Mumbai - The Carnage

Gag on Internet, another voice of opposition

2011-12-06T08:18:00.001-08:00

Hi,

Just got to know govt is advocating internet censorship over various news channels. I welcome the statement and condem the idea of taking up such an action.

I welcome the statement because just like all of us the govt also has the right to free speech (including Kapil Sibal and Digvijay Singh). I condemn the idea because it is against one of the strongest pillars of our democracy , namely free speech.

If the government is going to use this as a tool to curb the bashing that is going on then this is gonna face miserably. If it is using this for minority appeasement (as pointed out by Kapil Sibal - 'hurting religious sentiments') then its not going to do anything other than add more hatred towards the minority communities. They are now going to be accused by majority community of having to give up their right to free speech for them. Even more interesting is that this government had nothing to say about M F Hussain painting Hindu gods in an objectionable way.

One citizen in a TV channel correctly said that, if somebody is saying something bad then what we need to correct is that mentality in our society. Also, the web is so open that the people will find a way to work around all these rules. What we really need to do is that we have good and fast laws to prosecute these people who misuse their right. We should cease to apply the old Victorian laws to modern day crimes.

Government really needs some new ideas.

Mumbai 26/11 anniversary

2011-11-27T04:05:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was the third anniversary of Mumbai Terror Attacks. I was just wondering what would be the importance we would be associating to the date.

There were no huge news flashes, dedications or memoirs. Just a few TV debates, top news papers relegating the news to page 2 or 3. Standard statements from government.

Some how I have to wonder, do we really have that short a memory? We have no follow up on the martyrs families. No improvement in security situation. All the big wig politicos are back in business, back at the same post or a higher one.

The only people who lost something that day way the martyrs and the victims. The private firms that had collateral damage. But the politicians lost nothing. The police lost nothing. The security apparatus lost nothing, neither gained anything. There babus lost nothing, rather gained some free snacks and lunches in the name of report on the attack. The common man acts as if he has lost nothing. India acts as if it has lost nothing.

Have we really lost nothing? Or is it really that minuscule?

That night 26/11/2008, Taj hotel, CST Terminus railway station, Nariman house, Leopold cafe it still remains as some bad memories in the minds of at least some Indians, like me.

The respect and thanks to the martyrs can never be lost in our day today run. I hope the media, politicians and babus will not forget that day, and take steps where more young men are not forced to give the ultimate sacrifice.

Jai Hind

Anna Hazare being released from Tihar jail

2011-08-16T08:51:00.000-07:00

Great news. Anna Hazare is being released from Tihar jail right now. Its all over the newz channels.

I personally have some reservations on Anna's draft of lokpal (more due to lack of clarity). But the whole big brother attitude of the Govt has come down crumbling like domino. There is no power stronger than people power.

Dunno whether Anna will deliver for the common man. But compared to the other options from the political word , I will take Anna and his team with both hands.

This is the real democracy. This is what the martyrs of this country died for.

Long Live INDIA.

Yet Another Blast in Mumbai

2011-07-14T10:21:00.000-07:00

Yes, 13 July 2011, another date has now been written with the blood of innocent citizens. The politicians did the same thing. They Came , They saw and They left.

Our Dear Prime Minister who has lost his self respect and even basic spine fighting all the corruption and scandals said the same comments that he has repeated a number of times over the last 7 years. We will no bow to terror. Well Mr. Prime Minister, we cannot bow because our back already broken with the number of blasts. So please come out of your vote bank politics and do some thing for heaven's sake. I really don't think any Muslim who is a proud Indian would support these guys.

All the TV channels are showing the political leaders visiting the injured and talking about Mumbai resilience. If India is so safe as what the politicians project it to be and that there is no inside support for terror why have some much security for themselves? Lets secure the border and we don't have to worry about anything inside. Secondly, its not Mumbai resilience. Its just that we have learned to live with it and have to live with it. Otherwise we are gonna be the losers. These politicans just leave after their Photo-op.

In the last one year how many blasts have occurred in India, especially in Mumbai. Forget even in Mumbai, Zaveri Bazar has seen 3 blasts. All Major. They can't even protect one street. How will they protect the city, state and country?

I really feel that Mumbai should shut itself down for one week. Completely. Nobody should even go out. When there is financial crash and a Market shut-down this political class will wake up.

I am sorry that so many innocents are dead. I am even more sorry that not a single politican is injured or dies in these blasts. They are the ones who deserve to face the terror attacks. Not forgetting the inefficent and inept security fratenity also.

Why should the common man be the pawn always? Even in a democracy will he never be the king? Even time I believe will not answer this question.

Is sathyagraha or fast unto death really such a powerful weapon

2011-06-14T11:37:00.000-07:00

Anna Hazare, Irom Sharmila and Swami Nigmanand. Do you know what is common between these three people? Ok, here is a clue. Add Baba Ramdev to this list. Now? Yes, you guessed it right. They have all gone on fast unto death for some cause or the other.

But is it really that simple and are they really like each other. Nopes, not at all. Anna Hazare achieved his cause or at least has a chance of achieving it. Baba Ramdev almost got what he wanted but failed to close the deal, but earned a lot of fans or at least dented the congress credibility. We know what both their cause was.

Now coming to Irom Sharmila. She is from Manipur a North Eastern state in India. She is fighting for the revocation of AFSPA (Armed Forces Special Powers Act) from her home state. She is continuing her fast for last 10 years.

Swami Nigamanand is also from Haridwar as Ramdev, fighting a much more holy cause of saving the Ganga (Ganges) from illegal mining. He died yesterday fighting for his cause after fasting for 115 days.

This has forced me to really think whether fast unto death is really a powerful tool. After much deliberation with myself I have concluded that you need 3 things for you to acheive your cause by this means.

1. You should be able to create a huge media hype and create public awareness and support.
2. The person/group that is supposed to address your concern should really have a conscience or its on group of people to answer to.
3. You should be thick skinned to suffer any amount of character assassination and insult attempts made at you.

If you look at the four cases that I put forth to you and include the test case of Mahatma Gandhi also to this list you can see the difference.

When Anna Hazare went on hunger strike the media hype and his team's holier than thou attitude of not allowing politicians on stage actually created a public awarness and support. This, though sadly I have to say was even without actually understanding what they were fighting for and what Lokpal will actually do for them.

Baba Ramdev went on hunger strike with much fanfare and got almost what he wanted (at least publicly what he wanted). But his ineptitude in handling negotiations landed him in a soup. You know what happened next. Even here he has gained a lot of admirers and ensured that the Govt lost the few admirers who were left with them.

My point 3 is basically derived from the top 2 stories. Look at the kind of attempts that were made on Baba Ramdev by Congress and Government. All kind of stories started appearing in the media, even about the origin of Acharya Bala krishna. The government did not have a problem when he got his passport and gun. The moment he started a strike he is being questioned. This way 80% Indians can't question the government. We all have some baggage or other.

Just as a side note. I tried to do an analysis on what the government will accuse me of? Actually I could not find anything except having watched Porn (well who hasn't, at least once. lol). May be they can make it look really bad and frame me into anything. Anyway I am not going on fast unto death even otherwise at least. lolz

Now, coming to the story of Irom Sharmila. She started her strike in November 2000 after some innocent civilians were killed by army (allegedly). She went on a fast unto strike at Manipur itself. She once came do Delhi. She never courted controversy or try to add fanfare to her mission. Hence here issue is still not addressed. He issue is not a national concern and there is no value in talking to her or being good to her.

Swami Nigamanad's case is also similar to Irom and the most ironic part is this. He fought for the Ganga in a state ruled by a Party (BJP) which promotes and aligns itself to the hindutva ideology. Even more ironic is that every day it is throwing dirt at congress where as this Swami went on strike against illegal mining in Ganga. So much for accountability and righteousness.

In case of Gandhiji his fights were successful because of the awareness against the British Raj and more importantly because the British had a conscience or in other words their citizens to answer to. The current government has nobody to answer to. By the time they are to leave office it will be another three years and they know that since opposition is also made of the same kinda of metal they will be back in power one day or another. There were limits to which the British were ready to go. I really do not think the cheap tricks of character assassination would have been tried by the British against Anna Hazare or Ramdev that the current government is trying.

Just one last argument. When the Indian Airline was hijacked the government was quick to negotiate with the terrorist even after knowing that their motives we demonic. They are ready to speak and allow the Kashmiri extremist leader Geelani gives anti India speeches even in Delhi. They will still beat up the innocent civilians in Ramlila Midan. Try all dirty tricks on Anna Hazare and will never speak to Irom or be sad about the death of Swami Nigamanad.

That my friend is the great political class of My Great India.

Ramlila Maidan ambush despicable

2011-06-04T22:21:00.000-07:00

Wanted to restart this blog for sometime now, really sad that I gotta start with kind of topic. Today as I am writing this blog I am watching across a number of news channels the midnight ambush of the common citizens in Ramlila Maidan in New Delhi.

I do not know what is up between Baba Ramdev and Govt., don't know if there was any deal and going back on it. I am not really concerned with all that. The only thing that I am concerned with is the police atrocity that has happened over midnight at the ground. This totally not fair and the arguments from the govt site is just nonsense.

How can a democratically elected government run such a brutal attack in the very capital city. I totally agree with Lokayukta of Karnataka Mr. Hegde when he says why wait till late night. If they wanted to crackdown why not in the evening or why could they not wait till the morning? Why is it that they needed to fire tear gas and lathi charge into women and children? Also, if the permission was granted to the event for only one day why the negotiated over 3 days and allowed people to gather all along?

I think PM himself should come out and answer a lot of questions. His ministers and his advisor have really lost credibility. He needs to come up with a face saving act?

BJP's answer to this whole event is even more condemnable. In response to all this govt's excess they raised so many heavy sentences like comparing it to Jalianwala Bag and Emergency but act is too feeble. They are going to conduct a 24 hour sathyagraha in response to this. They could have literally done nothing rather. I would have had more respect for them then.

Irrespective of the motives of Baba Ramdev, the points he raised are very much valid. I think we need to respect that.

Lets hope some common sense will prevail and the govt will correct their actions.

tera muu kala

2010-08-02T11:14:00.000-07:00

Well, Many of u guyz may not be able to understand the title of this post so lemme do a crude word by word translation from Hindi. Tera muu kala = You Face is black.

It's an Indian expersion of saying that you have done something wrong, and in olden days the face of wrongdoers was really blackened.
Well today i saw a live display of it in Times Now news channel. Here are some hooligans blackening face of a helpless girl and kicking her.

Her fault, she met a guy friend on friendship day. (I am not even sure if he is her boy friend). But what ever is there relationship, it is appalling to such an action in a country and in the name of such a religion that has things like swayamwar in its history. I don't understand where Hinduism objects to love pre marraige. There are loads of examples of love affairs all across our mythology.

Lets hope that the Gods on whose name they are doing all this will knock some sense into them and help them fight against real things that is affecting their(or should I say our) religion.

Will Nature also bow to polticial muscle?

2010-07-15T01:36:00.000-07:00

Hi,

I am back with something that made me sit up and take a look after few weeks. There were loads of corruption charges, good news, entertainment news, political situation and what not for last few weeks. But today I read an article in Times oF India. It’s there on their website and it made me stop for a minute.

The Leh-Manali Highway is blocked by an oil tanker for last 2 days. The BRO is not ready to move it down the mountain which might result in the tanker’s destruction. Instead it has left loads of people to spend 2 days and nights in chilly roads with nothing to eat and no place to stay. The article also says BRO (Border Roads Organization) has cut a part of the mountain so that small vehicles can move along. I was just wondering. Cutting a part of the mountain?, will that not have any environmental repercussions? Will it create a possibility of landslide in the future? Is it not a better idea to push the tanker and destroy it? Well, I thought prima facia it seems to be a better idea. why was it not even considered and why is BRO hard walling travelers requests? Well, The answer is, the tanker Is owned by a powerful politician. Well again. If there is human life present, there will be politics, ain’t it?

I thought money was the real power, but it seems political power is giving it a run for the top rank these days. Public bodies, that too in high mountains with such elite records is bowing to political pressure. It’s such a shame if this article is really true. Also, the value given to the lives stranded there. Even nature is compromised for the passions and needs of Politicians. Cutting a part of the mountain so as to not push the tanker out, seems to me as a ridiculous idea. Well, as history is proof, nature has her line and when you cross it, she is gonna come back and with vengeance. Good luck in getting the tanker out of there before that day.

Seya!

Saina Nehwal, the next golden girl of Indian Sports

2010-06-29T01:56:00.001-07:00

After a long wait for the next golden girl of Indian sport, Saina Nehwal has staked the claim for the title. I had almost a year back written about our need to support women in India and had mentioned Saina Nehwal. She has now put forth a strong case, not just for her but for all sportswomen. She has done one and all proud with 3 titles in so much weeks. A proud moment for all us Indians. She has something common with the previous golden girls of Indian sports arena. She is not a superstar , just a great sports person who is working really hard. Same as P T Usha, shiny Wilson, Karna Malleshwari and Mery Kom.

I believe the best asset of Saina has been Performance Personified. Looking at her work of last few years, it is very clear, she did not just work on her game. She worked on a lot stuff around her game. Like Stamina, strength etc. She never let down focus and most importantly she always kept raising the bar. At this point we need to give credit also to her mentor Pulela Gopichand and her family. For a girl this age and such success, it would have been very easy to lose focus. There are many sportspersons across the globe who have wasted talent after a initial euphoria.

Saina, I believe should at this point of time also ensure that she does not tire herself out and bore herself out. In her quest to be number one we don’t want her to wear out when she reaches there. It’s going to be even more difficult to stay at these top rankings than reaching them. Also, the dream of every sports person, the Olympic gold. She has the mettle to win, does she have the endurance?

Time will tell. And we have an even bigger job, to back her to the last. She needs a lot of support and prayers from us and she will do great.

Kudos

Is this blunder in the making or stepping stone to suceess?

2010-06-25T01:21:00.000-07:00

Hiya,

The Afghan story is not getting over at all. Now Gen. McCrystal is fired and Gen. Petreus comes in. I simply don’t understand how politicians across the globe have the same genes. I thought Obama would be open to criticism, well, the results are out and he is not. I agree totally that the general should have kept his disdain for the US policy to boardrooms, but if your boss ain’t listening you gotta look for other ways. Also, he did not give out any real secrets or something about the US strategy in Afghanistan. He just said that “ I am not happy with my Boss and his ideas”. Why can’t you listen to him and try to take him into confidence? Also, looking at this strategically, a new general has to take control of a war in difficult situation and he has a deadline of July 2011 by when the President of USA has a promise to keep with his people.

I know that records of Gen. Petreaus, his authoring the counter-insurgency manual, role in Iraq and his political skills. It’s all great, but he has not been on the ground. You took out a man who has been turning it around successfully though not as fast as expected just because he publicly said something that you don’t agree with. If bosses start firing people for that, voh!

For other countries like India also Gen. Petreaus is a point of worry. He is well known as a deal maker. His policy is known as ‘Play well with All’. So Pakistan would be really looking forward to help him cut deals with the Taliban and other militant groups and by that install proxies in Afghan and as soon as the Americans leave, start undermining the Afghan rulers. This is their opportunity. It’s know well that USA is desperate to exit Afghanistan. They know it’s just a matter of time. They also know well that India does not want to get involved in the running of Afghan war. Somehow, I am getting a feeling that This is coming back to hit us hard, especially after Obama’s risky decision of leader change.

Seya

Mineral Pie is the next big story

2010-06-14T03:22:00.000-07:00

Just read this news on Times of India that USA geologists have stumbled upon mineral deposits worth millions of dollars. Well, after reading that the first thing that came to my mind was, let us see now how quickly US and allies exit Afghanistan. Especially when the initial monetary value of the mineral deposits is in trillions. This might be a golden opportunity for the US government to get itself a consolation prize and may be even muscle out from the Afghan govt. enough of the mineral pie to get them some profits to cover their war expenditure and may be some extra change to pump into their suffocating economy.

Though, my bitching about the USA might sound like I hate them, countries like India do need them to stay at Afghan for a longer period also. Especially after this mineral discovery. China is already into Afghan for mining. USA moving out and giving a free run to Afghan govt. would give China to move in quickly and capitalize on this mineral find. Also, looking at the corruption record of the Afghan govt. , it seems better that the USA stays in for a longer period. Over and above, the catastrophic thing that could happen in such a circumstance is the mines that would be developed falling into the hands of the Terrorists and the Taliban. This might have strong repercussions as they will have more pennies for their arms and travel expenses.

For countries like India also a longer US stay in Afghanistan will be beneficial. Else the Indian security fraternity’s assessment that the Taliban will run riot with the ISI support will be spot on. Afghan region will be back to where it was 10 years back.

Another interesting point was that the initial finding was done by the Soviet Union while it had occupied Afghanistan, the US geologists got their first hint in 2004 from the national library in Kabul. So, do the Russians also get a pie?

I just hope and pray that the common Afghan man gets some benefit from this find and not get exploited, especially when the social welfare or environmental laws are little if not non-existent in Afghanistan.

Seya

A reading suggestion for the day

2010-06-14T01:13:00.000-07:00

This is my first official blog post via email. Let’s use the technology if we have it. lol

For last few days, I am terribly depressed. Especially having a feeling that I am not successful in life. I am always wondering what I did wrong or more importantly what I really need to do right. I had no idea till 15 minutes back. Then I came across this article in MSN. Good article, it was posted for a totally different reason. To show how some differently able people achieved success in life. Overcoming the deficiencies and more importantly the misgivings of others and the lack of support from society. But when I finished the article one thing dawned out to me. There is one more difference between me and them other than their disabilities, and that is, they tried to do something in their life. They had focus and worked to achieve it. Where in I am just day dreaming most of the time.

So, my suggested reading for the day is, & who fought coma for IIM, & 10 other stories of grit

Chao

Bhopal Gas tragedy: Why politicians need a pie of everything?

2010-06-13T05:06:00.000-07:00

hiya,

my email blogging is not working. No idea why. Tried twice this week but it is not even bouncing.

Anyway, getting on with my post this week and as many of you have already guessed, ya I am going to talk about the Bhopal Gas Tragedy. Though it so long since it happened, the court verdict has come so late there is no respite to the victims. I am not going to talk for the victims here. There are a lot of people out there talk for them right now.

My point of concern is this. Many ministers then were involved in getting the Union Carbide CEO out of the country. They flew him out of Bhopal in a state plane. ie. On exchequer's money. The reason that is coming out now is that , they feared that foreign investments will be affected if a CEO is arrested. The same ministers are holding very important posts even now. vow!

So for these ministers the foreign investments is even more important that life of the very people who voted for them? Vow! Also, Warren Anderson, the Union Carbide CEO at that time knew of possible safety issues in Bhopal. In fact, I read that the same issues were identified in a plant in the United States also. As you have already guessed, the issues were fixed in the USA plant but not at Bhopal. Why? Because i just bought the law makers. So if law catches me I will change the law! right?

That's exactly what has happened. They talk about stricter norms and all crap. But they are not able to even make the culprits accountable. How are they going to prevent some more unknowns from committing this crime again? And once in 5 years we elect them.

Its raining in Mumbai

2010-06-01T12:27:00.000-07:00

Its raining here in Mumbai. yipeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

wait for one long year seems to be getting over! Hope the year of drought is drawing to a close.

As I am posting here, I can smell the fresh rain drenched soil.

yes, Its raining for the first time in 2010 right outside my house and i cant just take my eyes of the rain drops and the small lightnings. My ears cant just stop listening to the rain drops falling onto the tiles.

Hope this is the beginning of the respite from the Mumbai hot and humid summer!

yipeeeeeeeee!! Rains are here!

I am back

2010-05-31T11:33:00.000-07:00

Its 3 months since my last post. I dn't think my disappearance was noticed in the blog world. But still, for those of you who wondered where i was, after an year of rigorous writing, lemme be frank. I was tired.

Tired of bitching about everything that's happening around us. Tired of coming back and writing every week and saying bad about somebody. Tired of forcing my self to write when I had no real motivation to do so. I was tired.

I also had a Chinese intrusion, lol. That's used these days like a status symbol! lol. In the last few posts there were a lot of comments in Chinese that i really could not decode. So no offence to my Chinese friends.

I wanted to come back and post, first when I saw that Hindustan Times on a day when there was lot of turmoil in cricket, had dedicated its first sports page to cricket where as it had 4 glorious success stories in the next two pages. I was angry with them.

I wanted to come back and post after the Pune blast.

I wanted to come back and post after the Maoist attack two days back.

But I never found any motivation. So what changed?

Today i was going through youtube. These days i am obsessed with listening to foreigners speaking or singing in Indian languages and I dunno why ! :(. Am I going mad?

Anyway, looking at the passion that many people showed in what they were doing, i asked myself whether I am doing justice to what i believe in ? forget what I am doing. So after a long break , I am back. I hope I won't quit and run this time but stay. Stay and try hard, even harder to reach as many people as possible. To believe that we can make this country and world a better place.

But, I have made a promise to myself. I will not force myself to post every week. I will post when ever i feel like. No restrictions and no demands. Just like how a free world should be! :)

Lemme end this new beginning by posting two videos which are part of another of my new obsessions. little kids singing , especially Jana Gana Mana. The Indian national Anthem.

Jana Gana Mana by siya Iyer

and

Gitanjali joining the A R Rahman team

Jai Hind and May god bless the whole world

Let the kids realize

2010-02-02T09:49:00.001-08:00

When this year started I made a decision. To let this blog die a natural death. A death of author forgetting all about it and visitors not finding any updates.

But I saw a video today at ted.com which got me thinking. I have been bitching about a lot of things a lot of times. But, I could use this thread to spread some really good message. Messages with a difference. Hence, the mood has swung and I am back.

I have a lot of bitching to do, I will do that in some other posts. But this is for a good purpose.

I would like to suggest to all of you to check out this video.

It has very beautiful message, a success story , and with a little more contribution from our side it could be even bigger.

This video really puts across the message that kids need to feel things, to realize things than just read text books and mug up. A really inspiring one.

and let this post be my token of support for schools like 'RiverSide' and cities like Ahmedabad.

The unknown Ruchikas and Rathores

2009-12-31T09:38:00.000-08:00

Hi,

I was thinking the whole week of writing about a different topic, since for now media is giving full and due importance to Ruchika Murder case . I am knowingly calling it a murder case, because, its really unfair to her and her family to draw the boundary just with molestation, secondly Ruchika is not the only victim and Rathore is not the only criminal here. You and me are too. Why?

Some months back I made a post by the title 'Our Girls'. There I had mentioned that we need to really create an environment of equality and safety and these girls would do us proud. To be frank, people like Rathore are able to play their dirty games and minds because of our failure to do our duty. If the citizens of this country are even close to pro active this family would not have had to fight for justice even after 19 years.

I am really happy that the media is taking her cause up. Of course, their capitalist bosses are making money and they are gonna focus on it as long as they have headlines from it. The family ought to be careful and not give the whole story at one go or else Rathore will get away again.

But what is going through my mind is that, there are hundreds of Ruchikas in this country, there are thousands of Rathores in this country. What about them? Media does not focus on unknowns, they need a villain and they need a victim. We need a new way of life, new thought process in each and every citizen that will force the keepers of the system to do their job. ie. to ensure that there are no such victims and no such villains.

Just as suggestion, you might wanna take a look at this blog if you are concerned with women rights and issues across the globe.

My last post, I still have to say is the reality in this country right now. We have to fight it or live with it.

May be that is a worthy new year resolution that we all can take.

Happy new year.

Sathyameva Jayathe

2009-12-24T19:35:00.000-08:00

Today morning, when I landed on Times of India homepage, I saw a really revealing interview under the headline

"Ex-CM Chautala shielded molester cop: Ruchika's dad"

Curiousity led me to reading the article and I found to one of my greatest shocks, that after the sentence was pronounced by the court, Ruchika's dad got a call from some anonymous guy asking "Ab tuney kya kar liya (what have you achieved)?" followed by "Kuchh mil gaya kya? (did you get anything?)" , quoting the news article "Laughing at the quantum of punishment (six months and Rs 1,000 fine)".

Yes, if you are really surpised to hear that, that's the truth. Welcome to the greatest nation on the face of earth that give value to words and exists by the motto "Sathyameva jayathe", a great nation whose largest parties fight their campaigns by saying 'India Shining' and "Congress ke haath Aam Admi ke sath". Yes BJP, India is really shining is it not? Is the Congress really with the common man?

Just a tip. If your daughter gets molested or raped, just try and live with it, take some money from the rapist and may be go on a holiday, because if you are gonna fight for justice you are gonna cry for 19 years, you will loose your daughter and the all powerful molester will live his life out and that our justice is gonna serve up is 6 months jail term and 10,000 rs fine. Hey, don't forget the free gift at the end. An anonymous phone call wishing you the very best for your future endeavors.

Really, if India's 'Sathyameva Jayathe' really means something. That is it. The truth that how ever hard you try you are not going to get justice or achieve your dreams.

I dunno why I should be proud of my justice system. We are demonstrating the trial of Qasab for the world media to see as if its a Hollywood movie for killing lots of people in 15 mins, where as a man who is supposed to protect us, not just fails, but misuses his powers (causes death of a young girl, gives a family pain for rest of their lives) and walks free for 19 years, then pays 10,000 bucks and takes a break of 6 months and the goes back to his normal life.

All I can say is , 'Sathyameva Jayathe'. Thats the truth for you my friend.

ps: For my International readers(if any , lol) , 'Sathyameva Jayathe' is the national motto of India, which means 'truth always triumphs'

Pradhan committee Report

2009-12-22T04:03:00.000-08:00

I was really surprised to see the kind of buck passing that the Pradhan committee report has revealed. We are not even entitled to see the complete report (as per stated in the house by home minister R. R. Patil for security reasons). Even the small glimpse we have got through the media leak has revealed what amount of co-ordination (or should I say lack of co-ordination) exists between Police force and even the Home ministry. The very ministry that controls the force.

The bureaucracy is lied a number of times as per the Pradhan committee report itself. The Home secretary and the chief secretary have said there was no intelligence input when to the same committee, the then DGP A. N. Roy has furnished even documents of such intelligence input. Can any kind of action, if not criminal proceeding be initiated against the bureaucrats? R. R. Patil has been crying foul for a long time over his sacking. His ministry has lied to the committee , plus his ministry failed to defend the people in number of ways. Does he take moral responsibly and resign? I have absolutely no idea, while there is no or why there cannot be no criminal proceeding against them. The chief of Police force has given in writing that there was unnecessary red tape in procurement and resource management. R. R. Patil once said, the never thought there would be an attack from the sea. Can't he or his men even see these red tapes that are right in front of his eyes?

Why just blame Mr. Patil, what about other people. Hassan Gafoor has been openly implicated by the report. He in turn has made allegation in the media against some very senior officers (some of whom did speak negatively of him to the committee). Is it not clear that there is some amount of dirty politics being played out here? Why is the government, which is bound to protect us, protecting the culprits. I am simply wondering. Does Qasab deserve to be hanged? Are there not greater culprits in our own society? Is it not a larger crime to not even try to do your duty? Are there any 'Few Good Men' in our governing system?

Our wishes for our nation would easily be on hollywood-bollywood storyboards on the canvas of reality.

Human Trafficking

2009-12-07T10:27:00.000-08:00

I just watched a video from ted.com on human trafficking. This young lady Sunitha Krishnan, tells her story. How she was gang raped by 8 men. She tells about kids as young as 3 and 4 how they were raped by men. And she said one fact. These men are not uknown devil's children. They are part of our society. Fathers, brothers, uncles. And they abuse.

Every single man on this earth must really watch this video, and ask himself. Will he do this? Will he allow this to be done?

Human Trafficking

Our nation has one of the highest rates in human trafficking. Just 10 km away from my home. A pretty well to do locality in Mumbai, there is a brothel. We can see prostitutes every night right by the side of the Ghatkopar station as the trains chug out towards Kalyan. What a shame? We are talking about 8-9% growth. We are taking about education. We are talking about borderless Kashmir. We are not talking about this. Its still taboo.

Just a few buildings away from my house, i got to know from one of my cousin that her friends, as young as 16 and 15 drink, abuse drugs and smoke. Just two blocks away from my house. We feel we are safe. Our family is safe. Are we?

Watch that video, she tell story of even an IAS officer's daughter getting trafficked. She tells story of close friends who donate money to her cause, but don't want to come in contact with any of them. What a shame?

They are part of our society. They are actually the true victims of our 'liberal' society. As the rise of this nation dawns , is there at least a ray of hope for them?

Jai Hind

26/11 - one year after mumbai terror attacks

2009-11-24T21:06:00.000-08:00

Today is eve of 26/11. Last year, 26/11/2008 as the drakness of night this beautiful city, Mumbai was attacked by 10 terrorists who killed at will. Some brave men came forward and put their lives on the line, without asking questions, pointing fingers or saying a word. They came forward for you and me. So that you and I can still fell the breeze in our face, enjoy a cup of coffee and laugh and sing as if there is no tomorrow. This blog, is a tribute to those brave souls and an attempt to keep the memory of that day alive. For a better tomorrow, so that we will not forget to our war. A war to clean this nation of the rot that is eating into the system. A rot that is making you and me complacent and most importantly a war to make this nation more and more prosperous one.

I have written a lot about a lot of things in my last one year, when I have posted every week in and out about a lot of things. Today I am gonna just talk about one or two articles Times of India and The Hindu , revolving around the 26/11 martyrs.

The first article is about what Kavita Karkare and Vinita Kamte have said in the last few days. The bullet proof jacket that Hemant Karkare was wearing went missing under unknown circumstances. Well, some (including me) believe that somebody is being protected here. Otherwise there is no need for it to go missing. Secondly, Home Minister Of India says "Sorry" to the martyr's wife for this. Just a sorry after he gave his life to save our asses! I believe, the state and Union home ministers should take it upon themselves to find the same and if they fail, then resign. If you can't find a jacket how will you find our security blanket?

Ashok Kamte's wife Vinita Kamte has gone to the extent of writing a book (Book's name is 'To The Last Bullet')about the unanswered questions surrounding her husband's murder. We know that Ashok Kamte was a man with iron balls. He once arrested a rowdy MLA on the street infront of glaring cameras and flash lights. This man has cleaned up a lot for us. A bold man's bold wife has put out some tough questions. Its a duty of you and me to help her find the answer. By the way, when somebody writes a book and asks some valid pointers can we investigate this? Can the courts take a suo-moto. The allegations are not simple, the event ain't simple and the person who is saying this is a martyr's wife. Don't we owe her at least that much respect?

As my strong support for her, I would be honoured to post some of the questions that she is asking.
1) Rakesh Maria (joint CP, crime) feign ignorance to then police chief Hasan Gafoor about ATS chief Hemant Karkare’s location at 00.56 am when the call log clearly indicated that he was at the Cama rear gate at 11.24 pm and the fact that he and Ashok were injured?’’

2) “Why did Maria deny calling Ashok to Cama despite the wireless log showing this?’’
3) “A police Jeep passed by the three vehicles with injured officers without stopping. They lay wounded for almost 40 minutes.”
4) “The control room did not send reinforcements despite Karkare’s orders.’’
5) “Where were the 200 cops that Mumbai police claimed to have sent to Cama hospital?’’

I would like you all to read this article from times of India about Tukaram Ombale's family

Daughter of slain assistant subinspector Tukaram Ombale, spoke at a school function on Tuesday. She refused to accept the Rs 3 lakh cheque that students of the Jamsetjee Jeejebhoy Parsee Benevolent Institution had collected. “My father’s soul will not rest in peace if I accept this. He loved children, please use the money for their sake,’’ she said. Incidentally, the Ombales have never claimed any financial assistance, and have donated the money they get to poor and abandoned kids.

And a snippet from 'The Hindu' just prove a point that we still have Few Good Men Out There

For assistant police inspector Sanjay Govilkar, that was a night he does not wish to remember.

A bullet from Ajmal’s AK 47 grazed his waist and he was in hospital for a few days. It was Mr. Govilkar who stopped the policemen from beating up ‘Kasab’ as he lay there injured. All the adulation has not gone to his head.

“Success is the journey not the destination,” he says. “I did my duty that day and we all worked as a team.” He had just finished his duty when he went home and saw the breaking news on television.

“I was prepared for gangsters but I never imagined that we will confront terrorists directly one day,” recalls Mr. Govilkar, who was unarmed that night. “I always wanted to be a policeman and that day I was wearing my uniform, it gave me a unique courage.”

“I feel all this talk of ‘Kasab’ and our heroics is enough. We should go beyond this and learn to come together and live as Indians,” he concludes.

After that last sentence he has left me with nothing to to say. I paid a bribe to a policeman once. I don't regret it now. I will never bribe a bureaucrat, but a policeman? Its a totally different thing. When duty calls, there will always be one of them to answer, and I will sleep through a good night.

I salute the brave men irrespective of whether they were from the NSG, Mumbai police or firemen. Who ever they were, they saved us. One word to the politicians and the bureaucrats and the lobbying IPS officers and intelligence teams. There is still time, change.

JAI HIND

Intervew of R. R. Patil in Times of India

2009-11-18T19:45:00.001-08:00

This is an interview of R. R. Patil from 'Times of India' , published last week. The Interviewer didn't have the balls to ask him questions in the face. I felt it was more of an interview to protect the Minister . I strongly believe that there was dereliction in executing his duties and it needs to be investigated. He was unable to keep the Police force ready, prepared and engaged for such a situation. Even now the police force cannot handle even a simple bomb blast, forget a fidayeen attack. The minister is answerable. So I have posted some in-line questions in blue. If some day somebody could ask the minister the same questions I would be really grateful.

‘There was no dereliction of duty on my part’

Prafulla Marpakwar | TNN

Fifty-three-year-old senior NCP leader R R Patil is not only back in the cabinet, but his political mentor, Sharad Pawar has again rewarded him with the home department. Post 26\11, with the Democratic Front government at the receiving end for inept handling of the situation, Patil, then deputy chief minister, quit the cabinet on moral grounds. In an exclusive interview to TOI, Patil spoke at length on his agenda, preparedness of the law enforcing agencies to tackle attacks and coordination between state and central intelligence agencies. Excerpts:
Q A month after the worst teror attack on the city, you quit the cabinet. What prompted the step?
A I resigned on moral grounds. My intention was to tell the people of Maharashtra we are accountable, we are alive to their feelings.
My Q. Where you not pushed out so that they have something to show to the people?
Q A year later, you are not only back in the cabinet, but you have been entrusted with the home portfolio. How you justify this gesture of NCP president Sharad Pawar? Is the period of accountability over? A There was no dereliction of duty on my part. Then no one visualised that terrorists will enter Mumbai from the sea, since so far, most terrorists had chosen Jammu-Kashmir to enter India. I think it’s a fresh opportunity for me to serve the people. We have learnt lessons from the past.
My Q. Did you show the same interest in stopping terror attack as in shutting down those dance bars and pushing a lot of girls into prostitution ?
My Q. Did you get enough funds to get proper arms and armours for the police force, and ensure they got only quality check material?
My Q. Why did you not order an investigation on all the top cops in the role they did on that night?
My Q. Was there any dereliction of duty by brave men like Hemant Karkare, Ashok Kamte, Vijay Salaskar or Tukaram Ombale? Why are you getting rewarded and giving an 100 mm smile while their families are sobbing even today? Even before the first anniversay your are back as home misister, what happens to accountability?
Q What’s your agenda now ?
A We have modernised our police force. Now there is more manpower and weapons. Funds will not a problem. My top priority is to restore the confidence of the people and enhance the morale of the law-enforcing agencies. Intelligence reports received from the Centre are dealt with properly at higher levels. Senior IPS officials have been instructed to ensure even minor information is taken seriously.
My Q. Really, The SRPF men are making slums out of Gateway of India, they sleep on the road and have to wake up to bath at 4.00 am while you are fast snoring on your exchequer paid double bed, what about that? Those cops have to fear speeding cars more than bullets from terrorists. What say mate? You don't believe me, check out the same copy of Times of India that printed the interview.
Q Kavita Karkare, widow of Hemant Karkare, who was killed in the attack on November 26, has launched a frontal attack on the government...
A I have read her statements in a section of the media. From preliminary reports, it appears the bulletproof jacket used by Hemant Karkare is missing from the J J Hospital. It’s a serious matter. I have asked the crime branch to
probe the entire episode.
My Q. Missing? or was it made missing. Does it not become your responsibility to see justice is served as the state's home minister?
Q Was there a dereliction of duty at any level, in handling the terrorist attack ?
A I don’t think so. No one in the government, both at the Centre and state, visualised terrorists will attack via the sea route. But now, while the Coast Guard has been put on maximum alert, establishments on the sea shore have been asked to be more vigilant.
My Q. Actually I don't have any question. I just wanna say. Only dereliction of duty seems to be from the people who are electing you again and again. what a Shame
Q After the attack, you are back in home, then chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh is now a Union minister, officials dealing with the situation have been rewarded with plum posts. Is accountability over ?
A Prima facie, it appears we were unable to visualise the magnitude of the terror attack. Under such circumstances, it will be wrong to single out an individual for dereliction of duty.
My Q. Really . so two questions, Since a sea route attack has happened once can you assure that there will be no more sea route attacks? Secondly, now if somebody carries out an Ariel attack are you going to say, this is the first time and we could not visualise? Just a tip: If our ancestors thought the same way and lacked visualisation our civilization would not have reached here. So instead of taking Hindi lessons take some visualization lessons. for a better India.

Many people have told me that R. R. Patil is the cleanest man in the current government. May be yes. But he failed in his duty, and the cost we paid was dear. 58 lives, including some brave sons of this nation, who could have served this nation more and better. Not just R. R. Patil, but lots of politicians and policemen and officers of both state and national government. If Mumbai police or the CBI investigates this, we will never know the actual facts as they or their masters have a stake.

We need some other capable state or the judiciary itself to investigate and make people accountable. If there is another 26/11, I believe it will be the greatest sin we will be committing to our elder and future generations. Our politicians have a larger say in this. Will they for once love our country? Time will not tell, it will just record and it cannot be reversed.

Jai Hind

Marketing patriotism

2009-11-18T08:28:00.000-08:00

I was just listening to one of our local FM stations on the way back home. The station was just about to play a very old patriotic song and i was really amazed at the way the RJ talked about the new generations remembering the nation in bits and pieces as if it was a piece of joke or as if an enemy is just rubbing it in. Also, the station had a contract with a Mobile company and was also trying to market that song to be set as the caller tone by referring to 26/11/2008. They have some award show on for 26/11 heroes, were the people are to nominate finalists (and what then? are we gonna have an SMS poll to choose the winner?)

Its really a shame how our corporate and media world treats the love for our nation and accuses us of not being patriotic enough. What respect are you giving to this nation? When Sachin Tendulkar made a very strong and patriotic comment there were some political leaders who tried to gain mileage from what Bal Thackery had to say. If you really care about this country why are you even giving these petty attentions seekers the bandwidth?

And after all this we complain about US asking China to play a role in Indo-Pak relations. When you are not united how can you face such a might?

I have just one thing to say. When you point finger remember that other four fingers are pointing at you.

Forget Patriotism, at-least lets do our job and make this country safe and prosperous.

Children on this day

2009-11-13T22:49:00.000-08:00

[I was dumb enough to think that i clicked on publish button after clicking save on the 14th and was thinking that this got posted! lol ]

Hiya,

Another week is fast gone, and today is childrens day, and the first anniversary of 26/11 is very close too. This is a great time for introspection on what kind of world our next generations are coming into or growing up in. I am not talking about just the terror attacks, the torture and trafficking. Even in the day to day life, the kind of pressure the young minds are put into in their day today life is huge. The class works, the home works, projects , vivas, karate lessons, music lessons,etc, etc. It some times seems that they are busy than us. They argument is of course, getting them ready for the competitive world. Are we not making the world even more competitive by this.

Most of the time I have seen, the project works, the drawing works etc., being done by the parents. I just went through the Google's doodles on 'my India'. I was really amazed at the thoughtfulness of the young kids and the explanation they have given for their doodles. I was amazed to the extent that I could not believe that it was done by these kids alone. It seems in most cases that there were involvement of adults at some point. Especially by the reasons given for many of the doodles. From my experience of unholy involvement of adults in the kids interests

I am not really surprised at the good work done by the kids. My point is this, should this unholy involvement be made? Is it fare to the kids? Is it fare to make it so difficult for them first of All? Is the pressure that the previous generation has put on the next increased the intolerance in the society as a progression?

I cannot verify facts stated here, but still thought provoking

2009-11-09T09:33:00.000-08:00

I got this as a fwd today. I cant comment on this, i cant verify the facts and I cant just believe this. So i will just keep quiet.

Politics is not a SERVICE anymore but a PROFESSION!!!

An Important Issue!

Salary & Govt. Concessions for a Member of Parliament (MP)

Monthly Salary :

Rs. 12,000/-

Expense for Constitution per month :
Rs. 10,000/-

Office expenditure per month :
Rs. 14,000/-

Traveling concession (Rs. 8 per km) :
Rs. 48,000/-

(eg. For a visit from South India to Delhi & return : 6000 km)

Daily DA TA during parliament meets :

Rs. 500/day

Charge for 1 class (A/C) in train :

Free (For any number of times)
(All over India )

Charge for Business Class in flights :
Free for 40 trips / year (With wife or P...A.)

Rent for MP hostel at
Delhi : Free.
Electricity
costs at home : Free up to 50,000 units.

Local phone call charge :
Free up to 1, 70,000 calls..

TOTAL expense for a MP
[having no qualification] per year : Rs.32, 00,000/-

[i.e.. 2.66 lakh/month]

TOTAL expense for 5 years :
Rs. 1, 60, 00,000/-

For 534 MPs, the expense for 5 years :

Rs. 8,54,40,00,000/-

(Nearly 855 crores)

AND THE PRIME MINISTER IS ASKING THE HIGHLY QUALIFIED, OUT PERFORMING CEOs TO CUT DOWN THEIR SALARIES...... This is how all our tax money is been swallowed and price hike on our regular commodities.........
And this is the present condition of our country :

855 crores could make their lives livable!!

Think of the great democracy we have…

Commonwealth games

2009-10-28T21:56:00.000-07:00

Commonwealth games. Read this link and think. Quite Interesting

Election Won

2009-10-22T20:21:00.000-07:00

Hiya,

So we have good news for somebody, bad news for some and no news for the common man. :) Congress is back.

Well, I put that line on the day elections results were announced. I did not post last week. I was quite busy. But that ain't an excuse. I made a promise to post once a week and I missed again.

Why this confession? I have tears in my eyes. I just finished watching the movie "Rang De Basanti". I dunno, the last time I watched this movie I ddnt feel so depressed. I don't this I have ever felt so depressed after watching/reading anything.

May be I have grown up from that young boy when I saw this movie the last time when it got released in theatres. May be I have started seeing the real world and started understanding it. I have to now agree with the majority, there is nothing that's gonna change in this country. Nothing.

The election results came. The undeserving and corrupt congress came back to power. Well the opposition, the BJP-Shiv Sena combine had nothing to offer too for the people to go for them. So we can't really blame the people. But the big story was the MNS. Raj Thackarey really deserves a pat on the back for accomplishing what he set out to do. ie. Not the well being of marathi manoos (which has lots to be wished and can't be reached by beating up rest of the Indians), but the under cutting of shiv sena and establishing himself.

But after watching this movie I feel like asking. Is anything that's gonna change after this election? Nothing. Nothing at all. Chagan Bujbal many news papers have said muscled his way to the Dy. Chief Minister's office (calling him the champion of OBC). Ashok Chavan successfully kept the CM's post and talked about 5 year test match and not 20-20 , about his new govt. No comments on development, security and well being of people.

Shiv Sena is gonna throng the streets 'Shiv Sena' style to rejuvenate itself . I will wait before I comment on MNS. Irrespective of what he has said and done before elections even Raj Thackerey deserves one chance. Shobaa Dee wrote out a valid letter to him in yesterday's Times of India issue.

Motor men struck work to press for demands and to show solidarity to their 'brother' , the deceased motor man Ramachandran, who courageously saved so many lives. What a noble way to show respect to a brave man- by keeping mothers away from their infant children, from keeping families apart and making even the old and the children walk and throng the buses and live hours of 'might is right' life. I don't understand how that brave man's soul will rest in peace when his so called 'brothers' are doing such dastardly acts in his name.

It's just a month away from the anniversary of 26/11/2008. How much has our country or even our city changed in this one year.

Rang De Basanti is just a movie. I surely have to conclude.

But still I will try to do my part. Will you?

Jai Hind

My first Voting experience

2009-10-13T10:33:00.000-07:00

Today was an important day in my life. I voted for the first time. It was an awesome experience. For the first time in my blog I am going to write only about my personal experience and my thoughts about it.

Today morning I woke up at around 7.45. I had actually planned to wake up and go vote at 7 in the morning. But I slept late. Ok, its better I start from yesterday night. After coming from office at 10 in the night. I checked out Election commission's various websites, jagore.com and many other sites to find my polling booth and also the details of my candidates here. I could not find my polling booth, but in Maharashtra CEO's website I found information of my candidates. There were only 3 working links (each on a candidate of my constituency) of the 8 provided , of which all the working links were scanned copies of their application and 2 where in English and the other in Marathi. EC could not take the pain of getting the transcribed to soft copies or even post multiple Language versions of the applications. So I hit the sack at 1 in the night, not even a little bit more educated about the candidates.

In the morning as soon as I got up at 7.45 I just brushed and decided that the first thing I am gonna do is vote. As I was locking the door, I was thinking of 49-0 as I can't decide who is best for my constituency. I just know that the BJP guy is a semi builder (and Mulund is a gold mine for real estate business). The MNS wants people like me out of here and I dunno anything about the congress candidate other than he is an Advocate. I don't even know his name (Congress campaign was literally 0 out here). kewl!

So, now the mission was to find my polling booth. I first went to the nearest polling booth, who redirected me to my actual one. In-front of the booth I tried to find if my name was in the list with two parties who had set up stalls there. Nobody could find me in their electoral roll. Then one of the ladies there suggested me to go in and she was sure the electoral officers will find my name in the list. So after wasting almost an hour I went to the polling booth. There right near the entrance gate there was a huge crowd around a table. I thought that this was the official electoral table to find you booth and number, but before I could enquire somebody redirected me to the polling room.

Now this is where the fun starts. I went in, nobody was there ahead of me, my number was found in less that 2 seconds (Actually I noticed it on the list first). Now my name was called out aloud. All the representatives of various parties ticked my name in their list. Now, I declared 'I want No Vote'. There was sudden silence. Everybody started staring at each other. Nobody first understood. Then I said ' I want no vote as per 49-0 rule'(of course, in Hindi). Then the lady who called out my name said 'oh Ok' and said to the presiding officer that mine is a no vote. Now the problem was that nobody has come across anybody who wanted to cast a no vote. My name was put on register and remarked no vote. I was asked to sign.

Then the presiding officer asked me to wait there for a minute. People started coming in, all staring at me as if I just came out of zoo. All the party guyz were staring at me with those wryly smiles and that expression saying, if the cops were not here, you would have been dead meat.

I also smiled back in my typical 'I just f****** you' style. Then the presiding office checked all the documents he had, and since he could not find anything he called up his boss and asked "what's to be done if somebody wants to vote 49-0'? He was told that signing in the register is enough. Another lady , an electoral officer also crossed checked in their records and said that's enough. (Actually I had found this information on EC's website yesterday night on a 100 page pdf file). The officer said to me that I am free to go(by now it was 5 minutes since I had signed the register), I thanked him, shook hands and walked out. For the first time, I felt proud of myself after a good number of years. Borrowing words from Mrs. Obama . I am for the first time in my adult life proud of my country. Proud of my country because, how ever worse the condition is there is scope for improvement and that it can be done.

But, one point I would like to make is, what about the victimisation of such voters. One party member each of n number of parties was there, what if I am attacked or some kind of revenge is taken? I am not afraid, I am mentally prepared for any such thing. But, is that a reason for deterring people from going to vote and not asking for 49-0 even if they want to? We need to think. Also, is it not illegal to reveal my vote , even a 'No Vote' is a vote. So I have to reveal my vote at the polling booth? Is that not contradictory?

But, I am proud that I did the right thing for my constituency. I know, this does not change anything in today's election. But I am hopeful that in the long run it will. How? I have done 49-0 no vote. Till now we knew that only from forwards and orkut scraps. Well, here is the real proof. It is there. If you feel that there are no right candidates in your constituency, then use this weapon. Not for you, but for others.

(PS: two things, 1. I could not find any document on candidates being disqualified if majority votes are 49-0. 2. My criteria set for a good candidate was just three things. a. educated b.bipartisan and no criminal records c. who has managed to run a proper campaign - nobody was good enough).

We need to make an educated choice for this country and spread awareness. That's what we can do, to repay the martyrs of this great Nation.

VOTE FOR INDIA, VOTE FOR OTHERS.

VOTE IS NOT A RIGHT, VOTE IS A DUTY.

MUMBAI 26/11/2008 , Lets be prepared. Lets choose the right leaders.

JAI HIND

Chinese game of intrusion

2009-09-30T20:43:00.000-07:00

Hi,

I know I missed last week's deadline. I am making this a habit. But I am trying to break it too. It was due to my inability to access to internet. Anyway my last week's post is here below.

There is a major security concern rising in our north eastern border. I am talking about the Chinese intrusions and diplomatic pressure tactics (Protest on Dalai Lama visit to Arunachal Pradesh). But I would like to first of all state that I am not concerned about a full blown war with China. There is lot at stake for China to risk, as much as India. I believe that the Chinese ploy here is intimidation, distraction and finally gradually extension of borders.

Let me take last line in the reverse order.

gradual extension of border: Chinese cannot just walk into India with million bullets and hundred bombs as they did in the 1960s. Now there is lot more international attention towards this part of the world, India is better equipped to resist and give good fight, if not win. Most importantly economy and international relations will be at stake. Of course, there is a possibility of nuclear war too(which i close to 0). Most importantly if a full out war takes place and that India bashes them, the whole concept of communist China will come into question. So I believe that This full out war is not probable. But to extent its strategic strong holds and to have better and easier land access to Pakistan and Afghanistan it needs to extend its borders. So while the Indian administration sleeps they just walk in paint rocks, send shepherds and after a few years claim that they have been there for decades. Wallah!

distraction: We know of many circumstances where the Chinese have been party to anti - India activities and propaganda. Latest example is the attempt to block the NSG waiver for nuclear agreement with USA. The Chinese might be just trying to have a distraction tactic for some other bigger scheme, may be to be carried out by somebody else. It might be just that they are playing the dummy. (If so then they deserve a Oscar). This might also be to distract their local population, where there is loads of resentment regarding the financial situation. Might be they need a reason to put patriotism to the cards and there is no neighbor who would even attempt to stand up to the Chinese other than India (Of course Taiwan and Hong Kong are there, but Chinese claim that to be part of them. So it will be harder to sell to the people.)

intimidation: Well, they are just pushing us to see who will blink first. That might give them another opportunity to prove to the international community who is bigger and who is stronger. We need to be concerned about this and should not take even a single wrong step. I believe that in this front our current govt is doing a good job. While the political leadership and the bureaucracy is sending out the 'everything is good' signal, the defense forces are preparing and making assessments. I believe that will be for the good.

Overall, I feel we should not over react, We should not give them an opportunity to corner us. Keep it simple. Officially play it down, be prepared and seal ever single inch of the border that can be done. Most importantly, don't pull out the troops from any other border (Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal especially). Raise troops as per requirement. But reducing troops against any other border might just be what they are looking for.

We still have brave young men and women, ready to lay down their lives for this country at the blink of an eye.

26 11 2008, Lest we forget.

Polygamy in India

2009-09-12T22:25:00.000-07:00

Today i read an eye opening article in 'Times of India'. It was on polygamy. Its said that in India more Hindu men practice bigamy than muslim , when the law does not allow the Hindu men to do so. The Muslim men are allowed to do so by law. Yes, you might remember that I once had blogged saying that this should be repealed and that all men are equal should be treated equal by law. Also, the article does not talk about Polygamy practiced by women, or if it does exist.

Also there were much more split ups like South Indians are more in practicing the same , adivasis are another dominant group. All these facts made me think a little bit about this polygamy thing. Where is this leading us to? In Hindu mythology there were polygamy quoted in many places. Ironically, the most famous one is of course of of Draupadi who had 5 husbands. Also, of King Dasharatha, Shri Rama's father who had three wives. The first one where Draupadi has 5 husbands, in reality each husband represents a separate quality eg: Yudhishtira represented truthfulness and so on for other 4 brothers. In the second case, the Kind did not have a child to rule his kingdom after him. Similarly the Quaran says that a man can have upto 4 wives when in a state of war (and similar instances where women may out number men).

So basically no religion promotes polygamy, its us that are misrepresenting them for our vices So I believe we need to do two things. 1) Blanket ban on polygamy 2) Heavy price for somebody who practices it irrespective of reason.(including the silent spectators).

Elaborating my point. We should make Polygamy or bigamy completely illegal. People should not be just allowed to convert to Islam and just remarry.(famous Fiza Chand case and many more). No Indian citizen should have the legal right to marry again when the first wedlock is still on.

Secondly, If some body is involved in Polygamy, the should pay a heavy price for it. Not just them but other involved, but who did not blow the whistle. Example, there was this Indian engineer who died in Afganistan who had a second wife. She did not get anything from the compensation of the govt. Well, I would say, she should have got some amount of it , but both her and the first wife should have been heavily penalized. Well, it might sound a bit rude. But thats the fact, we need to take that kinda actions. We should penalize, the involved parents, the witnesses and most importantly the person who conducted the rituals.

But then the question is, what if the next generation (my generation) the way it is, just decided 'we don't care'. They just decide that they will live together and not marry. Well, I believe in that case the law cannot do anything unless the first spouse complains. Will that happen in our society where social stigma is more feared than AIDS? May be my suggestion will force the next generation to pass of the the institution of marriage. Somebody, when Article 377 (stigmatizing Gay and transsexuals)was scrapped by HC Delhi said to me, "what are they going to do next? legalize orgies?". Well, I believe my suggestion is better than legalizing polygamy. It will at least make the message clear to the citizens. "We don't allow it, but you practice its your problem, and hey, if somebody blows whistle mate, you are screwed".

Its a serious problem that I believe is eroding our cultural values, especially sending out a misrepresentation of our culture to the rest of the world and to our next generation. Institution of marriage is not just about needs and satisfaction. Its much more than that and first one is commitment to be number 1 to somebody in their life and make sure that they are number 1 in ur life. Not just that they are number 1, but that there can be no other number.

People who are shouting about our cultural values eroding, may be they should re align their priorities. It will help this country much more.

Indian Parties and democracy

2009-08-31T22:26:00.000-07:00

Well, there is loads of stuff happening with regard to BJP. Lots of people shouting loads of things while their rivals are having field weeks than field days. I was gonna write about BJP and how things are not working in its favor. That's when two things struck me

1) Is this attention working in favor?
2) What's so different from other parties?

Lets look at these questions one by one. Taking the first one, actually in the long run this controversy if properly handled (some say it is being stage managed) , will be in the best interest of BJP. If BJP in about 6 months or 1 year down the line portray itself as a survivor and as party that is growing then this whole controversy happened in its favor. Simple, when an economy grows fast compared to other economies we say its doing best. We never actually consider whether the economy that grew was from 1 million to 10 million where as the one compared to is growing from 50 million to 55 million. Basically, we never give credit to the existing size. The same logic applies here.

So the point is, any publicity is good publicity in politics (if u can use it to vantage). BJP is right now the most talked about party in this country. In fact, this controversy even though has nothing to do with Hindutva (all it has to do is with partitioning of India and BJP's poll debacle) has put it on the top of the list. Especially with RSS getting involved and all the talk about tradition and history, it seems the the road is leading to Rome. lol

But, if BJP's top leadership is sensible enough, they would rather make a attempt to realign Hindutva ideology to an inclusive hindutva. They should by now have a clear idea that they won't be able to break into the new generation with exclusive agendas.

Coming to the 2nd question that I put up. I should rather say that every party in India has a super body. So Congress and other parties who are accusing BJP of being RSS run and BJP accusing Congress of being a family party holds no ground. Look at this

BJP - Sangh Parivar
Congress - Nehru Gandhi family
Communist - Russian policy, China and 'Adarsh' (of which some really defy logic)
BSP - Kanshi Ram and now Mayawati
SP - Mulayam Singh
DMK - Karunanidhi

And its just the toppers list. Every single party needs a super body. If its a single leader when that person passes away and don't find a proper replacment they either merge with somebody or live as a shadow and in history. Of all these lot, the communist seem to be better, but with some senior leaders manipulating the party or the party protecting them even from prosecuting(eg: Pinaray Vijayan) its going the same way. Not a single party has a proper transitional ability or interdependency. All are either hard bound to ideology or to some people. Its one of the reason why bringing change seems to be impossible in this country.

If we don't change for good, it will be the greatest disrespect to our Martyrs.

Mumbai, 26.11.2008. Always in our memories.

2009-08-24T21:57:00.000-07:00

I am sorry that I could not post for last two weeks. Its not that I forgot or missed. I had written the 2 blogs, one of which i thought was too small a post and the other was not verified. So the last two weeks posts are still pending. I will post them soon

Coming to our this week's to post, as expected I am going to talk about the Jaswant Singh's book on partition and the whole hoopla surrounding it. First of all, I would like to say that everybody has the right to express their opinion. Jaswant Singh did just that by saying that Jinnah is not the only person to be blamed here.

But on a deeper thought, why is it that we are reopening the wounds of partition unnecessarily? There is a school of thought that believes that this is a strategy from within BJP to project itself as nationalist and to hog the lime light by firing Jaswant Singh. But I would say that again that they are on the wrong side, since the current generation strongly believes in free speech.

If somebody is showing us a different point of view we should give him/her a chance. We are intelligent enough to decide if we do want to take that point of view or not.

If we are going to fight on each and every book written then we will never be able to overcome partition. If we don't we , we won't be able to prevent further attempts to break this nation.

Our martyrs will never forgive us if that happens.

Past and Future. Are they tense?

2009-07-30T00:09:00.000-07:00

Its yet another week on. I have always spoken about politics, social activism, security and lot more. But today I am gonna start of with something different. Something that may seem nothing but is really important.

This Sunday i was on a one day picnic to a beautiful waterfall near my city. The group I went with consisted of families working with a govt agency. I was the only guy from my age group. People elder than me were at least 10 years elder and the younger once were at least 8 years younger. We did all the stuff that most of us do in a picinic. Sing dance etc. But when the day was coming to the close, on our way back in the bus, the High scool and college going kids started a debate. I joined. Lot of issues, starting from NSG to killing stray dogs. It was fun. But it was later on my way back home in a taxi that i thought about it. 5 or 6 years back, when we used to do the same kinda trips we never had debates. We never spoke on social issues. It was simply out of bounds.

Yes, that's when i really felt good about the trip. Our next generation is more aware, much more ready to ask questions and most importantly ready to step out and make a difference. One thing that we all (yes, including me) wanted to do , but never had the balls to. These kids need support and guidance and am pretty sure they will make a difference.

The past at the same time is not living up to the expectations. Yes, I wanna continue from where I left last week. P M Manmohan Singh, gave a speech yesterday on the now christened 'Egyptian Blunder'. He was yet again 'not convincing'. I really do not understand what he is saying. We have nothing to hide so we can let Baloch be on the statement. Damn it, they are now gonna use it to internationalize the issue. We have to prove to the whole world that we are not involved. Congress has been in power for most of the last 60 years of Indian existence. But we never allowed it on any official document. Why? And haven't this one document undone everything?

About the NSG, he says there is no consensus b/w 45 nations in the NSG on new G-8 adopted document. Mr P M , how much time does it take to come to consensus? In how much time did they come to consensus that they should allow us to import nuclear technology? Also, about NSG having to consult us. Last time the U.S. administration was on our side. The famous Bush-Jiabao phone call that allowed the deal to go through. This time the U S is on the other side.

I am absoluty not convinced by the debate yesterday. Secondly, the congress second line of defence (Aiyar, Tharoor, etc) are henpecking us to believe what the PM said. Doing something the Americans used to accuse the Russians of, during the cold war era- 'Tell a lie 100 times and it turns to truth' . I dunno whether the Russians really did that, but hear at least, these guys are twisting the facts and saying it 100 times if not telling lies.

Diplomacy La Riducle!

2009-07-23T03:05:00.000-07:00

The ridiculous title for this post explains completely what I am gonna talk about here.

India's diplomats are supposed to be one of the best in the world. Well educated, experienced and grown through a strong hierarchical structure. Also the kind of selection procedures they come through they should be the best in the world.

The politicians who make it big as Ministers also the same can be said. The kinda of under cutting, backstabbing and partisan stuff that happens in India , they should be be brilliant.

But last one week this two groups joined together and committed a series of blunders.

First at the G8 summit , they didn't get even the wind that the Obama Administration is gonna push for an agreement on not selling ENR parts to non-NPT signatory nations. They simply sat there smiling while the whole thing got accepted. Then came out with a statement that it does not concern them. Oh ya, it does not concern ya , bcz u all are retiring in an year or so. rite?

But, to be frank though we are not back at square one we still have taken quite some steps back. But basically it has negated one of the major agreements of the nuclear deal. In Anil Kakodkar's words 'It s a breach of trust', and what our diplomats and politicos are doing about it ? Oh ya! they are coming out with statements like 'Its not aimed at us ' and that kinda stuff. Really? If its not against us, is it against the Romans?. Its clear even to a common man that, we are the only non NPT signatory nation that has an NSG exemption. So basically its just for us.

Then our PM made the biggest possible blunder of Baluch being mentioned in the joint -statement, and his reason. Oh ya! we ain't got anything to hide. So why worry? Are you mad. Even I, without any diplomatic or Political experience know that this gives Pakistan an opportunity to equate Baluchistan to Kashmir. That's ridiculous. When there was Pakistan's army fighting in Kashmir, in disguise, we have nothing to do in Baluchistan. We have never had anything to do there. But now, we are giving them a stick to beat us with. Yes, if there is any Indian involvement or has ever been, we need to investigate and put a stop to it. Also ensure it never happens again. But damn it! you are putting that on a joint statement?

Also, in the same statement came this, action on terrorism not to be independent of composite dialogue process. Oh ya! Last week u were telling me over the news papers that unless we see some real action on 26/11 perpetrators there ain't gonna be a talk. So whats this whole de-linking thing out here? Also the foreign secretary says it might be bad drafting. Oh really, then whats the difference b/w my small time engineering degree and all ur Harvard, Oxford and Cambridge and what not degrees. Next time when your on an diplomatic mission gimme a call. I will ask one of my Alma-mater 's English teacher to accompany you. Actually my History teacher would have done a better draft. Absurd!

Then we signed an end user inspection agreement with the Americans. Yes, when Madam Clinton was here. So basically the Americans get full access to our military installations? Oh yea, we have a special agreement on hand rite, we get to choose where they are gonna inspect! Oh ya. we are gonna move the whole rocket launcher system out of the actual location for the Americans to inspect and then put it back? And that too just because we use a bulb whose tungsten was manufactured in America? Somebody please knock on the heads of the diplomats and find out if anybody is in there, plz! Guess what, the govt is saying, such an agreement was on since 1997. So the Americans get a free tour of our Military installations, that too since 1997? Then I am paying tax every year. I wanna see what guns you are buying with my money. Show me the guns baby.

May be I am sounding a bit too angry, but guys really! We have made some blunders and we need to ensure that we fix them.

Infrastructure , the new game

2009-07-13T22:43:00.000-07:00

Infrastructure has been the name of the game for quite some time now in India. The union government has it as one of the topmost priorities. That 's really good. But is it materializing? Well, I am not so sure. The red tape and the politicians have been accused for all the delays, in-activeness and what not.

There are very few projects that are completed on schedule within deadlines in this country. why?

1) We have the long red tape. which because of its length and thickness cannot be called a tape anymore ! lol

2) The contractors, sub contractors, the developer nexus, labor problems

3) Non co-operation from citizens

4) Stay orders from court after court.

5) Gimmicks for vote banks from various political outfits.

and many many more!

Lets take the example of Bandra Worli sea link. It too soooooooooooo long! I read in a paper that the idea was first mooted some 40 years back! If that true! Damn!

There is a reason for me to write this post. This week began with a pretty bad news! a double accident at a Delhi metro construction site. Well, the politics has already started. The communist leader DasGupta says that "Labourers are slaughtered like Pigs". That is too much of a comment I would rather say. At the same time, I would say that the second accident was clearly avoidable. When you know that you have had an issue then why not be a little more serious about it? The company that has contract for construction at that site is supposedly having a history of accidents. They had some issues in Hyderabad metro construction. This Monday night, I heard, there was a small accident at Mumbai metro site managed by the same contractor. We should have better procedure for identifying and blacklisting contractors for their faults.

Also, we saw clearly on T V, that even after the second accident when three fourth of a huge crane was up on air, people were standing right under it and staring up. There was no safety procedure.

I think we need a commission right now , to create a standard operating procedure for all infrastructure projects at national level. It should have authority to decide on everything starting from budget to working environment. It should not be creating a set of rules, but a protocol and skeleton on all aspects of project and finally there should be strict law to ensure that the SOP is adhered to at all circumstances, across the country.

There should be strong penalties for over shooting budget, time frame and flouting of employee safety conditions. There should also protection for projects from political interventions, strikes for vote banks and unnecessary and repeated injunctions and stays from court. I feel that loads of infrastructure projects are delayed by the court injunctions for years.

We should rather have a cooling period b/w declaring a project and actual start of work. That is, between a project finalization and actual start of work, there should be time gap of 30 to 60 days, by when if there are any objections against the project should be raised in a court of law or with the designated commision if any. There authority (court of law or commision), should be bound to give a verdict in at most 90 days and appeal and verdict in high court should be completed within 6 months. So Basically, we can ensure that external and un foreseen forces don't delay the projects.

Infrastructure is very important for nation building, any nation.

Even when 26/11 happened, better infrastructure would have helped to clear more people or may have allowed the forces and govt to respond at a faster pace. We know that the NSG stationed in Delhi had to get a flight from Chandigarh to come to Mumbai. They reached almost 9 hours after the first strike and by then the damage was done.

Better infrastructure might have changed the results for better. Will we learn and speed up? Time will tell.

2009-07-02T05:41:00.000-07:00

We have a landmark judgment rendered last week by the Delhi High Court. That criminalization of gays is illegal. I welcome the order.

We need to understand that even gays, lesbians and trans genders have a right to life and most importantly a right to pursuit of prosperous and happy life. Their sexual preference must not be road block to that. What their sexuality is , is there private thing. As long as they don't thrust it upon us, its ok.

Already many religious leaders have started protesting. Most vocal, is a member of All Personal Muslim Law Board. Its just a matter of time before some Hindu radicals also joins them. There is one positive thing. For once they will be on the same side! lol

But the most Important thing that we have to understand here is that, we should not get blown away by all the hoopla. The message should be this 'Being Gay is ok'. If somebody is gay. Its ok. The have a problem and they are dealing with it(or living with it) in their own way. Its ok to speak to them, know them and hang out with them. But its should not send the wrong message to the next generation that being Gay is something glamorous. They are watching. The message we have to sent out is, 'Its ok if you are gay'.

But this opens up a lot more of issues. Like right to Marry, right to adopt. I personally feel that they should be nothing that stops them from marrying and living a life of their own. But when it comes to adoption I am totally against it. Simply because , when adopting another life comes into picture. A life that is not yet in a position to decide for itself whats good and whats bad for it. In such a case I would prefer that life to grow in a normal environment. Lets not try to be politically correct here and be frank. Being gay may be natural, but its not normal or common. The child should grow up in an environment where its can grow up with all possible opportunities and all possible normal influences.

This judgment will also allow social workers better access to the community. It will give them a sense of security to open up and most importantly help us tackle diseases like AIDS easier. That is absolutely the best thing that I see in this judgment. I would seriously hope that the government is not arm twisted by the religious groups into challenging this order. I think the government sees an opportunity here to fix the law while holding the High Court order as shield from religious groups. If i borrow the words from Times of India 'shooting from High court's shoulder'. lol. But Times got it right and its for good!

But I think, this a landmark judgment with a lot of repercussions, its for a better good.

For once, Gay Ho! lol

Anyway, This makes our society stronger and more inclusive. One more reason for being patriotic.
One more reason to thank Martyrs that we could see this day.

Mumbai 26/11/2008. Let there be no repeat of that day.

Our Girls

2009-06-25T02:22:00.000-07:00

Well, there is a lot of talk about women empowerment these days, and i could not keep away from the topic. Well, there is an immediate cause for this post of mine too.

SAINA NEHWAL. This girl has done wonders to the image of Indian women in a positive way. The media is yet to accord her a super star status. But she is really one of our best women achievers. Today I read in Times of India there was this 3 column interview of Saina where she said that she was more famous in Malaysia and Indonesia than in India. That's a matter of shame for us, i believe.

When our parliament is mooting 33% reservation for women, this girl has got there with most of the odds against her. She has done us proud and the govt has even forgotten to give her the prize money promised. She has to be the real face of Indian women and an inspiration for many of our Indian girls.

Forget Saina, Indian girls have done us proud across times, we have but always forgotten them. The Indian women's cricket team did us so proud in the last 50 over world cup and the recently concluded T20 world Cup. But we are still cribbing about what the boys did. The girls did not make it to even the first sports page, forget the front page in many news dailies.

We remember our women only for their mini skirts and deep necks, and that's a real shame. Many guys can swear on good lord the skirt size of Sania Mirza , but never her highest ranking. That's the state of our support for our own girls. Still these girls are making it big, again and again and again. Still we find it very easy to forget them. Today our girls have grown so strong and open minded that they are joining the armed forces. They don't have strong bodies as many men, but many men don't have their strong minds or resolve.

Another lady who comes to my mind is Nirupama Rao, our ambassador to China. I read, she was summoned early morning around 2 am by the Chinese foreign office and she replied to the call of Duty.I saw a photograph in Times of India during the just completed general election , where i saw the pic of a young police girl , white, not too tall, well dressed in her cop uniform, holding a auto rifle giving a million dollar smile as she guarded a polling office. My chest swelled with pride to say the least.

I recently saw an add of the Dove soap. I was just thinking, if we were to portray our real women. It should not be women who win elections because her husband is somebody big, or because of her caste. It should not women who went places because she knew people in high places.

We have loads of schemes that are already up and are on anvil for women empowerment. But the real need is for an action plan and targets. People of quality don't need reservations, all they need is support. There are hundreds on Saina, Nirupama and that young copgirl. We don't need to find them. We just gotta create an environment where they get a change. They will FIND US.

That will take us one step closer to beautiful, peaceful and prosperous India.

FOR what many martyrs have give their life.

Pradhan Committee report is coming

2009-06-16T02:48:00.000-07:00

Media is going berserk. Yup, I still in the sports page and I am still with my anti- media ramblings. Its not that i really hate the media or something(I owe a lot to media, especially the newspapers). But what they are doing right now is simply absurd.

Yesterday, Avantika Singh on Headlines Today said , when Sachin, Rahul, Saurav and Laxman have all been role models, the current Indian captain is 'arrogance personified'. Many media houses took pot shot at the Indian team. I agree that team did not do well, may be they did not try hard enough and all. But that does not give you the right to settle scores. The more these media houses are gonna go after the team, the more easily the fans will forgive the team. Well, who gives a damn when u can make a quick dime. right?

Anyway, the more important topic is the Pradhan Committee report on Mumbai terror attacks. It's being alleged from various quarters that The Mumbai Police Commisioner, was transferred because of some text against him in the report. Well, if its because of the text, then why is he being given a promotion transfer? Well need to kick him out. Also, what about the others. Why only the police is being investigated and why the political establishment is not under the scanner? I would like to see some text on political and bureaucratic establishment too on the report.

But more important information(that i felt) was that The ATS chief Hemant Karkare was lying on the floor near cama hospital, very close to the police quarters for almost half an hour. May be he could have been saved? Already, Mr. Kamte's wife has alleged that there are many things that have gone wrong and that she should be heard. Also, the Committee's purview is only limited to what happened that night and suggestions, but what about what has happened after that night? Does the Committee have the right to investigate how the Police , bureaucracy and the political establishments have changed themselves since 26 11 2008 ?

All I can say is that , I am eagerly waiting to see whats on the report when its tabled in the Maharashtra Assembly later this week.

Also, It will be great dishonor to our brave boys if we don't learn from our past mistakes. The biggest in my personal opinion.

I hope another 26 11 2008 never happens.

Support for Dhoni

2009-06-10T23:32:00.000-07:00

Just in my last post i talked about media being high handed and see what is happening. Dhoni is literally being assaulted. First of all, there were not even the slightest indications of a tiff within the Indian team. Secondly, a captain has the right to be angry with a player of his. There are 15 individuals out there. There can be personality clash. If two persons have a go at each other, you can't just say that , they are not in speaking terms.

There could be tiff, but when no media house in this country is ready to come forward with proof i feel that they should hold their silence. This is typical yellow page reporting. The Indian media is literally manufacturing news. Headline Today showed the Dhoni and a media person having a go at each other during the press conference. But they comfortably showed only that part and skipped the build up. Well i should say, irrespective of competitive spirits, cross cutting and undercutting one thing that we all need to learn from Indian jurnos is the way they close ranks when one of them is being proved wrong or credibility being questioned.

I liked the way Dhoni handled the issue. He came out and made it clear , now more than once , that he ain't gonna take any nonsense. Especially, when he asked the jurno "am i leaking the news", "All of you are here, if u feel I am leaking, stand up and say now", conspicuously, always questioning media did not have an answer. I read in Times of India, saying the way the press meet was held and the team stormed out (the show of unity meet) was unbecoming of an Indian team and unprecedented. They also said this was never done by a previous captain. Well, two things. One, There is always a first time. Second, you asked for it.

The Indian media is unnecessarily distracting the team's attention, by creating a mountain out of a mole hill (even if there are some issues). Instead of focusing on a Dhoni Vs Shewag tiff, if they media could concentrate more on, why a player was allowed to fly to a international tournament of highest grade, when he was not even close to passing the fitness test. Why there is no pre-travel policy for inclusion of players, and if captain wasn't briefed before flying about injuries, then why?. If Indian media concentrates on these issues, it will do greater good for Indian cricket and may be even contribute for a better Indian team.

If there is a tiff, media has to report. It has to tell the fans. But, timing is even more important. Indian media is now doing greater damage to the team and the reputation of the nation with this shallow reporting at this juncture. Dhoni's in your face attitude really deserves good comments. Indian media needs to understand that they can't get away with this every time. This time they have taken on cricket, which is religion for our people. This time they are on the wrong side. I still haven't found one person who ain't on Indian Team's side.

Media Gehetto

2009-06-08T23:28:00.000-07:00

I personally believe that media plays the most important role when it comes to nation building, national integration and educated population. By educated, i do not mean literate. Even if we look at our history, the Independence movement was inspired and fed by the media. The strong media , without any fear of the administration had inspired the masses. It helped great leaders like Gandhi, Nehru, Azad, Tilak and many more to capture the imagination of the people.

But today the same national media that has such a colorful history has lost its plot completely. Journalism today is still a service, but not a social service but a commercial service. I really feel that the major reason for the misdirection of main stream media is a direct capitalist influence. Its more like , 'don't cast a news if you can't sell the news' and lack of quality. Take any product range, there will be quality products and not so good products packaged hi-fi. Same is for the news today in India 'Amitabh Bachan ne cheka' and that too in a 16 point bold lettered breaking news.

Let me break down on what i feel our media needs to improve.

1) Language quality- I read 'Times of India' every day. The number of spelling mistakes and grammatical mistakes the paper makes is really appalling. Its not the only paper, I have found the same in many major dailies like DNA, Hindstan Times etc. Times of India is supposedly one of our flagship newspapers, giving us a sense of pride. It carries really good articles too (I never miss a Jug Surraya article), including about English language (One of the best articles i have ever ready in any news paper comes from the same one which delt with importance of comma in English language)

I make a lot of grammatical and spelling mistakes, but there is a difference between me making a mistake and Times or any other major media house making a mistake. Infact i would say, lot of us readers are influenced by the articles, we pick up words and spelling from papers. If they are gonna screw up then its not good.

2) Presentation quality - This is something I found common in most TV Channels like NDTV, CNN-IBN, Headlines Today and a lot more . eg: "Market went up by 200 points. The BSE shot from 12800 to 13000. 200 points is what the market gained. The day opened in 12800 and closed in 13000'

Well could we not have finished that in a max of two sentences 'Market opened at 12800 and closed at 13000 shooting by 200 points'. Many presenters complicate things, repeat or rephrase a lot confusing the normal viewer. I some times feel like laughing at these guys. These same channels cut their guests to go into commercial breaks. Can't we reduce this Mumbo Jumbo and show ADVs there. Also, the viewer is not a computer, she is gonna lose interest and go for the remote.

3) Commitment to National Interests - This is something I found lacking in most mainstream media. 26 11 2008 mumbai terrorist attacks really proved that our media gives more importance to commercial interests than to national. Well, the defense team had specifically requested the media to not show any operational activities live and guess what may media houses delayed relay by few minutes. Some Jurno's even tried to interview officers in action.

There was this great article in Times of India where a female jurno describes what she saw on that day and how one of the jurno from a channel crawled to soldier who had take position and tried to interview him. NDTV's Barkha Dutt even issued a note saying NDTV delayed relay by 10 minutes. Well, for NDTV 10 mins may be life time but for national welfare it ain't. All the main stream media houses went live that day with the action thriller right out side our windows.

Media houses should act in a more responsible way , not showing live means, not give out any details that would help the enemy to change the outcome of our defense action. Now think abt the delays provided by media houses ? I even posted a reply to Barkha's post on NDTV website, but never saw my reply posted for next two days. I then did not follow up any more.

Another interesting case is that of CNN-IBN and the cash for vote scam. CNN-IBN took the video, did the sting operation, but did nothing from its side to stop a national tragedy from happening and then we saw wades of notes in the parliament and a national shame was broadcasted live, replayed and again by many mainstream media houses.

4) Ethics - This is some thing really missing in today's media. There is nothing but sensationalism in there. 'If there ain't a story, lets manufacture one' seems to be the mantra of today's media. I can think of a lot of specific instances but will mention two to prove my point. One, the news report that Sehwag and Dhoni are having a tiff. After the strong statement from Dhoni, no media house has had the balls to speak of that story again. None is coming forward and providing proof for what they reported. I strongly back Dhoni in the way he responded.

Another case of Poonam Yadav, who was a strong contender in the show Sa Re Ga Ma Pa of Zee TV. Some gossip column reported about an alleged affair of this young girl with her mentor Ismail Darbar without any proof and just because she was hospitalized they said she had gone through abortion and tried suicide. Well, where is proof. When Editors allow this kinda story they should ask for verification to their journalists. She is an easy prey also since she is poor and the media house knows she can't afford to take them to court. I did a Google search on this girl to see how her career has shaped after the show (since she was my fav contender of that year) and I could find no website with the Info, instead all fed me with this news and that's how i came to know of this. The girl came forward to clear the air and call this character assassination. I also remember a Delhi teacher being maligned by a Hindi news channel sting.

Well,I feel we need stronger laws against such indecent publications. In Italy, you can't publish a person's photo without his permission. Well, I won't go that far, but still believe that we need to protected the common man more.

5) Follow ups - Our media never follows up on any issue. They write when an issue is hot or when it has a element of sensation or sting or any thing. But never follow up unless they get some really good sound bytes that will re sensationalize the issue. I completely dis agree with this attitude. Even the American Media acts in a more responsible way when it comes to follow ups.

I can think of a lot more, but i will stop this here since this post is getting too long. Will continue in another post.

I hope that our media will be more responsible at the face of another 26 11. Self restraint has been show by citizens, can media do the same is a very important question.

Back in action

2009-06-01T04:35:00.000-07:00

Well, the title goes for both me and congress. Bfr explaining that let me just say "Congratz Congress".

Well, about the title. I had made a promise to make a post in this blog every week at least once and for last few weeks I haven't kept it. It's not because I forgot or smtng. It was just a simple thought that , when the political storm is on high, there will be loads of people in the virtual world passing their both educated and not so educated comments. I just wanted to take a break in the meanwhile and just shut up. I believe that a a whisper to a silent audience is more powerful that a 100MW speaker to a boiling Mob. So i just waited so that everything settles down.

Leaving all those out. Lets come to the core. I have been heavily critical of congress like many other blogger and critics and all. But there is one difference between me and many of them. Just because congress won I aint gonna go singing glory songs for congress. I still have many apprehensions about congress rule and I still believe that PM Manmohan Singh is a weak PM. If you cant get the benefits of your hard work across to the people , you should be ready for that tag.

I find it difficult to disguise my doubts on how congress is going to handle National Security with their horrible track record. Many analysts say that Mumbai by electing all its MPs belonging to the UPA has trashed the BJP's claims on National Security. Thats not true. I believe MNS played a huge role. I believe that if MNS was not there in the picture it might have been a reverse sweep.

But one advantage of having congress back is with regard to the economy. There is no better party in this country right now who can handle economy better, even though Pranab Mukherjee is political choice. I believe that somebody more educated and well versed with the economy should have been given charge.

The PM has said that this govt has to perform and the people are watching them in his first cabinet speech. But let me categorically state "Congress has fumbled in the first step". It has made some poor choices when it comes to ministerial berths. I am very sad that Sashi Tharoor did not make it as External Affairs minister. PM said, talent and experience was the major criteria. Well it does not seem so. If it was, I cant think of any other person having more international good will than Sashi Tharoor in the current parliament. His vast experience with the UN is not being fully utilized. Also , A. Raja had come under serious criticism for squandering the opportunity with regard to the 3G auction. Still he is back. I feel, congress has not faced arm twisting by allies in a bold way. Congress could have said a blunt no to A. Raja and DMK would not have been able to do a damn thing about it. If it does, it would have to sit out of power for next 5 years as there are a lot of parties outside the congress Gate to offer support. Also , no party would have the balls to go to a second Round General Elections. The Good Will for congress would alone have routed them all. The choice of the new speaker also seems to be more of a Photo-op rather than an educated selection. Of course, congress is well known for Photo-ops.

As far as the swan song singers for Rahul Gandhi is concerned all i gotta say to them is "Shame on You'. I have read some really critical statements about Rahul Gandhi and some real praises for Priyanka before elections. 80% have turned around to sing for Rahul. If the so called Rahul's strategy in U P, had back fired I just can't think of what comments would have come out on him. I still believe Rahul Gandhi has a long way to go before taking up a ministerial position and a lot to learn. I hope he learns that real India is not just a cow shed but also the jam packed Mumbai local and Delhi's fast track blue line buses.

Anyway, I wish the very best to congress and our country. The people have given a strong mandate to the Congress and a strong warning to divisive forces and Regional Parties. I really hope that congress would shun its pseudo-secularism and be really secular in all aspects of the Indian Government. Also, I hope they give due Importance to national security and not put a old man with a turban on T.V. to say "We wont bend our back to these attacks" without even a blink(few more blasts and we won't have a back to bend). I hope that they are able to revive the economy faster than expected with some quality and bold decisions keeping all its citizens aspirations in mind.

Hope a 26/11/2008 never happens again.

JAI HIND

BJP Vs Congress

2009-04-16T11:08:00.000-07:00

So another week is gone. Today we had the first phase of elections. Its great news that we had 60% voter turnout. The bad news is the Maoist attack on some polling booths. Its regrettable that we could not stop it. But such incidents are expected, considering the number of antisocial elements in the country. I should salute all the polling officials and the security personnel who are ensuring a smooth election. They are the real keepers of this democracy. Even the EC, which has come under severe criticism(including me) deserves due credit for the efforts it is putting in. But we have a long way to go, 4 more sessions. All the Best & Thanks to all of you guyz.

Well, Politics is really high steam right now and there are some nasty comments on the air. First of all, Security. I still believe that Congress is weaker than BJP when it comes to national security. I don't think congress has the balls to protect this country, especially with there vote bank pseudo secular agenda. Well the nastiest of the comments has been made by congress too, when it comes to national security. They are implicating the BJP for releasing terrorist when AI plane was hijacked to Kandhahar. I think they are being unfair to the BJP. Any Indian government would have done that to save its citizens. Congress would have done it even faster. I personally don't agree with releasing terrorists, but any govt would have done that. The congress comment that they had instead killed the 10 terrorists in Mumbai. Let me ask, "Mumbai is inside India. You did not ensure that they never entered, where as neither Nepal nor Afghanistan is inside India. Also You killed 10 terrorists after they killed 168. It took 3 days to clean 10 guyz from our own city. You could not even raise a finger against Pakistan. Your home minister changed suit three times, your PM could not even console us forget inspire. What happened to the other dozen blasts? Have u been able to arrest even one of those bombers?" National Security, i believe BJP would do better. The provocative action after the parliament attack was a clear example to this. where as the PM could not even inspire us, or console us after the mumbai attacks. If there is one more attack and if i survive, i want a PM who can at least give me hope of another day. Though I am not confident Advani will be able to do that, but i am sure he will be better than Dr.Singh.

But when it comes to economics, I think congress is way ahead. I really don't think BJP is even in the same league. Congress not only has really good economists, but also a good strategy till now. Though they have committed blunders and even politically motivated moves, still they have been better that BJP. So for finance my vote goes to the Congress.

Education is another major factor, where neither the congress nor the BJP has been able to impress me. I personally feel that both of them try to push their ideologies. Having done education from a communist state i actually think Communist is better. But with them will come more politicizations of campus. So i will not choose anybody. (SP guyz- if u are ready to ban education and not just English may be i will think of voting for u. lol)

Industries - Again, I think congress has done better than BJP here. But with somebody like modi in the ranks i think BJP is catching up very quickly in this front.

Agriculture - No vote. absolutely no vote. Other than declaring perks and giving free bees no government or party has really made an attempt to solve the problems in this front. Actually, the response of our political fraternity to this field proves that our political and overall administrative system is reactive and not proactive. This sadly, has been inherited from our colonial masters. They had this kind of system because they were not answerable to the people they were ruling, also we were just instruments for profit for them. This interpretation of how the system works has to change, and this has to start from the agricultural sector.

Corruption- All the parties are in the same boat here. But still i would rather go for the BJP, because congress has a notorious ability to infiltrate the not yet infiltrated government institutions. Starting from EC to the President's office are clear examples. What are the credentials of Pratiba Patil to be Indian President? Gifted a shawl to congress president? The so called Hindu Nationalist Party the BJP put A. P. J. Abdul Kalam a Muslim on the president's seat. My vote is for BJP here.

Youth- I would rather go for the congress here. They have been able to push some young blood in like Rahul Gandhi, Milind Deora, Jothiraditya Scindia, Sachin Pilot etc. But the common thing among all these guys is that they are all belonging to political dynasties. But BJP looses the plot here miserably, calling Arun Jaitley and Narendra Modi young. Arun would be close to retirement if he was in a govt service and Modi would have already retired. They are not young. Of course they are young if you compare to Vajpayee and Advani. But they are not the bench mark. So here i vote for Congress.

I am not considering any other party here because, no other party can form government. Neither does any other party have the resource to run such a huge and fast moving nation. Any one of these parties has to be in the govt. If not, the people who ask now "What can be worse?" would be saying "Oh! it can be worse". If not these two parties, then the communist should be the largest party in the coilation that forms the govt. That would at least have some intellectuals to run the country, though it would be like a car moving in reverse gear on the main road, that too on the wrong side.

PM game!

2009-03-27T01:38:00.000-07:00

PM Manmohan Singh would not be contesting the lok sabha polls. I think that would be strategical mistake . congress should use tag "PM candidate" and win a constituency. It would rather add to their numbers. The swing voters generally have the tendency to vote for somebody pitched to get a power position when compared to somebody else. So , almost all the constituencies must be wanting to have the PM from theirs.

Coming to Advani. I really don't think he deserves to be the Indian PM. I am not sure of his qulifications. Will he be able to put his ministers in order when in power. Many people at various point of time have clashed with Advani. The most remembered one though is that of Uma Bharati. The tug of war game with Rajnath Singh also would be interesting to watch. Also, the Advani for PM online campaign is really flop show. Half the youngsters i spoke with rather feel this to be funny. They say there is even a Advani blog, some of the guys wondered, if he really writes and if he does how much time he takes for a sentence typing.

Still, for prime minister's post, Indian PM- i have to choose between Advani and Manmohan . I would go for Advani. If it was for Finanace Ministry, my choice would have been totally opposite.

I have nothing against Manmohan Singh. I don't mind his being soft spoken, not coming out more etc etc and all the crap alleged by opposition. I personally respect Manmohan Singh. But its just that he is not good enough to do the job. The nuclear deal could have been negotiated better(especially with the comptroller statistic on hand), terror situation handling has been horrible.

One of the immediate causes that swinged my opinion against him was his speeh after the 26 November or famously dubbed 26/11 terror attacks. Borrowing words from Shoba De, who spoke on NDTV 24*7 that night. passion was an absolute miss. He did not inspire us. He did not console me. He did not even appeal to me. I was cursing myself that night for having such a prime minister as if ti was my fault(Well to an extent it is, rite?).

Actually my vote is not for Advani as PM, but it is against Manmohan as PM. I would rather choose Mayawati, than Advani or Manmohan. Atleast the monority groups will benifit from her. Though she may loot or collect gifts or what ever. At least somebody has benifit. Even Sharad Pawar for that matter.

Talking about the Advani Manmohan comparison. I rather liked one comment made by Advani. For a public debate.

(sorry that these days i am not investing that much amount of time for this blog. Its not becuase of lack of intrest, Its just that i have other promises to keep too. Still, evey week one entry will come for sure. )

26/11/2008 Mumbai. The unforgettable day.

Theology of GREAT INDIAN ELECTIONS

2009-03-26T22:51:00.000-07:00

The title says it all. When you really think what are the real issues of election 2009 (i mean the issues raised by parties, and not all real issues) religion is an integral part. Like a steering to a car.

First of All, I had to go through some really scathing attacks from close friends and family for the last entry, looking a bit in favor of Varun Gandhi. So let me clear this once and for all. "I have no special love for Varun Gandhi or what he said(allegedly). I still contend that, it has to be proved since he is staking a claim that it is false. I believe that who ever says, what it is alleged that he has said, must be meted out the severest punishment. I have no respect for such people. EC has show double standards by not initiating action against other people."

The congress i should frankly say is the strongest believer in caste based votes. The Manifesto has a whole range of freebies for people from particular sections of the society. Well, I am not against freebies. I am against the unnecessary inclusion of religion and caste in this. I sometimes feel even if BJP wants to move away from the hindutva agenda it can't, the other pseudo-secular parties will not let it. In fact, i feel the caste based divide and fear in minority groups is more a requirement of parties like congress, SP and BSP. The communist too call themselves secular. Damn, Karl Marx would be pleading to God that he does not wanna be born in India now. lol.

I read at some mainstream media website that the great Congress is gonna print CDs of varun's alleged anti sikh comments and distribute in Punjab. Does not that amount to "inciting communal hatred". Can somebody pass the mike to EC,please ? Also, BJP is not goody-goody when it comes to the communal card. They are very good at making proxy attacks, symbolic acts and using their proxies or parent bodies - RSS and the Sangh. Now that they have a number of monkey armies called Ram Sene, Bajrang Dal(literally...lol). Theology is an irrefutable part of Indian Politics.

I don't think any party understands the meaning of secularism. I strongly feel that there should be a law that makes religion personal and out of bound for political and other social groups and arenas.

It is high time for us to decide the real meaning of secularism.

Well, I ddnt frgt the weekly post promise, i had written the draft last week but cdnt verify. hence posting the same with some apologies. One more draft is in the anvil

Gaming the Election Commision

2009-03-23T01:32:00.000-07:00

I thought this week i will abstain from talking about politics, especially the caste based divide. But what has happened in last few days has made me completely change my decision. First of all, if Varun Gandhi has made any comment like he wants the Muslims to leave or he will hurt/kill them, that should be deeply condemned. I do that.

At the same time, the parties like congress and others i feel are trying to push their pseudo-secular agenda out of this non-issue. If Varun Gandhi has said something like that, like all politicians say in other cases "Law will take its own course". Why push it? It seems that congress is playing some kinda sick game where its trying to utilize the communal divide. Especially with BJP, who can claim communalism as their trump card on back foot. Some how I feel the EC's hurry to take steps seems fishy and dubious. Actually speaking the Presidential Gazette notification has come only today(Monday 23/03/09). So can EC force the code of conduct, before that? I read some details on that and they suggested "No, EC can't ".

Second reason for my doubt is, Why did the EC not take such immediate action against, Stalin, Mulayam Singh Yadav and Govinda who distributed money in front of national channels. I haven't till now read any action taken against them.

Finally, the Navin Chawla and Congress Nexus is clear to all. For the first time, i have a small feeling that EC is biased. Especially with Gopalswami is in his last days as CEC. He is more of like a puppet chief. Not wanting to rub the ruling party on wrong side after the 'remove Chawla ' debacle. Especially with a President more belonging to Congress than India. (How better is the life of Mahrashtrians after getting a Maharashtrian President, lemme ask the Shiv Sena).

Saying all these i have to stress two points. If anybody for what ever reason talks about any community in bad light should be severely punished. At the same time, if anybody says anything in support of Hindus he should not be branded communal. But sadly, thats the trend in India and is being highly backed by mainstream media. (Most of the blogs and online articles i have read in this context have the same opinion.So its not a personal feeling)

If a person says "I love ABC community". He is not necessarily communal. But if some body says "I hate ABC community". He is communal and he shouldn't be allowed to do that.

I am not concerned about all these. Congress has very dubious record of influencing Govt agencies. Election Commission seems to be its next victim. But if it pushes the EC to take drastic step of de recognizing BJP's poll symbol or even something remotely close, the congress may be indirectly setting the stage for a BJP victory (with sympathy vote) and also the little bit of divide in the Hindutva vote will cease to exist and they will close ranks. Once BJP comes to power they will exploit fully the congress trend of influencing the EC and exploit one of the last bastions of unbiased national Institutions. It will be then, one of the severest punch on Indian democracy.

I will be looking forward to how much Congress , BJP and EC are gonna go and how much more our democracy is gonna be hurt.

All I gotta say is, some great cops and army men laid down their life for this country, for Indians. Not for Hindus and Not for Muslims or any other community. For once, lets vote as Indians rather than vote as a Hindu or Muslim or upper caste or Youngster or elder.

FOR ONCE, VOTE AS INDIAN.

VOTE IS NOT A RIGHT, ITS A DUTY.

even I am trying to get myself registered in the voters list. I think if I get registered, i will take 49-O ;)

The Election Carnage

2009-03-16T04:26:00.000-07:00

I am back after a hectic week and guess what, James Otis wants Gandhi's items back. Anyway I will not discuss him anymore. He does not deserve any more of my blog space.

But lets talk about the upcoming elections. Well, one thing i found really interesting is that the number of voters b/w 18 and 35 is greater than the number of citizens in 166 countries. On a lighter note, I dunno if it says some thing about the Indian workforce but talks a lot about people saying India does not have a good night life. lol. But its a matter of concern too. How is this generation, my generation looking at this election. To be frank, it looks like some kinda tamasha that ain't funny.

With all the election hoopla around something that really does not miss the eye is the corrupted minds among the politicians. Starting from Left to BJP everybody is trying to win. Today i read a really good editorial from Times of India, the author correctly notes "In India, governments always ‘come into power’ to rule us; they never ‘assume office’ in order to serve us". I am not asking them to serve also. But just do your job. All the parties are talking about next generation. I think the next generation is not stuck in the melodramatic world of service, rights and duties. We live in the world of achievements, progress and targets. We want results, not caste divides, gimmicks and freebies.

Everybody wants to become a prime minister. Sharad Pawar says its time for a Maharashtrian prime minister. When did maharashtra started having prime ministers? lol. He goes on to say there has been PMs from Andhra , karnataka, Punjab etc. I am left thinking, when will the time for having an Indian Prime Minister come? May be never. With this attitude, I think never. BSP cheif Mayawati wants to be PM too. Well, join the line is all i gotta say.

Well, even some of the media has compared Mayawati to Barack Obama. Barack Obama never talked about his color or never raked up partisan ideas. Can Maywati claim the same. Lets list out what each of them has done and what they have promised. Mayawati every other second tries to use the dalit card where as Obama never once said "Vote for me, I am black".

I request the media not to insult the good cause that Obama has atleast spoken about. No Indian politian today has the stature to be even compared with Obama.

Also, Indian politics is all different ball game. Thouh even in U S elections being a Southerner and being a Christian to the core helps, I don' t think turns out to be the sole deciding factor. In India caste can be. The BJP is the best example. They are raking up the communal game in coastal karnataka to kick start a political entry into southern states with their hindutva card. This has to be defeated. The number of instances of this hindutva card is increasing in coastal karnataka, especially in Mangalore and Udupi regions. Even some bus conductors and drivers are involved in relaying information of minute opportunities to these splinter hindutva groups. Police is inactive for sure. For the investigation progress and cases registered are proof. Also some times they are even supporting these groups. The arrest of a small time paper owner cum journo is an eye opener.

The congress had abused BJP in parliment when Godhra happened. What is it doing now? Who do we turn to? no congress, no bjp and third front a Manohar Joshi said, its already third. Even if we put them at first, tis of no use. They won't be able to agree on even one issue. There will be more minority apeasment (or should i say minority crippling) and economics and security will go to the dogs. Only formidable team in the third front frankly is the Left, though i don't totally agree with the ideology of communists, still if they win and are ready to be proactive may be in 2014 BJP and Congress will rethink and change for the good. But the fear is that India by then may have plunged into a deep pocket of protectionism and anti-liberalisation.

We the people have only formidable candidate, "49-0". I am sorry to say this, but thats the fact. Bcz parties are on the side of hindus, minorities, Maharashtrians, Dalits, Tamils, Punjabis, North East.

Nobody is on the side of Indians. Will there be in the future? Even Time may not be sure!

VOTE NOT FOR YOU, VOTE FOR THE NATION. ITS NOT YOUR RIGHT, ITS YOUR DUTY.

Selling and Buying Gandhi

2009-03-05T22:36:00.000-08:00

"Dr. Mallya saves Bapu's legacy" shouted the NDTV widget in my iGoogle's news tab. How irresponsible a statement. I never thought that Gandhi's legacy is attached to his watch , glasses or atleast not his sandals. Dr. Mallya did a good thing at an induvidual presepective and thnaks for that. But i don't think that we should have allowed the auction to go ahead. The government could have stopped this selling and buying of Mahatama Gandhi.

I once heard that Gandhi could have stopped the hanging of Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev, but he didnot try enough. If that is true, all i can say is that history repeats. Only thing is that, ther was no Vijay Mallya to buy the life of these brave men. That has an important lesson for us Indians too. Money matters most.

But most Importantly, this has brought out the real character of James Otis. The seller. He yesterday night, i read, had announced that the valuables would not be put on sale. Now he is counting his 1.8 million $. I hope atleast now the eyes of Governments of India, China, Egypt and other similar counrties open. It is high time that these countries come together. We need to put an end to the fantasy of west playing with the emotions of other nations. West says its civilized and is sending its army across the globe which acts in an uncivilized manner to make rest of the world civilized. If the west cannot show compassion or understanding. Nor if it is ready to accomdate the rest of the world how is it able to call itself civilized.

I still stick to my belief that no Indian should have bid for this artifact. We don't want Bapus' valuables we want his values. Nobody can take them from us.

Gandhi card

2009-03-05T02:17:00.000-08:00

Otis has told govt of India that he will return the Gandhi valuables to India if govt is ready to accept his demand of allocating an amount of GDP to health care of poor and help spread Gandhian values through its embassy in 78 countries. This is nothing short of a blackmail. The Govt i feel should openly call this a blackmail and tell him that with the world's forth largest army and good diplomatic relations with over 200 countries we are in a better position if the name of the game is blackmail.

I feel the Govt should officially request all Indians not to bid for the items. Its like paying a toll to the neighbor for bringing you car into your compound through your gate. If Otis, is so much worried about the poor then why does he not declare that he will donate all the money that comes from the auction to charity in India. Otis is just going through a publicity stunt and our worthless Government is playing ball. I heard the government offered Antiquorium the base price ie $30000. I feel that's a mistake, we should tell them that we will make life hell for them if it goes under hammer just like the Chinese government told Cristie. Also, we have been crying out loud with a big drum over last 4-5 years about our good relationship with United States of America. Well, this is one opportunity for USA to prove that they really value our relationship. Our Prime Minister proclaimed that we love President Bush (i voted him to rule me, that does not but allow to decide whom I love and whom I don't), so let Obama prove how much he loves us.

Also, congress would really love to acquire this Gandhian valuables. Especially with polls round the corner. A good and stern government would rather say that "anybody can hold the Gandhian valuables, but we Indians hold the values" and that would end everything.

On a long term perspective, India China and other countries like Egypt should join hands to fight the fantasies of west to play with our past. India I believe should pass a legislation that would register all these antiques as stolen. Not just those put on the hammer, but any Indian valuable of National Importance. The Indian legal system should be able to register and persue legal action against sellers like Otis and facilitators like Antiquorium. The first case should be registered against the Monarch of United Kingdom for theft of Kohinoor diamond and the Peacock throne.

But immediately, the government should not give opportunity for Antiquorium and Otis to set up publicity stunts and increase the values of these goods but pursue silent diplomatic channels. But any concession or meeting of demands with Otis would be considered as paying ransom, in the mind of educated Indians. It belongs to us, we should not be paying for it. Its as simple as that.

Its not the valuables of Gandhi but values of Gandhi that we should hold on to. It will make our country better, unite us more and ensure that no more 26 11 2008 passes right in front of our eyes and we sit at homes glued to television rather than go out and make a difference.

26 11 2008. Lest We Forget.

Cricket Carnage and Mumbai comparison

2009-03-03T22:57:00.000-08:00

Surprise Surprise, cricket has been targeted by terrorists and that too in Asia. Well, Pakistan is in deep trouble. That one window of international co-operation is also out. Also, Indian Govt, congrats, good decision. If that had been the Indian team, the congress party would have been forced to send the army(defying all logic) or else kiss the cup of power good by for a 100 years. Cricket is that dear to Indians I believe.

But that apart. There have been mention of Mumbai style attacks and same group may be involved and all. I am not concerned about that. It may or may not be. But for it proves something more. That Taliban 's strong not just there in FATA but across Pakistan. I had, I think made blog entry mentioning about an article i read about how terror groups are spreading from Frontier areas to the heart of Pakistan, especially into Lahore and how they are amassing weapons. I think that was written by TIME. Well, who ever wrote it, it has been proved correct.

It also has turned out to be huge embarrassment for ISI. They can no longer control their children. There is also another school of thought, that has not been highlighted by the main stream media. A logic that, well with least probablity, the whole attack has been back or initated by ISI. Well, don't laugh. There is one thing ISI can achieve with this. This will give strength to the Pakistani voice saying that they too are victims of terror. There could have been no better instance to sound that to the International community. I really don't believe that and think that as a version of Pakistan haters. But what if thats true?

Anyway, i feel I agree with Pranab Mukerjee for saying that Pakistan is reaping the results of not dismantilings the terror network in its soil. As per sharia law i hear, i mean the taliban version of sharia, there can be no entertainment. So cricket, the biggest entertainment of Pakistan comes to a stop. More of Pakis are gonna keep away from cricket for lack of opprtunites and more opprtunity for the jihadi groups to recruit more youngsters.

India, is in a precarious situation. We should be declared the world's unsafest country. With Pakistan on the west, LTTE and Sri Lanka game on south, Bangla mutiny and China in the east. We are screwed big time. This proves that my call to strengthen internal security and have a systematic process in place rather than attacking other countries like Pakistan to be correct. We can't fix up South Asia, we don't have the financial, military or diplomatic power.

I think now IPL is a real target for terror attacks. India needs to stregthen its Intgelligence networks and inter security system. Strengthen does not mean add more security checks. It means strong intelligence network, better ground intelligence collection and ensuring proper implementations of protocols in security checks. Pakistan has been rightly termed as Somalia of South Asia by Congress Party.

Bullets for Ballot

2009-03-01T22:51:00.000-08:00

Sonia Gandhi , I heard has claimed that Pakistan's acceptance of Qasab is a victory of congress. Well, what do you expect from a party that claimed the success of Slum Dog Millionaire. BTW, does slapping of the young star Mohd Azaruddin by his father also come as a Congress Achievement? May be Renuka Chowdary can answer that question.

I don't think its an achievement that Pakistan has accepted Qasab or terror plot. It does not make a difference. As long as the terror network is not dismantled it will not make a difference. I don't just mean the terror network in Pakistan. I mean the terror network in India too. I don't just mean the terror network in India of Islamic radicals, there are Hindu radicals and to an extent christian radicals too. We need to contain all of them. We need convince,dismantle or divert these units to mainstream before they turn into full fledge terror outfits.

Today every party is in deinal mode when it comes to terrorists within India. This must end. There is local presence and sleeper cells. Bureaucracy and Intelligence have been saying this for a long time. The parties should show the political will. They should not try top protect these radicals and convert these bullets to ballot. These ballots will turn back to bullets even quicker than they can think of.

Before talking about international terrorist we must be ready to talk of Indian terrorist. The west has cunningly clubbed terrorism to Islam to get public support. In India that cannot be and should not be done. The govt must make it a point to publicly distance itself from this rhetoric. The minority community must not be appeased they should be made to feel secure.
Every time you appease they will demand more and majority will feel cheated. There will be more divide and even more clashes.

The Indian terrorist is a integral part of the terror network that is working against India. We need to deal with him. He will also be able to lead us to the other guy. We should hope Pakistan to mend it ways but not expect it. Rather we should extend our security such a way that we able to preempt such strikes. Striking Pakistan will be a big mistake. This will give terror networks a free run inside Pakistan and also unite that country against a common enemy India, especially when India not even close to an enemy. We should let Pakistan take care of its internal matters. If Pak crumbles it will be the responsibility of the West, especially US. If it survives and changes its ways good for us. But the real problem will be if it survives and does not mend it ways.

Right now stepping into Pakistan Issue will be like going into a desert without a map and a compass. We should take this time and clear our internal problems and to strengthen internal security. Our parties should not try to use this a election vote bank. National Security is above the wimps and Fantasies.If Pak survives and does not change its ways we will need all the strength we could amass and it would be better if we start now. Atleast we will get some head start. It will count especially because we don't have any backers. Pak has the three As (Allah, America and Army) while we have only two(Allah and Army).

Hopefully Allah will make his choice very soon to protect us and end the Napaks in Pak.

For only he can ensure no more 26 11 happens. We can just try.

Litte wars in Big India

2009-02-24T21:24:00.000-08:00

I dunno what title to give this entry. But i came across a lot of things yesterday that i dunno what to blog about.

Firstly, I had a feeling that the Indian N-deal though was diplomatically a good was not for serving the energy need of India. I personally feel that India is not investing enough in renewable energy sources related research and also in nuclear energy.

A recent report of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) was not good news for Dept of Atomic Energy . I very much agree with the view that India is not investing enough Nuclear research, especially in thorium. The thorium research may be in its infancy but still its worth our while with the kinda reserves that exist in India. The news that India has enough uranium material to last 40 years and is not doing enough to tap it came as a complete surprise to me. This made me furious about the nuclear deal too. But on second thought, well its was good idea that we got the nuclear embargo removed when we could. I personally think that it was only becuase George Bush was U S persident that we could do it. Only thing I am sad is that we have been dragged into a Test Ban via the back door and our diplomats did not do enough to protect us. China too played a spoil sport in the NSG.

Anyway leaving the nuclear deal apart, the refering of Supreme court the negative vote idea to a constitutional bench is a welcome move. But i am not sure if it will really pass through their review. Our constitution allows us to choose our representative, by that it does not allow us to say "i don't want these guys, get me somebody else" . It just allows us to choose from what we have. In one sentence, "We can choose but not demand". But our constitution was written 60 years back. When it was written the authors may not have expected so much of crime and wrong doing in the system and people in the system. So if an amendment is required that should be done. But will out politicians do that? I mean cut their own hand? I really don't expect them to do so.

The other news is about the oscar awards, today i read an article in Times of India page 14 about a girl called Preeti . She is in the sex trade in one of the red light areas of Calcutta.I don't think she is a major. But what's so special about her is that she was on the oscar stage 4 years back kissing an Oscar statuette . Today she is a sex worker. She was part of a documentary that portrayed kids born in brothels. This girl has come all the way from the Oscar stage to the shabby bedroom of a brothel in 4 years. she is a victim by birth. How many more children will this country loose this way ? How many of its future be crucified thus and by other means? Another thought that came to my mind was what about the kids in Slum Dog Millionaire and Smile Pinki.

Will they also be forgotten tomorrow and left to live their low life or will there be any help? I heard the director of Slum Dog is going to gift houses to the main child casts and parents of other kids are crying foul. Just one suggestion for the director/producer. May be he could spend money on these kids education till they reach 10th. I am sure it wont cost him more money than he makes from one/two theaters showing this movie. Congress claim of fame w.r.t to slum dog millionaire is cheap dirty trick. Congress says India have improved under UPA. If they are claiming the success of the movie they should accept also the failure of having so much slums in this country and the bureaucratic-political nexus of regularising slums from where some of the greatest dons and terrorists of this country have come.

Talking about terrorism , Ajmal Qasab was to be booked chargesheeted in court today. Thats a welcome, but I don't understand why this process takes so much time. ChargeSheet took 3 months, first hearing will take 3 years, completion will take 30 years and appeal and counter appeal, appeal for Presidantial pardon and finally he will die a natural death. Well spent the exchequers money. Feed a terrorist for best of his life, took him for weekly drives with police cover, No work for rest of the life. He should be saying when he dies "God make me a terrorist if i have one more life, and gimme an opprtunity to attack India, I will give you 100 goats as sacrifice". May be God and his angels have also started taking bribes!

P Chidambaram says we will replicate U S A's tough anti-terror laws. Why replicate, ask them for a photo copy. I am sure they won't ask you for any royalty. Analyst Ashley Tellis told U. S. Congress , i heard, that, "India has become the sponge that protects us all". Well, India is doing a great service to the whole world. Some thing to add to the "Great India" Fwd mail.

Mumbai and India at Oscars, what change and hope?

2009-02-24T00:29:00.000-08:00

Slum Dog Millionaire and Smile Pinki won. Good news, in fact great news. Rahman and Pookutty has made us proud. I am really happy that they won.

But i would like to join the critics voice about calling Slum Dof Millionaire and Smile Pinki Indian movies. They are British and American. Lets please not call them Indian. They are Indian inspired.

This is a blog that i came across called tao-of-truth. Also see this rediff post. You must see te reader comments there. I don't subscribe to such extreme views. But I still feel that down trodden, poverty stricken and dirty third world countries and their incomprehensible to west rituals and practises appeals to them. A movie on the rising India or China or the changes happening here would not make such a great impact.

I am also really sad that the documentary Smile Pinki has not got as much coverage in India as much as it deserved. This documentary has clearly been over shadowed by Slum Dog. I personally believe Smile Pinki carries a very important message. Also, because of the star cast and glamour of Slum Dog it failed be highlighted. But I think, Smile Train charity and Dr. M C Modi are doing a great service to the society. We need to support them. I found that the American media was more exited about Smile Pinki than the Indian Media. There were some beautiful articles from New York Times and CNN.

The plans of the director Megan of showing it in India and other countries including to social meetings deserves welcome and thanks.

I read a rediff post on Smile Pinki and half the conversation was about Slum dog Millionaire. Some people were happy some angry. Angry of course about Smile Pinki not getting enough recognition. There was even an angry post that called Slum Dog artificial and Smile Pinki real.

One Film critic in Times when on to call Slum Dog an Instant Coffee. I dunno whether I agree with that or not as I have not seen the movie. But I am happy that many Indians won this year at the Oscar ceremony.

Also i would love to echo one thing that somebody posted in the rediff article. Rahman is already a magician, there is no need of a certificate called Oscar for him. But still its really great that Rahman is now seen and heard across the world.

I dunno whether world deserves Rahman but Rahman sure deserves all the audiance we can find in the world.

Slum Dog hoopla has taken off the little bit of publicity that Smile Pinki could have got. I hope that it really makes up by initiating some kinda change or at least a thought process to the life in Mumbai and its slums.

I read somebody's Post saying that we the world love to see pain, loss and dirt from a safe distance. He gave the example of Titanic, Life is Beautiful and Slum Dog winning Oscars. I wonder if a movie on Mumbai 26 11 2008 is on the anvil some where in the world.

Mumbai 26 11 2008, a day never to forget. 10 Terrorists, international coordination, local support spread death among common man and woman. The System still remains unmoved. Without even a blink, without any bleed or even a tear drop. We the people, staring at the open sky and deep, wonder if anything will change.

Don't wait for the change, be the Change. Mumbai 26 November 2008. A day not to forget.

Mumbai Carnage: Pakistan's version

2009-02-17T00:22:00.000-08:00

Pakistan has officially responded to 26 11 terror attacks in Mumbai. Well, initially i thought Pakistan's eyes have opened for the good. But still decided to wait rather than to blog saying so. Well, if look deep it is clear that Pakistan has other intents in this report.

One thing that is good, Pakistan has accepted that the main perpetrators where from its soil. But it has clubbed many other countries. I am not really sure how many may be really involved or involved to a non discard able level. Pakistan by responding to 26 11 in the way it has done has successfully done two things. One it has helped itself out from reacting to the overall terrorism problem that is coming out of its soil immediately and secondly can pressurizes US and rest of West for giving them more time and tell the same to India.

India, here will be obliged to give Pakistan more time. If not out diplomatic credibility will be at stake. Also, Pakistan wants to ensure that India takes as much time as possible in responding to the questions it has presented in the reply. Its noted in the media that Pakistan has officially put forward 30 questions. Of which, one even comprises of something related to Hemant Kakare as per media reports. Also Pakistan has candidly linked the Samjhauta Express blast to this issue. Hence complicating the investigation process. The advantage they can take out of it quite good in number. They can send India and the world on a wild goose chase. They can pacify their own ppl with some of these bits and most importantly they can put India into a diplomatic balancing act. Such an accusation cannot be out and out denied by India, especially without doing an Investigation. One of the accused in that case turns out to be an Army Officer. If India, goes out on a immediate denial our credibility and stand will be questioned.

Many ppl say that Richard Hoolbroke has breathed down the throat of Pakistan, which i personally feel is absurd. This dossier is a punctilio in that respect. By this reply and arrests being timed to his visit they have ensured that he is not given the opportunity to breath down their throat. Also, now they have something to show as "Action taken" and ask him to convince Barrack Obama. By responding, they just improved their bargaining power with Hoolbrooke. Pakistan is well know to time things.

There was a comment of de hyphening India and Pakistan. As far as United States of America is concerned that is impossible as far as the terror and Kashmir issues are not solved. They have got themselves so involved that Pakistan will not let USA go without getting what they need. In India, the de hyphening has been hailed. But i believe that its not of any importance to us. It is actually a requirement of the US to de hyphen.

There was an interesting report on the online media, about Chinese involvement in these affairs. I find it interesting that non of the Taliban or other militant groups are talking about the Uighur movement in China. The article went on to say that China had made a deal with Taliban around 9 11 about this. Also the Chinese support for Pakistani Nuclear program is not a secret. The article also said that a director of one of USA's many defense & intelligence units (should i call companies) had filed an official report to the senate which said that China is involved in supporting these groups including finances and in turn they are staying away from Uighur movement and also to keep pinching India. I won't guarantee credibility of this report but Chinese are intelligent people and good learners.

They should have an action plan to counter them also after achieving all this feats they want of these groups. Or else they will be going the way of USA. Taliban was worm that was turned into a giant by the US.

But the sad fact is that, India is suffering all these for no faults of its own. Yes, there is one fault. We are not ready to fight back. Irrespective of it being the West or China or terror attacks we always say "Yes Sir". Times for questions and answers is over. Its time for decisions.

BTW, an increase in defense allocation by the Vote on Account by Pranab Mukharjee is a welcome fact. Hopefully it is utilized for the right purposes, or else it a part of it would be used to buy more coffins. Our Army boys are every ready to give their life . But we are not ready to see them die.

26 11 2008. MUMBAI. NEVER TO FORGET.

Valetine's Day Carnege

2009-02-14T09:41:00.000-08:00

This is totally preposterous. The Valentine's Day hooligans assaulted siblings in Ujjain, I mean a brother and sister mistaking them to be a couple. This should be the low point of all. These Bajrang Dal, Siv Sainiks and Ram Sene activists now are defining every relationship between a boy and a girl to have a physical angle. They are now in a much worse position and spreading a much worse culture of non-tolerance, hooliganism and imposition of ideology than the so called "free world, open culture , capitalist" west. I would any time take that west than this y kind of culture.

Manhandling a brother and sister should be the limit of all. That is one of the most sacred, best relationships of all i personally believe. But irrespective of what i do and don't believe this has come to a flash point where these Right Wing activists have to be told where the limits are. Though i agree that physical relationships are not advised before marriage between couples it wrong to enforce it on them and have a blanket ban or fatwa on it. They are grown ups, they can make choices. This is terrible and these kind of hooliganism must be disowned by one and all.

In a related issue, i just heard that some Indian court declared a kiss shared between a married couple is not obscene. I think its time for our judiciary to look up the meaning of two words "obscene " and "scene". Any particular event that happens and can be viewed is scene and an indecent scene is obscene. It does not involve the history of characters in that scene. If two ppl kiss at the railway station it has to be either obscene or not obscene, it defies logic on what the two ppls history is. It completely out of context.

Coming to one of the scenes that i put up in one of the previous entries(where a father is asked by his kids what a couple is doing when the kids see them kissing). Do u expect the father to find out from the couple if they are married or not and tell the kids they are married so it is allowed? Damn! I still feel that, display of affections should not be under a blanket ban, but still could be banned from common places. Lets say, why the court should care if somebody kisses inside a pub? Lets at the same time insist that they keep off from displaying such emotions in other places. (Anyway, that kind of a thing is going to be very difficult to be implemented, also we know the cops, they will use it as a weapon to extract money out of couples).

All i am saying is that, couples need to stay away from displaying affection publicly(by self decision) and understand their social responsibility(nobody is banning a hug or holding hands, are we?), at the same time these right wing activists (may i politely accord them the status of hooligans) should stay away from these kind of uncivilized activities. I sometimes feel, its their activities that has given much publicity to this valentine's day, there are many families in India that celebrates Mother's Day, Father's Day etc, but they didn't acquire this kinda stardom. I feel this could be nexus between the corporates and these guys too. The corporates may even be paying these guys so as to get more media time and publicity, and we all know the great Indian media. They will show live some somebody rape a girl than call the cops and help her out. They may even ask her at the end "Abhi aap kaise mehsoos kar rahi hai? Abhi aap ka man mein kya lag raha hai?". lol

Anyway, should celebrate or not the valentine's day is your personal choice. Its better to keep some public standards while celebrating (considering social responsibility and not fearing the hooligans). Right Wing activists must understand the Right to life of everybody else, they too have a right to protest, but should choose more civilized means.

I am really sad that the martyrs gave their life for this India. Both these "western culture" lovers and the right wing activists need to understand "we are all gonna live together and they can do nothing about it". Its more importantly, our duty to these martyrs to make this India better.

26 11 2008, Mumbai terror attacks. Lets not forget them. Not just to respect them but to make our India a much better place. TO LOVE AND TO BE LOVED.

Mumbai 26 11 attacks , hot again

2009-02-11T05:14:00.000-08:00

After a lull on issues related to Mumbai's 26 11 terror atttacks, the issue is being revisited by the media, government, Pakistan and international community. Ajmal Qasab is in the hit list of ISI. The Indian media is spreading this information, we don't know for sure wether it is true or not. They are also saying that 5 countries (including Israel ) are gearing up for requesting India to extradite Qasab. I feel that we should get all information possible from Qasab and extradite him. Why? Very simple, We cannot kill him, our judiciary takes more than 10 years to come to verdict on issues that are completely planned, executed and investigated inside India. So I feel by the time we here of a verdict in this case Qasab would be dead by 100 years.

Also, if we extradite him it saves exchequers money, we can spend it on development rather than on some terrorist. And of course, countries like Israel wont let him die an easy death, that may give some peace to at least some Indians.

More importantly, Qasab can give us only limited information. He is just the foot soldier. He may help us identify the training procedures, strategies, planning, middle men and who are the main preachers. But he won't be able to go beyond that point.

Narendra Modi has said that 26 11 terror attacks could not have happened without internal help. I not happy with him saying that so openly, but i agree with him that we need to investigate that angle. He is correct, there must have been some amount of local support.
The home minister asked Modi in an interview whether he is speaking to the Pakistanis. I didn't expect P C to make such a low level comment (what did i think? he too is a politician).

Finally, i read a report on rediff that the situation in swat valley is deteriorating than 1979 level. Well, at least now will the eyes of Pakistan open? God only knows!

Hey off this track, there is a pink chaddi campaign against the Ram Sene guyz. I personally think thats a good Idea. Also, he has said he will send a return saree to every body who sends a chaddi (i was just thinking , at least he has some civilized ideas). More importantly, he has lost the final amount of space that i would have afforded him by his valentine's day comment. He has said he is gonna marry off the couples he finds.

Damn, consider this. I go to a hotel, find it full except for a table where only one seat has been occupied by a young girl. I take the seat opposite to her, bang comes the Ram Sene guys. They make me marry a girl just bcz i was sitting next to her, whose even name i don't know. Damn! I will have "upwas" on February 14th.

26/11/2008, Hope it never repeats.

the system

2009-02-08T21:56:00.000-08:00

I wanted to blog on Saturday or Sunday but it turned out to be emotionally a roller coaster ride for me. Not anything personal, but in the center of all of this was our great Indian Police force. Well, on last Thursday a police guy came home for my police verification w.r.t my passport, its just over an year since i had moved to my new home so i don't personally know many people in my society. So this guy came and wanted two witnesses and i had none except for the next house boy's phone number. After checking all the genuineness of my living there this guy helped me out by coming up with one more guy's address residing in my society. I was really happy that our system is growing for the better. When this guy was about to leave i gave him 100 Rs. He didn't ask me for any money. Actually he had come earlier , found the door locked and then called me before coming and all so i thought he deserved it.

Then in the evening i went to the police station at Mulund (E), navghar road. There was this guy, i think a sub inspector (he had two stars on his shoulder pad) by he name Ajith Jadhav. He said, since i have lost my license i had to get an affidavit from a notary to get an FIR registered. Then he said , don't worry register and then that he had only one form left of the FIR form, so please get a copy from the xerox shop outside. Then he said, anyway you are getting one for yourself get me 20 copies sot hat he can use it for some more ppl and does not have to sent everybody. I thought its ok. That's a service and i was ready to do it. When i was just about to leave, he said i don't have white paper also so he gave me printer quality A4 size paper and asked me to get a rim(500 page pack) for the station. I ddn't understand much of the conversation since i am not that good with Marathi. I was thinking that he wanted me to get 10 or 25 A4 papers.

My cousin who was with me, explained this to me as soon as we were out of the station and i was furious. I already have told you guys, I don't mind giving money to the cops(not to any other of govt staff), because these guys are putting there life on the line when occasion calls for it and they are not paid enough for it. My anger was that, for an FIR he is not doing antng other than write on his book, So why take money for that. Also if he want's money let him ask me why does he have to make me run around the suburb.

I told my cousin lets call ACP's office and report this. He said to let it go, and all the normal stuff like if we wanna get this done we need to get him those and all. I was still furious i told him lets get some 10 or 25 papers and tell him to take that. We couldn't find a stationary and after an hour we found one. We bought the 100 page rim for 30 bugs and when we went back to the station this guy was busy so we passed all this stuff to the havaldar who immediately put it on the cupboard and prepared the FIR. Then when he went to this Sub Insp. He immediately asked whether we bought the stationary, havaldar replied in affirmative and our job was done.

I was still fuming out there.

Next day morning i had to report to the same station for police verification of my passport. I reached there by 9.45, i was the first bakra of the day. This verifier (dunno his name, think smtg like bushan or smtng... a dark guy around 40+ with specks). Anyway this guy told me that , as i had kept my gas bill as one of the address proof, that is not acceptable. I had to give him my telephone or electricity bill (i don't have telephone at home and we just bought the flat over an year and we got inducted to the society just over a 3 months, so electricity bill still comes in the name of the person who sold us the flat). This guy went on to say that, if i don't have any of these two my job can't be done also that they don't even accept driving license and PAN card (its another matter that i didn't have both). I almost had a heart attack. I was cursing myself for going there all alone and not taking any elder with me in my mind and was begging him to help me out. Damn. This guy suddenly said, Form 16 can do the trick. I told him Form 16 does not have home address. He said that's OK! Damn i got a second shock. Police don't accept PAN Card but they accept Form 16. He sent me home to get the same.

When i returned there were 5 10 ppl waiting for verification. When my turn came, this guy came out of the room, took me out of the station and told me he has to get it signed from him boss and that "karcha pani karna padega". I got the message clear and i said OK. Last three years due to different reasons i was not able to aplly for my passport. Now i didn't want to loose out because of this guy. Now he took me in, there was one more person ahead of me, cleared that guy and when i went in he ddnt take the second copy of Form 16 till i told him that. He just said "aap ka kam hojayga" and that the previous guy was the son of a person working in Forensic Lab still he could not help him since that guy didn't have any papers. Anyway, he then told me, the boss is not here and that he won't keep me waiting so asked how much i can give him. I said 300, He bluntly said no. He said i have to give the boss smtng, then i want smtng for myself , so gimme 500. I begged him but no avail. Then i paid 500.

Saturday this guy called me and said that somebody had come to the station when he was not here and had asked him to call back. He thought it was me. I said No. then he said, don't worry about your passport. "Ap ka kaam hogya" and that he was sending it today. I was telling in my mind.. (i am law abiding citizen, never broken the law, never arrested, never got into any illegal and immoral activity, paid my taxes, never even spits on road or platforn, never travels without a ticket,helps the elderly and hadicapped when ever i can and I have to go through this). The dedication he showed when he got 500 bucks never seems to come for the nation or his duty. Also this police verification is a mere formality. We should some how avoid the cops coming in contact with the applicant. Address verification should be done by passport authority it self. We also should have a HOLMES like software where we can verify if a person has criminal records or not.

I dunno, our system is not complety bad, but it is not evolving with time. Also the Human Resources in our system are not taken care of properly. We need to bring a change not in the system but in how the system serves. Atleast, in the case of police related activities that's true. Also we have to ensure that cops are not over worked unnecessarily.

I am not angry at any of these guys. I am angry at the procedures that are making them do this.

I have no grudges towards them, because of their colleges who fought so that i could see another sunrise, because of many other colleagues who will fight for me to see another sunrise.

My 500 rupees is not even equal to the mud when it is compared to that.

Still we need to root out bribery. We need to bring a change.

Other Carnages(II)

2009-02-04T21:39:00.001-08:00

I was just trying to get this blog indexed by google. So that i can reach out to more people. Right now i am not sure even if one person is reading my blog. Sometimes i feel like quitting. Whats this thing! Will post every week funda? who cares? Still i have a glimmer of hope. Some day somebody will read. He/She will take an inspiration, join me in my task and my dream for a change.

Anyway, leaving all those melodramatic stuff out, I found something that really saddened me. I tried googling " mumbai attack 26/11" and found many blogs. But most we posted on 27/11, 28/11 or within a month or so. Not a single blog or post since the dawn of 2009. Its not that nobody blogged (sure, i did) its just that indexing was not good enough. I felt very bad. One of the rare occasions where we see the insensitivity of technology. Some ways thats good some ways that 's bad. But still my resolve to keep trying is strong.

Anyway, that's not the issue. We have some important ones to discuss. Firstly, i just read an article from 'Time' that says that Pakistan is gonna present the report on its investigation on 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks within a week or so. It also says that Pakistan may try to link things to Bangladesh. For once i saw 'Time' take side with what we Indians have been saying for a long time. Pakistan must accept first of all that it is facing a major crisis.

Other than whats happening with the 26/11 investigations on the military front a top secret operation of Indian Navy has hit the media. An Indian submarine trailing two advanced Chinese ships. Its really bad that these things are comming out in open. The Navy needs to be more careful in the future. There is nothing wrong in these operations. Its always good to be prepared. Especially with the kind of neighbours we have.

A. K. Antony said recently that we need to cut the red tape. Well Mr. Antony, you are the defence minister. Why don't you try doing something about it. Its been some time since the congress is in power, we have Rahul Gandhi's (our savior or 'the one' or shall i call him 'Neo') famous 'lal batti' speech and lot of minsiters talking abt this crap. To all these guyz, Don't talk just do your job. Atleast one thing i am satisfied about Antony is that his hands have been clean compared to George Fernades or Mr Antony's collegues.

Also L. K. Advani is trying to voo the next generation online. I feel sad for this guy. All this campaign is like old wine in new bottle. Only differnce is that wine gets better as it gets old but indian politics gets rotten.

Ram Sene guyz need to be punished for what they have done at Mangalore. Who the hell are they to take the law into their own hands. But at the same time all the news channels and other hunky dory activists also need to reign themselves in. The hate propoganda is not just spread by Ram Sena, VHP, and others. Its done by these guyz also. Surprised, don't be. Look at the jurnos, they all wanna sent out a message that they are modern, everything Indian is terrible for them. Eg: Sagarika ghose wearing a beautiful saree chastisized The Ram Sene leader. But she is ashamed of wearing a bindi with her saree. Half the anchors don't wear that. Any channel. There are channels that ask its anchors not to wear one lest they loose viewers of other religions.

These activists and freedom speakers , they feel that they should be allowed to even walk naked and do what ever happens in the west . They feel anything in the west is mordern. They call these guys intolerent. Are they also not being intolerent? Lets take the example of kissing in public. I am not against kissing in public.

I have the right to show affection(even in public). But occasion and place also matters. Think of this situation , a dad is playing with his daughter and son of 5 and 7 lets say on the beach. A couple starts making out. The kids ask dad what they are doing. Is he gonna tell them that they are making out?

I feel that everything within limits is ok. I have seen for myself what happens in these pubs. It does not call for this kind of an attack. If somebody finds something illegal we have the cops. Lets call them. Not beat these people up.

Damn, i was just gonna write one para on this topic but it turned out to be huge. Anyway, these two groups need to find a common ground. We need to adjust and accomdate both. Both need to learn the Indian value of tolerence. Lets take whats good in west and leave out the bad. Indian has been a good society, one that learned and evovled with time.

Our martyrs did not lay down their lives for us to fight like this.

Alteast for the sake of them. Lets stop fighting.

26/11/2008 mumbai, i won't forget. Lets Not!

another carnage

2009-02-03T02:06:00.000-08:00

Well guyz, even though mumbai carnage on 26 november 2008 has not left our minds there are other carnage s happening. Some even more serious. Though not as bloody or physically painful as this one.

Well i am talking about our election commision. I was thinking till a few days back that Election Commision is independent of the political Government. Its sad to note that this is not so. Congress is well know for corruption and is a suspect in this case too. I sometimes to be frank feel that the congress is more corrupt than the communists and the BJP though both of them have their own vices.

I just went did a history check on Cheif Election Commissioner Gopalswami and Election Commisioner Navin Chawla. To be frank Navin Chawla has a history of lets say at least 'not sticking to the ethics of a servent of citizens'. He has been involved in an issue with regard to the Lt Governor of Delhi 's office. Also chawla has been know to have secured funds for some jaipur based trust from congress MPs.

I personally feel that the second accusation should not be a sole reason for accusing somebody of malpractise. But the first accusation is of concern. Like the appointment of high court judges and their removal ECs should be independent of wimps and fantasies of political parties. Their appoinment and removal should be detached from the political fraternity or should be made that only one section of that fraternity should not be the decision maker. As previously said extending the policy for appointment and removal of judges in higher levels of courts to the election commissioners would be appropriate.

Also any boss should have the right to sou moto investigate his subordinates and colleagues. If u call somebody CEC and others EC and give this guy some powers, these powers are to ensure order in the system. When he has to duty to run the system he should have also the right to change the system or atlest recomend changes to the system(including the resources).

I still don't feel like agreeing with Gopalswami's version of why he reported so late. Also I don't feel that CECs recommendation should be binding in all cicumstances . Not just the CEC but also in case of judges and MPs i feel the same. But it seems that prima facie there is a strong case against Navin Chalwa especially on the allegation of leaking information to congress.

Anyway its just that every day there are carnages happening in this country and not all are a physical and violent as 26/11 but is equally important.

26/11/2008 LETS NOT FORGET

26/11/20008, a day to rember for Mumbai and for India

2009-01-25T08:22:00.000-08:00

Well, here comes the next weekend, at the blink of an eye.

But this was a week of action. There is a huge fight over who should get which award for the 26/11 martyrs. Everybody has a take on it. Even me. But i don't want to put my thoughts here, Its too controversial a topic.

Anyway, we have other stuff... like what Narendra Modi said about Qasab's confession. Well let me say this guyz. He is right , our law or most laws won't accept Qasab's confession as sole evidence of Pakistan's involvement. But i am totally furious at him for saying that so publicly. Pakistan got a new wedge for its diplomatic hammer. Anyway , as expected the largest pseudo-secular party in the world flayed his comments as if they really gave a damn about it or as if they never say things like this( U guyz got whom i meant rite? of course, its the Congress). Anyway, They have said that what if USA or Pak asks us about this point. Well if they have not been able to think of an answer let me suggest one, tell them

"We will send our army to get the evidence to ratify his statement." lol

Well am not kidding. Try this, if we make such a statement privately to any nation they are going to stop using that as a diplomatic tool . But why, the congress will give them some concessions rather and take some kick backs. lol

Any hey, did u guyz here this. Sanjay Dutt is the next film start to become an MP. He has openly said that he won't quit movies for being MP and every body is ok with it. ( I thought office of Profit was not allowed for an MP?). Damn. and chi chi. am not saying chi chi i mean Govinda. He is still acting and acting as MP too. I think Virar ppl will agree with me a lot rite?

Anyway the govt has changed its policy on NSG and allowed to use private airlines in case of emergency. Thats good news. But don't be two happy. Mumbai's NSG unit may be be stationed in Kalyan. Well i think then the delhi guys would reach earlier that the kalyan guys rite? Ya literally. By road its a 2 hour drive to CST on a clear road. Mumbai traffic make that 5 hours. If they are gonna come by local train. 1.5 hours. But they have to get to the kalyan station, chartered train has to boarded and loaded. BTW, no airplanes are possible as kalyan does not have a airport. And India as far as i know does not have a copter that can carry at least a 100 guyz together. If there is, thats kewl, but will it be stationed in kalyan too or will it come from West Bengal? May be Mizoram.

Anyways guyz, I am gonna write to the cambridge and oxford guyz that in their dictionary the can suggest Indian as a synonym for screwed in their next dictionary release. What say?

Hey i almost forgot, Happy Republic day(though i hate the guyz who wrote our constitution and those guys who are editing it).

Still its great to be an Indian.

JAI HIND . and thanx to all the martyrs( not just 26/11) for they bought me this day with their blood.

I WILL NEVER FORGET.

DON' FORGET.

David Milliband, Rahul Gandhi and the govt Band wagon

2009-01-18T06:05:00.000-08:00

So, another week comes to an end. Its being more and more clear that for victims of any terror attacks that has happened in India the common man victim and his the martyrs have all got just injustice and few bucks. Don't mistake my calling the cash award bucks, Its nothing more and many a times it never comes out of paper also. Thats Rising India for you.

Anyway the most appalling event was the visit and comments of David Milliband. Don't know who he is is? Well i won't like to remember him anymore so u can look up in google search. lol . I for once agree with BJP , Milliband's one comment has turned out to be a diplomatic disaster. That Pakistan should try the perpetrators of 26/11/2008 Mumbai terror attacks. Hows that fair. BJP aptly quoted the British demand for two lybian terrorists when an airplane was blasted in mid-air. So why a different policy for India. Also, will U K never again make such a demand?

The Indian government's inability to make a protest or ensure that he withdraws his comments(as if one could) i feel is a diplomatic disaster. Why? simple. If any other diplomat from any other country makes such a comment u can't object. Now its free for anybody to make such a statement. We can't show double standards in this aspect. Rahul Gandhi should not have taken him to the village but to a Diplomatics School as he too anyways need some lessons. Rahul Gandhi should be out of his mind to call a village and its life style as the real India.

If Mr. Gandhi (or should i call master Gandhi) has not yet noticed. Its we who travel by train and bus everyday hanging on windows. They working over 12 hours a day with a megre pay without any laws to ensure that we get a part of the profits that we make for the company and also no laws to protect us from sudden pink slips and unnatural salary break up who are the real India. We push the economy. We the middle class never cry, never take out a march past, never talk about who took how much bribe, don't whine while standing in lines for hours and hours . We are the Real India. I won't say the complete India but we are the reality of today and tommorow. Why Mr. Gandhi and his colleagues(should i say co-thieves), travel in his own words the Lal Batti , we are dying to make India resounding and in BJP's words "Rising".

But alas, our govt does not even have the backbone tell Mr. Milliband that he is crossing the line. They are concerned only in grooming Rahul Gandhi to be the next PM. In simple words, My Today is a game for his learning. Will he change this country? I dn't expect, I just am hoping. For his tutors can't even look into the eyes of some westerners and Pakistanis.

Learning from the nuclear bomb politics

2009-01-07T01:14:00.000-08:00

Today morning I was reading a really good article on nuclear proliferation and the politics behind it. I find it really important that we introspect into what happend in the 1990's with regard to the nuclear bomb and the politics behind it. If some of you are wondering about what i am taking about then take a look at this article.

For those who don't have the time, in the 1990 it is widely believed in the intelligence circles and to an extent known fact that China tested a nuclear bomb for Pakistan. The shocker is following. The USA knew about it and did nothing in fact, it would be more correct to say that they could not do anything about it other than stopping the aid to Pakistan. The to save face infact even sent a mission led by Gates to Pakistan and India. The Indian government even allowed an extensive tour of the border areas to the defence team of USA. There was a war hysteria between Pakistan and India.

Well, what I am coming to is that. There are two points to note. China does a lot of things that are affecting us behind the scenes. Hope everybody remembers what happened at the Nuclear Suppliers Group. They were against supplying fuel to us when the were testing bombs for Pakistan. We can go to war with Pakistan and China. But we can show our economic muscle to both of them. One harsh but effective step could be to declare a blanket ban on any company trading, manufacturing or registered in Pakistan to trade in India. Every company will be forced to choose between us and them. This will help to cripple the Pakistan economy more and force action. They will be forced to goto China, US and UK for more aid. We can do some diplomatic work with US and UK were as hope that China at some point gets frustrated with Pakistan. To China we can threaten a blanked ban on their products. Its recession time, the anyway make low quality stuff and we are the best upcoming market in the world irrespective of the bad economic situation. We must use it to our advantage especially with the diplomatic experience of our bureaucrats.

But the second point is more important. We should understand the double standards of USA. We should make them feel that we are more important. The will get involved whole heartedly only when they are under danger. We need to understand the cunningness of American bureaucrats and every time they trigger an new line of action we need to look for what they are not saying rather than what they are saying. We also need to pressure them that we are one guy who is less dependent on them than Pakistan and we have good leverage and more number of friends. Russia can play a huge role here especially since they have a few scores to settle with the Americans themselves.

No more of 26/11/2008 should happen in India. The 'Few Good Men' didn't give their lives for that.

Lets be the good guys not the nice guys. Lets talk harsh but lets play fair.

I 'll be back.

The celeb talks

2008-12-25T08:50:00.000-08:00

Hi guyz,

I know i missed this week's Sunday deadline. It was not that i forgot, just that i couldn't find time to take off work. I know, some of you must have been thinking not even 15 mins off?. Well let me say i have been writing this for some time. Only now i could complete.

Let me start of with a few bashing. The Antulay comments was uncalled for, especially at the floor of the Parliament. It has no doubt affected adversely the Indian case on the international level. If he had doubts, he is a minister he could have asked the PM privately for an investigation. Secondly, this is more of a vote bank politics. The good thing about this comment is that now the smaller parties has lost the game to the Congress , BJP and communists. Why? Now every fundamental or close to fundamental Muslim will vote for Congress and the fundamental and close to fundamental Hindu will vote for BJP. The bad thing is about, this has split again the country on communal lines and now this 26/11 Mumbai attacks are turning out to be Hindu Muslim thought process. The govt does not want to loose the next election so they wont strike on Antulay. BJP and communist are not gonna let this go as they want to win more votes.

BTW, I just saw the TIME Magazines most memorable photos of the year and was very sad not to find even one pic of the mumbai attacks. Its a shame that TIME fails to see th pain of Mumbai and the problem of Indians. It would have helped India to convince a greater number of people on the issue.

Anyway let me come to this weeks topic. All the celebs are saying this and that. But the truth is there is no action. Amir khan has said in his blog and in the CNN_IBN interview that the youth of this country should come forward but he does not see himself as a politician. ie. You guyz go ahead and do something. I will come to the talk shows and encourage and there by not lock horns with the politicos. Shah Rukh Khan has also said something similar. I think if Sharukh and Amir had show some example than talk in front of camera in an a/c room it would have helped a lot.

Why blame the actors, where are the corporates? What are they doing. Lot of them said lot of things. Where are they now. They are still bribing the politicos and the bureaucracy.

In short everybody wants a bit of the air time, But nobody wants to do anything. I made a call for a political party in one of my previous blog. I am ready to start/join one. There are one or two parties that have started. One is "Yuva satta". Thats for the youth. what about the older generation? and the kiddos? Another is PPI. not People's party of India" but "Professionals Party of India". Now let me be clear. We need an all inclusive party A party that is secular by not taking about religion. A party that does not give a dam about creed, sex profession or age.

I posted on Mulund(E) community that we should all get together plan a protest and send the message clear to all local parties that they better get their acts together . Number of replies I got, is 7. All were, 49-0s or "tell me the place and time". Damn, Why don't you tell me the place and time mates?

every body is a celeb in his own right and everybody wants his air time. But nobody is ready to come forward and doing the dirty work. Just one message . If not today then tomorrow, if not you then your children have to clean this gutter up. It better we do it before it gets more dirty.

remember what i said in one of my first posts
"Dont Look for the change, Be the change"

Mumbai Carnage(The need for an action plan)

2008-12-14T05:43:00.000-08:00

Its now two weeks and more since the mumbai terror attacks. The protesters have gone back to their life. Politicians have gone back to the fights. Media has gone back to chasing stars and other news. The editorials are still pouring in. But its official. We are back to status quo. I am sure by now, the change ain't coming this time.

I am making this post on the back drop of the 13 December 2001 parliament attack anniversary and the visit of Prime Minister Gordon Brown to the subcontinent. The former event, i mean the anniversary has turned out to be another shame for us. There were only 12 of our elected representatives yesterday to pay homage to the martyrs. It was like the senior leaders of the major parties attending. It was like, they were there as representatives of these parties. I was just thinking, the cops should have just tried to save the senior leaders saying, saving them is equivalent to saving all and exposing them to the terrorists of 13/12 . The political game has not yet reached an end and hence Afzal Guru is still awaiting to know if he is gonna be hanged or not.

The British and Americans are 10 times better than us, look at prime minister Brown. He has made quite an achievement in Pakistan today including a 6 million pound deal of support to pakis (I am sure the behind door deal is, don't let that happen in Britan what happened in Mumbai and u can have that 6 million).

Anyway neither this post nor this blog is about bashing. This week i wanna talk about taking on terrorism. We are always asking Pakistan to do this, to do that and crying around saying they are doing nothing. But what are we doing about terrorism thats brewing in India. Nothing. The first thing the Indian govt needs to do is that we clean out the in house terrorists (though it includes the politicos..lets exclude the for the time being... lol).

Let the govt come out with an action plan saying that n such and such time limit we would clean out terrorism in India. Let the say that in 6 months we are focusing on this part of the problem and then the next six on another part and so on. For this the first thing the govt need to do is to identify the issues pertaining this issue. As a common citizen these are some possible measure that the govt can take.

Make the eastern borders(incl Nepal) impregnable. The start ground action. Lets say they decide to start with NE terror groups including assam. Let the army be given the task to take them out. Simultaneously extend Operation Sadhbavna( the army's people relation program) that has been very successful in Kashmir to this part. Then we can force the hand of Myanmar junta to allow us to join them and conduct operations on their land with their army on their western borders where these terror groups have training camps.

Once cleaned out, focus on the naxals. The prime minister himself has said the Naxals are the primary concern for India. So lets take them out. Break their corridor, make inroads and be ruthless. Educate ppl to not support them, arm ppl if required and let army control those areas where the local administrations(incl police) are finding difficult to reach).

Then turn the attention to the sleeper cells in India. Don't destroy them but penetrate them. Identify the international links. For this the govt will have to do a lot in taking into confidence the Muslim community. It is near impossible unless we have somebody from that community in our side. There are hundreds of the patriotic and many will come forward if we show respect and confidence in them.

Only after clean the house can you think about taking on outsiders. These attacks are going to happen as long as there is local support and these attacks can't be done so frequently by just outsiders. If we don't take care of insiders before going out after the outsiders we will lose the battle from inside. Hopefully the Indian leadership has some thoughts in this line.

I will be back next week, with new topic. Don't Forget, 26/11/2008, Mumbai. 178 people lost their lives, how many more will lose? Time will answer.

Mumbai Carnage (Defining a new political order)

2008-12-05T23:19:00.000-08:00

So, the mumbai investigation has started going murky with all the allegations and counter allegations. Wat else did u expect? Congress fought over a week to decide the new CM. Now its a open revolt. The new CM's first words "There was not pressure on MLAs to support me".... i was just for a second expecting him to rather say "Mumbai has been a lesson, we will not make anymore mistakes". Foolish me!Shiv Sena has asked for presidents rule in Maharashtra, why not . The president is a maharashtrian. So they are not actually going away from mumbai for marathi policy. Very well.

Anyways no bashing and no blaming them. They are trying to survive and we are too. But our survival is different. We are trying to survive as a nation. So Let me get to the topic of this Post. A New Political Order. We all by now are clear that the current political order ( i mean all the parties together) cannot or more correctly 'will not' save us. We are gonna fend for ourself. I want every citizen to consider the anger on this fraternity we have had for years and consider that Mumbai 26/11/2008 is just an immediate cause for the action. And wats the action?? I say lets start a political party.

OUR NEW PARTY

By now 1/3rd of the readers have closed this browser, 1/3rd is lauging and the other 1/3rd is shaking their head(either with support or thinking 'this will never work'). Anyway, For all these groups let me say. We can work and more importantly we have a common enemy. The political order. We must work together.

Why do we need a political party? You know the behavior of a lion. It will toil or fight only if it is challenged in its pride land. Our politicians are the same. There is not doubt that they are capable. The problem is that they are not channelized. So if we can be successful party either we can put these guys out and make a change or give them a strong run for their money and make them really work some good for the people. Anyhow it will be in the interest of the people.

What should the party do? There are a few immediate things that the party should do. First, remove the caste based partisan system in the Indian govt system.As long as it is there the politicians are gonna go back to the vote bank politics, Second, right to call back elected representatives.

Third, separate security from law and order and make it a subject matter of the union while maintaining law and order as subject of state. Fourth, have a regulatory authority for agriculture and agricultural products like the TRAI or RBI for telecom and finance. A politics independent authority that can take issued based decisions when it comes to agriculture.

Finally, a unified controller for security and intelligence forces. Who will have rights to ask questions and give orders to all internal security forces and civilian intelligence agencies. RAW and The Defense Forces must be kept out of their command but should be asked to communicate with any and every other organization through this authority, This will help in keeping track of information passed, action taken and pinning responsibility.

Many will look at the party idea sceptically, but it can work. If every middle class family in this country comes out to donate 50/- to this organization we can fight any party head on and the corporate houses will then be forced to back it.

But the problem is we should not allow many parties to crop up. It will again fracture and join with the political order. There should be only one party.

And one important thing, in India for a party to be acceptable across the nation it should have a sensational issue backing it. eg:, Congress uses the name of the congress party that was dismantled after the independence movement. It therefore enjoys the support for the original congress especially since its initial members were mostly members of the original one. Then we have the BJP which came to the fore after the Babri Masjid issue(today is its anniversary, and i am sad of the pain that has been inflicted on my Muslim brethren irrespective of whether ram was born there or not. If Ram was alive, he would have happily had a mosque in turn for the peace that would have prevailed in this country.)

These are the only two parties that we can call national others are just there in pockets. Th mumbai is one that is sensational and one that all people are hurt about. This can unite and garner support.

Finally, everybody says "i am in, tell me the time and place". Don't say that. You say the time and place. Don't look for the change, Be the Change.

I tried to start a small rally in my locality by posting in its orkut community. I got three responses in three days. No more replies. How many more such assaults can we forgive and forget. I mailed about this blog to more than 100 ppl. I am sure not more than 30 have read it. Why look at friends, I have around 15 cousins, only one replied, I have not been able to talk about the situation to more than two. This is first time in my life i am being proactive for my nation. For the first time i am resolved.

I DON'T WANT MY CHANGE, I WILL BE MY CHANGE.

with words of Robert Frost, the most suited for this situation let me leave you . I will be back at least on next Sunday if no sooner.

"Woods are Lovely Dark and Deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep "

(I have had some good responses also, some have requested for specific topics. Will be writing on them very soon)
(Plz forgive my mistakes with spelling and grammar, was never good with them)

Mumbai Carnage (Part 2)

2008-12-02T03:29:00.000-08:00

Well Well, am back, a little bit cooler after all that politico and media bashing. Let me not get into that anymore though kerala CM and other politicos deserve some more. Straight to the point.... Where do we go from here? What do we do now on?

We all have been crying from last Thursday night against the politicos. Will change of heads be enough? What policy changes do we expect? Which party is gonna help us out of this? Do we as citizens have a role to play? What abt the media? and most importantly... are u ready to sacrifice some freedom for more security. Before i get to these stuff let me put to rest the most hot topic discussed these days every where. "Are we gonna hit Pakistan"?

That is an non existent option for me and i don't think any govt for that reason would be foolish to risk that or for our bureaucrats allow that. Why? simple. We all know there are hundreds of sleeper cells in India maintained by the ISI. Do u think they will sleep when India and Pak are at war... The enemy will bleed us from inside. Also the naxals, the terrorists in the North East and most importantly the chinese who claim Sikkim, Arunachal and wat not will not sit quite.... every damn opponent will try to strengthen their position. We 'll loose the war not from outside But from inside.

Secondly, how long can we sustain a war when the world is at financial crisis? Do u think US will really back us when they want the pak army at the afghan border. Neither is Russia as close as it was to us earlier to help us keep the Chinese out of the chess board. Even if we get a truce with the other terror groups inside India what garuntee that they will honor it? Lets be very clear ...... we are cornered..... We can't go and start hitting around...

So wat do we do now? We need Change.. and not in one front

1) Political - either the mentality of the politicos must change or we the people should push them out. We need rules and regulations for who can be a minister and who cannot (would a 10 std pass be recruited as s/w engg?).. he must be some where close to understanding the system. This is the rite time for a CITIZEN MOVEMENT.

2) Media- They should be more responsible. Follow stuff, not let things slip out of memory..... Media has proved its metal by doing this... Priydarsini Matoo, Nitish Katara cases are apt examples. And must play a constructive role via reports and editorials. Must inspire the citizens.

3) Security forces - Should be better equipped, should create specific forces for specific tasks (no more NSG as black cats), Restructuring of intelligence teams, more importance to ground level intelligence. Better use of Technology ....we have the supposedly 3rd largest pool of professionals and still our armed forces have to shout and signal orders.... We should make better use of softwares and hardwares. If we had used softwares and hardwares that can identify people in rooms from outside the army could have much more easily saved ppl earlier. Or they could have relayed info amng various teams inside the hotel. I sometimes feel that the defense forces of India some how are averse to computers. look at the vacancies for IT/Computer engineers. And lets pay them more money damn it!

4) System - There must be a process in the Indian system. If a intelligence input is made there must be a system to track and update. Not just intelligence, whether it be planning, new projects, initiatives. we need smtng at least like a project traq in Indian governing system

5)Corporates - The Tatas, Birlas and Reliances and the big corporate houses need to stop accusing the govt. They have a role to play here. Why cant we have a system where if a software company gives free software for security or govt the govt not give them tax perks or free land in return... rather than paying real money? Why cant instead of the corporates making donations in cash...donate in kind like a hardware company come up with security devices, textile company with clothing (fcrse let them have their name as a logo...no ads plz... i dnt want my army advertising ).

6) Citizens - We have a a much greater role. We should be ready to give up our freedom for more safety. Ready to be frisked every now and then. Have a social security number. Lets not just demand more but do more. One immediate thing that we need to do is not to vote for wrong guyz. If all ur candidates are wrong just dont vote (i think there is smtng called 49-0 or No Vote...will check and blog on that). lesser or greater the devil is he is a devil at the end of the day. We say youth should act, but we are the youth, we should not say but act. Why not a political party to counter all the devils... to clean the system lets get to the system. I am ready for it. And this blog is part of such a campaign.

The great martyrs who gave their life don't need your condolences or need you to attend their cremations. They need your action. By action i don't mean going out on a protest rally, blaming the politicos or anything. What i mean is that we have to work even harder now, in what ever you do from a coolie to a corporate king. We need to double our efforts. To make India a super power in the world. Economically, security wise, medically development wise and what not. We should drive hard for a day when our enemy should ask us for the money to buy the bullets that he is gonna fire at us. This should be the tribute to the martyrs. There can be no greater respect.

I will keep writing on ways to be a better citizen on this blog and do my bit to not let the mumbai carnage slip out of memory.

While writing this blog i created a mail id indiaagain@gmail.com and thought of asking all of you to mail to that email address and say that we will create a political party and send petitions and all.. Spending another moment on it i feel, its not worth it. If u still feel like joining me, mail me at indiaagain@gmail.com, lets get together and do our little part. Remember the story of the squirrel when Ram built the bridge to Lanka. India now needs hundreds of such squirrels. We cant start mass movements by signing petitions or sending emails. What we need is to be proactive.

First thing i would like to happen is a PIL asking for a law to allow me to recall my elected representative or say that none of the candidates deserve to be my representative, because democracy is not a Yes or No question.

(plz forgive my mistakes with spellings and grammers, was never good with them)

Mumbai Carnage (part 1)

2008-12-01T22:45:00.000-08:00

Well, my first blog is here

Well, my first blog is here. Would have really loved to start off with something brighter but lets just say the time has forced my hand to start of with a much sadder note. After all being a mumbaiker cldn’t just turn a blind eye to what my beautiful city has had to go through again. Well I will also join the chorus to say “THIS IS THE LIMIT”. Bu I would like to differ at a many a good no: of points.

From a Carnage to a Circus

Let me confess. I committed a lot of murders in last few days. And my victims, our soft spoken PM , L K Advani, Modi and Deshmukh at least 10 times each (while I was in the toilet, while hitting the sack at nite, or while traveling in the Mumbai localllll). I am sorry but I think I can now write a new blog on “how to kill politicos”..lol. But the politicos never stop to amaze me, “Bade Bade shehro mein aise ek haath hadse ho jathe hai”….. wat a comment… Well that comment would have made the LeT feel as if they hvnt even been able to say “booooo” to the indian politicans. Wat a reply? And I applaud Mr. Deshmukh for his great ideas even in the face of adversity. After the great indian innovations of religious tourism and medical tourism here he presents a grand idea called “Terorrist Tourism”. He could start letting people go into Taj to take a peak after paying a ticket of 10 or 20 bucks. Well what a way to show respect to your able officers. But BJP nevers shy’s away from competition. If congress makes a blunder they will not be far behind. Mr Naqvi is the great leader of BJP who is now going to decide who can offer condolences and prayer meetings and who cannot. May be BJP should try adding that to their election manifesto, that they would enact a law not letting reporters with lipstick cover terror situations or westernized girls to offer condolences. Well thanks but no thanks, I would rather prefer the shariah law.

Hey BTW, I just forgot to ask, where is Laloojii, Mulayamji and Paswanji. Neither did I hear from Sir Chandrababu Naidu or the great Communists (whether they be L M N O P or Q or even be without a Q). Lalooji can think of taking a leaf out of Deshmukhji’s book … he can make more profit for railways by running train via Jaipur, Ahmadabad, Surat, Mumbai, Hyderabad. May be even extent it to kannur in kerala. The Home ground of SIMI. Marthi Manoos Raj Thackerayji… now u can come out of ur house, some Maharashtrians , south Indians and north Indians together have killed the terrorists 3 days back so that u can safely pursue ur holy war. Let the circus begin. I am sorry to say this but MNS guyz,,,, ur Raj Thackrey is not half the maharashtrian Hemant Karkare or Vijay Salaskar turned out to be. Jai Maharashtra( with full repsect and a feeling that I too am a maharashtrian… may be born a south indian..But I live here… this is my home and I like maharashtra as much as I like my mother…).

Well, why blame the politicos alone, even the media was not far behind.And by writing the next few lines I am gonna ensure that no media house is gonna read my blog any more. Well at least not NDTV and Mumbai Mirror. What I am talking about? Well Barkha Dutt screwed up big time while otherwise meticolous coverage of this carnage by NDTV. Well she was standing at the door steps of Taj on the Saturday morning when NSG had just done taking care of all the terrorists ( I hope the took good care ) and shouted up to the NSG guy on the first floor who was looking out of the window “Any more terrorists”. I just blurted out “Sweatheart, do u think NSG is drunk to let u so close with a terrorist alive?”. Well my second fav statement was a whole article from Mumbai Mirror. The article carried how smartian a paper it was by not carrying messages of various B list stars and wanna be starlets. Lemme just ask.. What are you guyz then doing now by writing four columns on these stars and their PR people? Look who is crying foul at others trying to take mileage out of situations. Anyway Times Now, CNN-IBN , Headline Today had their share of blunders, with one of these channels saying ( I think CNN… not sure) saying that they had warned abt sea routes almost a year back.

Let me be frank here the media is though lesser but still a culprit. Wat do they do once they have broadcasted these stings and operations? How many times do they back up, revisit and update ppl on the status? They make as much money as possible with the initial hue and cry and then just let it go. We need a strong media to build a strong nation. Not a media that just sensationalizes news but ensures that the common man does not forget it. A media that loads his guns as the common man fights his wars. Asks the right questions to the right ppl and more importantly repeat the question till an acceptable answer is received.

The Indian media I am very sad to say is not mature enough to self censor and self direct (I still remember the images of a police officer begging a reporter not to go into the hotel behind the terrorists folding his hands and shouting “Please, Please…..”). I some times fear that Indian media will try to broadcast live the rape of a girl than try to stop it. That too is rape. A rape of morality of us viewers, a kind of thinking that pen is supreme that sword. Its strong but not supreme I should remind my friends in the media. Though after saying all this, I should say that they were far better in covering this carnage than previous times.

Well, my first blog is here

Well I just wanted to write a few good ideas on how to deal with the current situation and how to fight this war… Not the “War on Terror”… But an internal war….a war for security, accountability, focus, use of technology and most importantly a better leadership. But all this bashing just took up al the space.. So please wait for my next blog. I am not asking for a fan following or smtng. Just ready my blog. Sleep over it and use any idea that I give if u can…..and fcrse gimme some that I can use (other than the idea of “Stop bloggin”…lol). Looking fwd to some good encouragement.

(plz frgv me for the spelling and grammatical mistakes...never was good with them)