhouse in Pharma Industry and finally small businesses no longer treat expenses 
related to hygiene as an overhead expense. So bottom-line when people or media compares India's covid situation with other nations they should understand the basics. 

Price of a Juice:
For anything and everything there are always different sets of audience and Business try to lure
audience from all walks of life. I love having fresh juices but many a times I find myself
disappointed with the way juices are prepared. Now let me go over with an example –
Assuming one kg of Chiku (Sapota) is 80 rupees and let us assume you get 10 pieces for one kg
which makes it literally 8rs/piece; In order to prepare a fresh juice for 200ml you need to
squeeze at least 5-6 pieces, along with sugar and other overhead expenses fixed costs easily
comes out to 60-65 rupees and with profit margin included is sold for 80 rupees; Problem with
people (7 out of 10 atleast ) is they feel 80 rupees is on the higher end for a 200ml juice and this
is why most of the juice shops add milk to bring down the costs to 40; I hate adding milk to juice
especially when I know that I am having a fresh juice and not a shake. Problem is we are mixing
up with apples and oranges – "definition of juice" if different for different sets of people. 

Language vs Knowledge:

Main aim of an Indian parent who lives abroad is to see their kids talk/sing/read in their respective mother tongue and if their kids does so especially in their relative circle during their India trips then the glow you see from mom's face is enough to lit up MA Chidambaram cricket stadium; If you take Indian parents then their number one aim is to make their kids cousins of William Shakesphere; They want their kids to talk like Macbeth characters whereas they watch vadivelu memes. In summary parents give paramount importance to language which is fine but they interchange between language and knowledge. An teacher can teach well but her linguistic skills may be poor and parents make the mistake of judging the teachers through language. Comparing language and knowledge is definitely like comparing apples and oranges. 

 As human tendency we tend to compare two different contexts but if we dig deeper both may be two extremes. As long as people acknowledge the fact that we are comparing apples and oranges it should be fine. 

Next Blog: Does Luck matter ?