Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams collected nearly 1,200 crore from laddu sales last year, but the same temple trusts leave the sweeper who cleans the queue lines on a contract wage that will not even cover her son's school fees. I saw this myself last month when I went for the morning darshan. If the state can manage donations so well, anduku cannot it fix the pay of the people who make the temple run? That 1,200 crore is not divine math, it is political arithmetic — and it falls on the wrong side of fairness.

This year’s fee hike notice from the college almost made me drop my tumbler. My daughter just calls it “semester dues,” but I know the exact number of auto trips it equals. Sometimes the Ministry news feels like only more fees from the sky.

That worry about fees, I know it well — every month I set aside for my daughter’s B.Tech, and still I wonder if it will be enough. After dropping her at the bus stop near the old cinema theatre, I listen to a little Mangalampalli on the autoradio, and it calms me. But the system, it should not be that a girl’s future depends on her father saving every rupee from auto fares; the government college seats should be more, and the fees should stop climbing.