Citygritty 8212; Pune

Patriotism for a price?The Arun Mitra Mandal of Moti Chowk, Budhwar Peth, has designed a weighing scale, with a statue of the jawan armed...

Patriotism for a price?
The Arun Mitra Mandal of Moti Chowk, Budhwar Peth, has designed a weighing scale, with a statue of the jawan armed with a rifle forming one part of the scale and a container for donations, forming the other. This is to enable passersby to slip in coins and rupee notes into the container, which will be termed as being full to capacity, when it overweighs the weight of the statue. Noble intentions undoubtedly, but is the fund collection for the soldiers fighting on the Kargil front becoming a mockery? It hurts when you see people, casually throwing pennies. Surely our jawans deserve contribution with more dignity?

Take another example. The Aashay film club has organised a film festival, where four outstanding Marathi films will be screened at the National Film Archive of India from July 18 to July 21. Very commendable, as Aashay film club keeps up its reputation, of bringing to the public, some priceless screen entertainment. The donation ticket for this particular four film festival 8211; Rs 50 per head will be channelised to the Kargil Fund. Why should the Kargil fund be attached in lieu of entertainment? Doesn8217;t sound convincing. Change reaction Small change always seems to be in the news. If it is not the shortage that it8217;s about then it8217;s the surplus, as it turned out a few day ago.

A staffer offered the rickshaw driver one 20 paise coin and three 10 paise coins instead of a single 50 paise coin. Thinking he8217;d be happy at the glut of small change, she very happily handed over the coins to the driver. Only to be rudely told that it won8217;t do. 8220;These coins don8217;t work anymore. No one accepts them, either you give me a 50 paise coin or forget it.8221; Obviously this is just another of the rickshaw driver8217;s excuses for Assistant general manager, SS Jugade of State bank of India clarified the issue of small change. 8220;These 10 and 20 paise coins are in shortage as the RBI does not supply them anymore. But they are definitely not out of circulation. They are perfectly valid form of currency and no way can anyone refuse accepting it.8221; It8217;s time some rickshawallas went in for a change 8211; of attitude.