We are lucky to have an intelligent, articulate Reserve Bank of India governor like Raghuram Rajan. As a fellow South Indian, I admire him. He has built a bridge between south and north India. Be it ministry making or high level appointments, the north had always scored heavily because it has the sheer numbers. At the same time, its intellectual contribution has been minimal. Aren’t we watching the devastation to our fragile administrative system thanks to the actions of the North Indian governors who all the time behaved as though India was made up only of its north Indian, Hindi-speaking regions? Hindi, Hindutva are their only criteria for governance with the region called South India having no role in the much-vaunted development and hence conveniently neglected.
But don’t lose heart, there is still some hope left as long as we have the ‘bright spark’, Raghuram Rajan, occupying the crucial post of the Governor of RBI. Fully aware of our economic problems, Rajan does not go about blowing the GOI trumpet on the rosy economic future for India or how we shall emerge as the No.2 or even No.1 in world economy. Rajan has travelled all over the world, yet has his roots firmly in south India. He is as much concerned of high prices of north Indian food items as much as he is concerned about south Indian delicacies including idli and dosa.
Rajan seems to be a perfectionist and does not speak on issues without thinking or analysing them. We, at least in the south, are seriously concerned about the soaring prices of south Indian snack ‘dosa’ and its 58 subsidiaries including rava masala, palak, rava ginger masala and so on though like the true south Indian, I (and I hope Mr Rajan too), draw the line at chicken dosa, chicken masala dosa and other unmentionable varieties. The normal Sada dosa and the tastier masala dosa are tasty, nutritious snacks, which, in the company of ‘sambar’ keep the south Indian palate happy. It also serves to satisfy hunger pangs.
The RBI governor has understood this and like many diehard south Indians, mentioned this to the media. While claiming to the people that India had kept down inflation, he faces some harsh ground realities like the shooting prices of the once-humble dosa. Where do you get the simple sada dosa for less than Rs 20? Though she is Mrs Rajan, she still had to manage the family budget with Rajan (jr) gulping down dosas and demanding more. Prodded by his wife on this delicate issue, the RBI governor formed special committees, consulted experts and came to the conclusion that dosa prices shot up due to higher cost of inputs.
Rajan gave two major causes — spiralling wages and two, the low technical quality of tawas on which the batter was spread. The old system is unable to increase the number of dosas and it is now time to switch over to alternate fuel systems like solar energy which is available in plenty in India. Rajan said it was high time our IITs and their large South Indian student strength start a brand new Tawa Culture to generate more heat to produce more dosas. The IIT has a real challenge to execute this plan. The IIT should install a sizable number of open tawas where dosas can be made more quickly and thus bring down the price of dosas.
Dosa competitions between IITs would be welcome and the winning IIT should be awarded the prestigious Indian Dosa Award. In this way, much of the bickering among colleges and universities will end and HRD minister, Smriti Irani, may finally bag an award — the Dosa Queen Award.
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