DEVELOPMENT / PROBLEM / SOLUTION

Development, is it a problem?
Development is one solution to all problems, announces PM Modi. Any other PM in his place would have said the same thing. So this is not about who said it, but it is about what is said. Now I will play a casuist.
Two important terms are used in the statement, namely, ‘development’ and ‘problem’. Without thoroughly appreciating the meaning of these terms it is difficult to comprehend the significance of the statement. I do not pretend to know the meaning of these terms, I only show the terms mean different things to different people or class of people.

As for ‘development’, a Gujarati story by Dhumketu (pen name, real name Gaurishankar Govardhandas Joshi) comes to my mind. In a village, there are a few tangawalas (carriage drivers) that wait at the local railway station for an upcountry train to arrive. The tangawalas ferry the few passengers that alight at the station, to the village. The village then sees ‘development’. A motorised bus is introduced by an enterprising man of the village. The bus goes to the railway station and competes with the tangawalas in attracting passengers. One bus can carry all the passengers leaving none for the tangawalas. This gradually drives the tangawalas out of business. It was no doubt ‘development’ as we understand the term to mean, but was it development for the tangawalas and their horses? Did it solve all problems? I am sure there are no easy answers.
As for ‘problem’, nobody saw any problem in the village until the bus service was introduced. A problem is a problem when it is perceived as such, not otherwise. We cannot call something to be a problem by applying alien standards.
I often wonder whether ‘development’ itself is a problem seeking solutions in further development.

WHISKY TRIVIA - INSTERESTING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

1 The world's most expensive bottle of Scotch whisky is Isabella’s Islay ($6.2 million).
2 The oldest Scotch whisky on the market is the Aisla T’Orten 107 years old, distilled in 1906. It costs $ 1.43 million
3 Glenfiddich is the world's best-selling single malt
4 Johnnie Walker Red Label is the world's best-selling Scotch
5 The Famous Grouse is the best-selling whisky in Scotland
6 Glenmorangie is the best-selling single malt in Scotland.
7 The world's fastest growing Scotch today is Black Dog. India is a major contributor to its sales.
8 The five most popular single malts globally are Glenfiddich, The Glenlivet, Glenmorangie Original, Aberlour and Laphroaig
9 Bruichladdich’s The Octomore is the most heavily peated whisky in the world (167ppm)
10 The three oldest single malts currently sold are Glenturret, Oban and Glenlivet
11 The oldest distillery in Scotland is Glenturret (1775), followed by Bowmore (1779)
12 With each bottle of Laphroaig that you buy, you are entitled to a lifetime lease of one sq foot of the distillery’s land, along with a personalized certificate of ownership
13 Cadenhead’s Whisky Shop on Canongate, has a unique selling point: customers can have a bottle poured straight from a cask and labeled with their name. When sealed it has a label with the ‘born on date’, as whisky stops aging as soon as it leaves the wooden barrel, so each bottle is a unique blend.
14 The highest price paid at an auction for a bottle of Scotch was $631,850 for a 6-liter The Macallan “M” single malt, in a decanter by Lalique. (The highest price paid at an auction for a standard sized Scotch was $460,000 for a 64-year-old Macallan malt whisky)
15 Edradour is the smallest distillery in Scotland. The entire operation is run by just three people
16 The Glenmorangie distillery is one of the smallest in the Highlands and employs just sixteen craftsmen, called ‘The Sixteen Men of Tain’
17 The most expensive country in which to buy Scotch, ironically, is the UK, where it is made
18 In the UK, its home country, the five most popular blended Scotch whiskies are The Famous Grouse, William Grant’s, Bell’s, Teacher’s and J&B Rare. Note: Johnnie Walker does not feature in the list of best-selling blends in its home country.
19 A closed bottle of Scotch can be kept for 100 years and still be good to drink. After opening, a bottle of Scotch whisky will remain good for five years.
20 The Australian Wine Research Institute has introduced a measure called a standard drink. In Australia, a standard drink contains 10 g (12.67 ml) of alcohol, the amount that an average adult male can metabolize in one hour.
21 Although their proof differs, standard drinks of beer, wine and spirits contain the same amount of alcohol – 0.6 ounces each. They’re all the same to a breathalyzer.
22 18,000 litres of Scotch whisky worth over $800,000 were accidentally flushed down the drain at Chivas Brothers’ Dumbarton bottling plant in 2013.
23 Experts advise you to drink single malt with just a dash of water. The water supposedly ‘releases the serpent’ from the whisky
24 If there is a serpent, there is also an angel. As it ages, 2-2.5 % of the whisky maturing in a barrel is lost to evaporation every year. Distillers refer to this as the ‘angel’s share’.
25 There is also a devil. The whisky absorbed by the wood of barrel during maturation is known as the 'devil's cut’
26 Some sources claim that the Irish whiskey distillers brought the Irish custom of triple distillation with them to Scotland. Auchentoshan was probably started by Irish settlers, led by the MacBeathas, starting this custom. The source of the name Auchentoshan is Gaelic. It means 'corner of the field'.
27 The United States and Ireland spell it as 'whiskey'. A simple way to remember the spelling: if it comes from a country without an ‘e’ in its spelling, then it is spelt 'whisky'. (e.g., Scotland, Canada, Japan, India, etc.)
28 Indian 'whisky' is technically flavoured rum, because it's essentially made from sugar