Author: The Metrognome

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Kharcha paani

How to make money as a self-employed person

Don’t let the pressures of being in business for yourself bog you down. Strategise carefully to manage your business finances.
by The Editors | editor@themetrognome.in

Nobody expects business to be an easy affair to handle, but some people make a difficult task impossible by reckless and foolish behaviour. You can’t predict when your next big contract will be signed or when you can announce that you are breaking even, but with the help of cautious spending and common sense habits, self-employed persons can make sufficient money out of their work to lead quite comfortable lives.

Make a list of all expenses. Since your business is going to pay for your household expenses, you need to have a clear idea of what your home expenses are every month, and the times they are likely to increase (like in the case of a family wedding coming up in a few months, or fees for a new course for your child). Once this list is made, preferably with a month-by-month projection, you will be in a better position to devote a minimum percentage of your income to the home. Keep this sum of money fixed till such time inflation or necessary expenses necessitate reallocating more money.

Minimise overheads and expenses. If you are finding the going tough on the business front, causing stress at home, you might consider scaling down your operations, at least for a little while. If you can make do with three full-time staff instead of five, relieve the extra staff and save on their salary. You might even cut down your own salary for a while. Also, make sure that there are no wasteful expenses taking place in the office – air conditioners being left on when nobody is there, printouts being taken repeatedly when only once will suffice, employees leaving computers on even after they leave office, etc. All of these unnecessary expenses can be easily done away with by careful monitoring.

Accept that there will not be fixed income. Being a self-employed professional, whether on a freelance or a business basis, means that your income will be different every month. Some months will be a financial windfall, while others will be very lean. For the times when money is low, anticipate the reduction in business much before you hit a troublesome patch, and set aside funds to help you keep the office running even when there is no business. Business or not, you still have to shell out money for salaries, overhead, water and electricity, etc. so be on the guard before trouble actually comes knocking.

Never make the home finance the business. A mistake that most businesses in the red make is to use up all their assets to keep the office running. They forget why they went into business in the first place – to give a comfortable life to themselves and their families. Hence, the ideal business model is one in which the money flow is one way: from office to home, and never the reverse. People make the mistake of selling off personal assets like jewellery or mortgaging their homes to raise money. Still others take heavy loans against property and insurance policies, hoping to replace all the sold or borrowed assets when money comes later. Your office and home and two separate entities, so you cannot use your home to fund your office.

Invest wisely. You will need to secure your and your family’s life by timely investment in suitable insurance policies, equity bonds, mutual funds, etc. However, don’t opt for the first savings instrument you come across. Take professional help in planning for your family and your business. Your accountant will tell you how much income you will lose by way of paying taxes based on a projection of your business, so make sure you set aside this sum months in advance. Also, your spending should be the same, irrespective of how much money your business gives you. Never be tempted to splurge recklessly when you have surplus funds on hand.

(Picture courtesy www.wordlypost.in. Image is used for representational purpose only)

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grey space

The rights of senior citizens

Are you aware of your rights as a senior citizen in India? Read on to know what these rights are.
by Advocate Aileen S Marques

In 2014, India had about 10 crore people above 60 years of age, this number is expected to touch 32 crores by 2050. The 2014 report by a NGO- Helpage India highlights a very sad state of affairs in the lives of the “old in age-young at heart”. According to this survey more than 50% respondents faced some form of abuse and 41% of them chose to keep silent and bear the pain. It’s time that the hands that nurtured us reclaim their rights.

Similar to the theory of reverse mortgage, all those who will benefit from the property and assets of the senior citizens are legally bound to provide for their needs.

The document ‘UN Principles of Ageing’ (1982) is considered the basic guideline for promotion of the rights of senior citizens. The five principles enumerated therein are: Independence; Participation; Care; Self-Fulfilment and Dignity. The right to access adequate food, water, shelter, clothing and health care is basic to the lives of senior citizens. They should also have access to health care to help them maintain the best possible level of physical, mental and emotional well-being.

Older persons have a right to live in dignity in a safe environment, free from exploitation and mental, economic and physical abuse. The Indian laws provide for maintenance for parents who are ignored and neglected by their children. The section 125 of the Code of Criminal Procedure provides for the maintenance of parents who are unable to maintain themselves. The Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act 2005 provides protection from violence, the right to residence and maintenances for women (even mothers) who face violence from their children.

The Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Act, 2007, is an Act that provides more effective provisions for the maintenance and welfare of parents and senior citizens guaranteed and recognised under the Indian Constitution. Parents and senior citizens have a right to be maintained by their children. Similar to the theory of reverse mortgage, all those who will benefit from the property and assets of the senior citizens are legally bound to provide for their needs.

So if the senior citizen has property which his/her children will inherit on his/her death, then according to 2007 Act, they are legally bound to maintain the senior citizen during their lifetime. Children have an obligation towards their parents. In an attempt to rejuvenate the lives of the senior citizens, the Government of India has introduced many policies and schemes. Senior citizens have to realise that they have rights, the most important being the right to life. It is important that they become aware of their rights and assert them rather than succumb to the pains and pressure of their victimising children. Life is a blessing of God, live it with grace and dignity.

‘Grey Space’ is a weekly column on senior citizen issues. If you have an anecdote or legal information, or anything you feel is useful to senior citizens, caregives and the society at large, feel free to get it published in this space. Write to editor@themetrognome.in or on Facebook at www.facebook.com/Themetrognome.in and we will publish your account.

(Picture courtesy estatebulletin.in. Image is used for representational purpose only)

Categories
Film

Review: Rajwade and Sons

This week’s release is the story of generational conflict in one of Pune’s richest business families. Watch it with family.
by Ravi Shet

Rating: 3.5 out of 5

A film about business, interpersonal relationships and how succeeding generations view the world through a different prism, Rajwade and Sons is a story of familial obligations, stifling dreams and carrying on age-old traditions.

Adamant patriarch Rameshrao Rajwade (Satish Alekar) is the head of the Rajwade family and his children – Vidyadhar (Sachin Khedekar), Laxmi (Mrinal Kulkarni) and Shubhankar (Atul Kulkarni) obey their father’s decisions and orthodox values without questioning him.

Vidyadhar is prone to snooping on his children by checking their Facebook accounts and even discussing the same with his wife. Meanwhile, Anay is slightly self-centred with his love for shoes and his laptop, while Shweta is interested in working and travelling around the world.  Laxmi lives in her father’s place along with husband Vaibhav Joshi (Rahul Mehendale) and their kids – Annaya (Mrinmayee Godbole) and Virajas (Siddharth Menon). Virajas is shown working half-heartily in family business with Anay, while Annaya wants to pursue her career in modeling.

 

In this cast of characters is introduced Vikram (Amitriyaan Patil), Rameshrao’s estranged son who has left the family home years ago and not been in touch ever since. Anay, Annaya, Shweta and Virajas go to their old home and discover Vikram’s belongings and also take some of the things. Till one day, Vikram returns and everyone is excited and happy to see him, except for Rameshrao, Shubhankar and Vaibhav. They suspect that he has come for his share of the money and property. Vikram’s entry in the family energises the third generation of the Rajwade family to pursuing their dreams.

Sachin Kundalkar keeps the right amount of twists in the story, and realistically showcases how the older generation’s decisions are forced on the succeeding ones. There is a harsh glare shone on the infighting and the concept of the Indian joint family that restricts the younger generation from living their dreams. The pace of the film is well balanced in the second half with good camerawork by Arjun Sorte. Atul Kulkarni and Amitriyan Patil deliver good performances and they are very well supported by Alok Rajwade, Krutika Deo, Mrinmayee Godbole and Siddharth Menon. This one is a good watch with your family members – even the extended family ones.

(Picture courtesy marathimovieworld.com)

Categories
Enough said

The homeless in Kashmir may be homeless forever

A visit to the Kashmir valley shows disturbing truths of how an apathetic Government is disinterested in helping homeless residents.
Humra Quraishiby Humra Quraishi

I have been restless and upset by the goings-on in the country. I decided to escape the news of the maddening incidents in Dadri and elsewhere with a trip to Kashmir. Only…there is no escaping any grim reminder of the present-day Indian realities when one reaches the Valley. For the reminders come brutally fast and thick here. If anything, one is filled with more despair at the plight of marginalised Indians in the country.

I travelled to Kashmir to report on flood victims and their survival in the backdrop of the fact that those rendered homeless by the ghastly floods are still homeless. Even after a year, as autumn paves way for another harsh winter, there has been no Government assistance to these people. Besides a sense of deep gloom, there is also simmering disgust at the PDP joining hands with the BJP. The latter is widely perceived as a dangerous communal force that will only bring ruin to the Valley.

Even as the BJP makes inroads in the region, I was taken aback at how bitter the average Kashmiri is about the state of his or her life in the State. From cab drivers to persons of the elite class, the opinion is unanimous: the PDP made a huge mistake by partnering with the BJP, and there is hope (even at this late hour) if the two were to part ways. The anger stems from the perception that the RSS is guiding the hands of the BJP in Kashmir (as in other places) and this can only lead to destruction of everything that Kashmiris hold dear.

A young gentleman I met there was vocal about the BJP and Modi. “How can Modi sarkar talk of a Common Civil Code while Muslims and Dalits and Christians are treated like third class citizens?” he wondered. “The Government hangs Yaqub Memon and Afzal Guru, but spares Hindu terrorists from Mumbai to Karnataka to Uttar Pradesh to Madhya Pradesh! Even if one does not want to equate terrorism with any religion, these lapses make one think along these lines. Why are Ministers like Mahesh Sharma allowed to speak whatever they please? Will ordinary citizens like myself be allowed to make provocative statements and not get arrested?”

I also write today about Engineer Rasheed, J&K’s only independent MLA, who I met on October 5, a couple of days after he hosted his infamous beef party. He told me he was a qualified engineer but decided to contest elections to save himself from police brutality – he has faced a lot of it in his younger days. “I wasn’t politically inclined, my basic idea in standing for elections was to save myself from police threats and torture.

“I have gone through hell all through my adult years. I have been wrongly imprisoned, tortured in lock-ups…” He is so wary of the police that he has declined police protection even as an MLA! “I am not comfortable with the police and I have declined all forms of security. I have declined escort vehicles, too.”

Such is the State of affairs, then, that even an MLA shies away from contact with the police. Can one imagine what the ordinary Kashmiri goes through?

Humra Quraishi is a senior political journalist based in Gurgaon. She is the author of several books, including Kashmir: The Untold Story and Dagars and Dhrupad, among others.

(Picture courtesy www.ipsnews.net. Image is used for representational purpose only)

Categories
Kharcha paani

5 reasons to shop online

With a credit card and access to the right websites, online shopping is the smartest way to save time, effort.
by Dipen Tewari

What would you rather do – make your tired way to the shopping mall to pick out a dress by a reputed brand, or save time and pick the same dress online? As our spending power increases and more and more people get connected to e-commerce, shopping online for a variety of products is becoming the norm, rather than an exception.

Earlier, people were cautious about sharing their credit or debit card information on the Internet. However, with sites enhancing their payment gateway security, shoppers slowly started buying such items as books, perfumes and movies online. Slowly, as sites started offering photographic views of such categories like clothes, shoes and bags, people ventured into buying even these items online. Now we have reached a stage where shoppers are buying expensive diamond jewellery, home appliances, and even furniture online.

If you’re still one of those people who are not shopping online, here’s why you need to check out this option:

Save time. Let’s face it, most of us really don’t have the time to trudge to the nearest mall or department store to check out the sale for a brand that’s been advertising in the papers. We can’t say when we will be done with work, and after facing the long day in the office, how many of us are really in the mood to shop? Instead of checking out products in a physical store, we can save a lot of time by checking out the same merchandise online, comparing the best prices and placing our orders. It’s often that simple, and you save yourself a lot of precious time.

Save the effort. Bibliophiles buy books by the dozen at times, and after browsing for the correct titles and buying the books, they have to cart the heavy purchases home by themselves. Or, there may be people who are scouting for an attractive dining table and who are haggling with the store owner over the transportation costs of their new furniture. Both these categories of shoppers can benefit from shopping online. Not only do many e-commerce portals offer different views of such product categories as clothes, shoes, bags, furniture, even crockery and household utensil sets, they also ship the merchandise to your doorstep for free. It’s really not worth the effort to go to the shops to buy what is so easily available for sale on the Internet.

Save money. Shopping sites like Flipkart have regular discount days every week, if not finite sale periods where customers get very heavy discounts on products. By merely sitting at your workstation or scrolling on your mobile, you can shop on the go for a wide range of needs, compare your spends and make the best purchases. Most reputed portals these days also have tie-ups with banks for cash back offers on selected categories and brands, or on all purchases. Ultimately, you end up saving quite a lot of money with no extra associated costs of travel borne by you.

Change what you don’t like sitting at home. Most e-commerce sites in India offer a ’30-day return’ option for purchases, even for such items as clothing and bags that you may have used during this time. As long as the product is not being returned to the company in a mangled condition, it is taken back with either a full or partial refund (depending on company policy on returns, condition of the product and reasons for returning). This normally happens with categories such as shoes and clothes, where people can mistakenly pick the wrong size or colour; however, jewellery companies such as Caratlane also take back sold merchandise. The best part is, just as the product is delivered to your doorstep, so is it picked up from your home, thus making the entire process convenient for you.

The entire shopping universe at one go. Sure, a mall offers you the widest possible range of products in one spot, but no mall in the world can stock all the brands and services that you require. This is where online shopping portals do the trick – on one gadget, you can access every possible product category, the corresponding brand selling the product, the price range for it and the delivery system. What’s more, these days there are sites that even compare the prices and products across a spectrum of other e-commerce sites, so the shopper is not confused by the wide array of options.

(Picture courtesy www.kgns.tv. Image is used for representational purpose only)

Categories
Achieve

Underprivileged children put up photo exhibition in Mumbai

Click Rights, a photojournalism initiative, returns in its 2015 edition with photographs taken by street children of their younger siblings.
by Child Rights and You

The first five years play a significant role in a child’s life. But for thousands of children, a healthy start to life continues to be a distant dream. Long before they turn five, their physical, emotional and cognitive growth is hampered by the lack of adequate nutrition and healthcare. Child Rights and You (CRY) aims to change this by launching its ‘Get Healthy. Give Healthy’ campaign that will give 2,81,045 children a healthy start to their lives.

One of the primary features of the campaign is CRY’s annual photo journalism initiative called ‘Click Rights’  that is in its 4th year.  Click Rights 2015 will highlight through the power of photography the health and nutrition challenges faced by children under the age of 5 years. A large number of the photographs have been contributed by children from our supported project areas in the States of Maharashtra, Gujarat and Chhattisgarh, with training from esteemed photographers and CRY volunteers. These children were given cameras to photograph the daily lives of their younger siblings. Many of the elder children had in fact never stepped into a school because they were entrusted to look after their younger siblings.

Their photographs will be showcased at exhibitions across the country, in malls, parks, colleges and as part of projections on prominent buildings.

In Mumbai, the first exhibition will be at Phoenix Mall, Kurla (West) from October 17 to 18.

“The real health of a country can be measured by how we look after our children. Hence it is alarming that in India today, 13 million children are un-immunised, making them susceptible to deadly diseases, and 40 per cent of these children are underweight. With Click Rights, we would like to highlight the health related issues confronting children in India. We hope it will build awareness, start conversations and motivate people to take action for children,” says Kreeanne Rabaddi, Director, Western Region, Child Rights and You (CRY).

PHOTOVOICES

This is what 12-year-old Raj clicked.

Photo by Raj“This is my two-year-old brother Manas. He is quite naughty and plays with mud all day. We are three brothers and one sister. We live on the roadside and spend our whole day playing. We have no school in our area. We don’t have any toilets as well. I want to see my brother happy. I want to build him a home one day.”

This is what six-year-old Anjali clicked

“My little brother Ajay (name changed, in featured image above) stays with me all the time and plays with me. I take care of his needs. He is one year old. My parents are labourers, they leave the house early in the morning and come back only after dark. We live on the street, sometimes it is difficult to manage him, but most of the times I do it with ease. I love my brother very much and think of him as an angel. If he weren’t there in my life, I don’t know what would I do the whole day.”

This is what 12-year-old Umesh has to say of his photo…

“These two girls are my best friends. They are more like my sisters. Many of the kids don’t go to school, so we play all Photo By Umeshday on the road. Some people give us food to eat, on Sundays so many bhaiyas and didis come to visit us and we have fun sessions with them. I wait for Sundays, that’s the only day I feel loved and cared for.”

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