it's mind boggling

normally,i do not get intimidated by numbers. i am quite numeric but not a number cruncher though. so I have my love-hate relationship with numbers. i have found that in life success depends besides other things on a good memory, commonsense and a capacity for mental sums. exercises to the brain at an early age does wonders. that’s the time when the brain is receptive. it is not cluttered. absorptivity and retentivity are both high.when i was young,i was taught to memorise mutiplication tables upto ten and in some schools some were taught to committ to memory upto twenty. in rajasthan they go up to 100. no wonder that marwaris are so good at numbers which they use effectively for their business activities. there is a place in rajasthan called shekawat from where these number geniuses appear.

when we talk of inflation- an index worked out to indicate the cost of living ,if it is in single digit, we presume things are under control. when it goes to two digits, red lights start flashing and government tries emergency steps to control the rising monster. when it goes still higher we refer to those countries as banana republics where inflation runs in three figures.

but then what would you call a nation which has inflation running in nine digits? a recent press report said that zimbabwe had hit 231,000,000% per year. a record 231 million percent in july compared to 11.2 million percent in june. a loaf of bread which was costing 500 zimbabwean dollars in august now costs about 7000 zdollars.unable to carry on under these circumstances,many zimbabweans have resorted to barter and also rely on their friends and relatives in south africa for supplies of essentials.

this must be a record and fit for entry into the guiness books.and president mugabe will no doubt top the honours in the rogues' gallery.