Finally Feed on my blog !

After much insistence of my good old friend Dr. Asav Patel, I finally activated feed and email subscription to my blog. If you care to read what I blog, subscribe via this feed. You will get a notification whenever I post something on my blog.

Thanks for your suggestion Doctor.

Take me back in time! - Samajwadi Party's horrifying manifesto

The future. If we don't act now.

No English medium schools. No computers at your desk in office. No technology on the farms. Only minimum wage for each and every person regardless of merit. No more malls in urban communities. Alliance with Pakistan and Bangladesh.

This is not a plot of some sci-fi movie which predicts the end of the world as we know it. Neither are these pages from history books describing 18th or 19th century. These are the main themes of Samajwadi Party's manifesto for the Lok Sabha elections.

"The use of computers in offices is creating unemployment problems. Our party feels that if work can be done by a person using hands there is no need to deploy machines" proclaims the SP chief Mulayamsingh Yadav. There is not one person I know who has more grossly underestimated the role of technology in human civilization. I thought he was being funny when he said this. But I realized he is no Lalu. He does not joke. He was actually serious.

"A harvesting season brings employment for the labour class for at least six months but these harvesters (machines and technology on the farm) will snatch their earnings." So now I know. Studying those stupid subjects like Science and Technology was all a waste of time. The human progress from the stone age to the technology age was all in vain. People just didn't get it right! Alas.

"The salaries provided by private firms should be in sync with the minimum wages that have been set by the government. This is only the way to build up a strong national capital" - Classic, classic Socialism. Need I say more?

The SP will ensure stronger ties with Pakistan and Bangladesh. "The basic cause of terrorism lies in regional differences. The forums across the world which deal with the issue of terrorism work at the behest of America. If a government comes to power with our support, we will ensure that action is taken against communal powers (Read BJP, RSS and largely all Hindus in the country) and attack terrorism at its roots,"
Regional differences! Yeah, right. When a group of terrorist travel all the way from "distant lands" to attack your financial capital, bomb the trains, murder innocent people, it is all because of some 'Regional Differences'. Perfect interpretation of terrorism I must say! He should be acting as senior adviser to the Department of Homeland Security in US.

These are the ideas that can take a nation 50 years backward. Minority appeasement has taken such a dangerous form that now politicians are actually ready to be in bed with Pakistan and Bangladesh. Nothing can be more terrifying than such ideologies of politicians.

I wish this was all a belated April fool's prank. But unfortunately it is not. It is as real as it can get. And it will become a eternally lasting nightmare if the citizens of the country don't wake up and vote for making India a strong, developed and forward looking nation.

Different Colors of Manhattan

There are only two feelings you can have for this city. Either you love it or hate it. But it is very difficult to have the consistency in your feelings towards it. One day you hate it because of its narrow streets, ruthless cab drivers, noisy and dirty subways. But there are days when you just love the city for the very same reasons. The busy and happening streets, fast moving traffic, efficient subways and so on. The city has so many different colors and shades to itself. It's like a living organism. Breathing and thriving.

Out of all the boroughs of the city, I am most familiar with Manhattan. What makes Manhattan interesting is not only the skyscrapers that talk to the clouds. It is the people that make it fascinating. Just like I mentioned in one of my previous posts about the city, during the weekdays you get very typical views on the streets and sidewalks. The city is flooded with black suits and beautiful faces. Neat looks with fashionable looking accessories like leather bags and expensive watches. Busy executives who talk, walk and breath money. Aspirations and optimism floating in the air. Tense nervousness seen on the faces.

And as soon as the weekends come, the city is rid off black suits. And you see totally different scenes around you. Now the city is taken over by the tourists. Leather bags are replaced by Nikons or Sonys or Samsungs. Tense faces are replaced by relaxed ones wearing a variety of funky sun-glasses and hats. Dark suits are replaced by colorful tops and jeans. Leather shoes give way to sneakers. You can feel the change in the air. You can breath the relaxed atmosphere. Aspirations and anxiety take shelter in a moment of surrender. Surrender to sheer bliss of enjoying the beauty of the city. But you need eyes that can be soothed by this kind of beauty.

It is Monday tomorrow and I know what I am going to feel while walking towards the subway at 8am in the morning. (For those of you who care to know "Darn, it's Monday!" is what I will have in mind)

Image source: My Sony Cybershot H7 clicked about a month ago

The greatest festival of Indian Democracy - General Elections '09

I haven't blogged in like what, 3 months! And now there is this irresistible topic which has compelled me to drop a few words here on this platform. The Great Indian Elections of '09.

The greatest event in Indian Democracy, the General Elections are approaching the people of India. I can not say that I am hopeful of an upshot that is favorable to the country's future but at least I am curious.

I am curious to see the fate of the veteran leader L K Advani and what becomes of his final wish in his career - the most coveted position of Prime Minister of India. He has come so close to his dream being materialized and yet it has slipped from his hands. I am curious to see the fate of Manmohan Singh who is only the face of Congress Government and also of Sonia Gandhi who is the brain and brawl behind the government. I am curious to see the role that Mayawati, Lalu Yadav and Mulayam Singh will play in making the king at the center. What will become of the Left front this time which seems to have weakened over the last few years? How will the Third and even the Fourth Front shape the future Government? In the event that these fronts have a say in forming the Government, which is more likely than not, who will defeat the competition and come out a winner as the PM candidate? Will it be the ever manipulative Mayawati, Congress's old headache Mulayam Singh, or the good old Lalu Yadav or some compromise we had in the past like Deve Gowda.

I have been a BJP's staunch supporter all my life. And my belief in BJP being the best party to rule the country is unshakable. It was the biggest shock in last election when despite being everyone's favorite and running the seemingly successful 'Feel Good' campaign, BJP performed miserably and gave way to UPA. Congress was ready to pounce upon the opportunity and it had a bunch of allies waiting. The only common agenda that these parties had was Anti-Saffron and Anti-BJP. Instead of naming themselves UPA, they might have named themselves UABA (United Anti-BJP Alliance). Since then, BJP has strengthened its dominance across the political map of the country. They have won state after state in last few years barring two major debacles of Rajasthan and Delhi. Their one of the biggest victories came in Karnataka when they entered the Southern India which was an alien and distant dream for BJP. The most serious problem BJP is facing again is of alliance. It has failed once again to establish partnerships with influential parties across the states in which it does not have much dominance. The unfortunate break up with Navin Patnaik is certainly going to cost them a major chunk of votes in Orrisa. Shiv Sena has been losing its hold on Maharashtra and BJP is stuck with them. There is virtually no strong alliance for them in Tamilnadu and Andhra.



BJP is facing a severe identity crisis this time. They are reluctant to go back to their raw bare-knuckle Hindutva agenda because they know that they will need allies if they want to form the Government and the allies come from the states in which they can not afford to put a brave Hindu face for the fear of losing minority vote. In last elections they at least had their good governance to talk about. Here, the only thing they can talk about is UPA government's failures which are in plenty. But even then, it is only a negative publicity. They can certainly talk about their good state governance if there is any. I can vouch for Gujarat but not other BJP ruled states. And the last thing they needed this time was a brewing rivalry between their two of the best leaders Jately and Rajnath Singh. Though it seems to have been resolved, it surely sent the shock wave through various layers of the party leadership. BJP's stand for the newly found saffron hero Varun Gandhi has been somewhat unclear. Here again their reluctance to support Hindutva is clearly visible. BJP needs all the help they can get from RSS. There have been news about the new leadership in RSS being favorable to BJP and especially Advani but it is to be seen how RSS and its progeny institutes like VHP and ABVP mobilize their troops during the poll campaign for BJP.

Even though I would love to see BJP at the center, forming the government with absolute majority, it is in most likelihood going to remain an impossibility.

Congress has its own problems. The obvious inclination of Sonia Gandhi is to hand over the reign to the Congress's blue eyed boy - Rahul Gandhi. But she is not sure about the general public's reaction towards such a step. Therefore she is sticking with the old war horse Manmohan Singh. Nobody can say that the calm and gentle Singh is popular with masses, but at the same time, nobody can say that he is unpopular among any faction of the society. That's his biggest strength. He does not have any opposition among the party or the allies. His image is too clean for that. His track record of leadership has been a little too clean. Almost like a clean slate in which the only handwriting you can find are of Sonia Gandhi. Frequently called a puppet in the hands of the high command, Mr. Singh does not have many achievements to boast. Scores of people have died during last five years in terrorist attacks. The Mumbai attacks are the blackest spots on his Government. The government's diplomatic pressure and warnings fell to the deaf ears of Pakistani Government. Failing world economy and India's vulnerability added to his woes. And Arjun Singh's gimmick will be fresh in the minds of the youth. It might have a considerable impact only if the youth cares to vote.

Alliance worries are haunting Congress as well. They have been deserted by most of their allies. Even the old allies like Lalu Yadav have dumped Congress to nurture their ambition for the top position.



However, Congress is in not as bad a position as BJP when it comes to allies. In my opinion, all these pre-poll break-ups are meaningless. Eventually, just like the last time, their hatred for BJP will unite them at the center. But this time around I can see Congress government providing the support to the King maker, whoever it might be. Congress will not be in a position to have their say in PM candidate. They will have to support someone to keep BJP out of position. And in such a situation, BJP is going to be at a major disadvantage. Despite name calling and fighting, I can easily see SP or Left or BSP joining hands with Congress but not with BJP. Thus BJP is most likely on its own here. Like a lone soldier. And it remains to be seen if this lone soldier can turn the tide and finish off the mighty foes.

Next five years are going to be extremely important for India. We have to balance the economic interests with the more important national security concerns. India needs to work hard towards clamping terrorism within her borders and develop more intimate relations with US and other international community. But that is not going to be enough. We ourselves have to be proactive in securing our borders and our nation from falling prey to the terrorism rather than relying on International Diplomacy which has never worked. Next five years are also going to be very important from economy's point of view. When the US and the whole world will be recovering from the mayhem, we do not want to be left behind in the process. Indian economy must continue to grow aggressively.

So once again, the common man is skeptical yet hopeful. There are expectations. Whichever party comes to the power will have to work hard to lead the nation into the new beginning. An era of rising economic and political might of India on the international fronts.

Image Source:
1.http://static.ibnlive.com/pix/sitepix/11_2007/cong_bjp_battle313.jpg
2. http://cache.daylife.com/imageserve/00LsdNpase7Cv/610x.jpg
3. http://cache.daylife.com/imageserve/0887a7o4iy12X/610x.jpg

Audacious Antulay !

I seriously don't have any other adjective for this man. This was an act of such audacity! Whether it was a political suicide or a political re-incarnation of himself that we shall see in the coming days but he has gone down to the level in politics where no other politician has dared to go.

Every Indian (or at least every patriotic Indian) is aghast, enraged and numb towards his statement about Hemant Karkare's death. How could he even think about speaking such thing when the whole nation is united, Hindus and Muslims alike, against terror. He literally exonerated Pakistan from this whole episode in his opinion. I am glad that people like Javed Akhtar have come forward to express the liberal muslim opinion on this and bashed Antulay for his act. And still there are people like Digvijay Singh who join the bandwagon and support Antulay's remarks. I don't know what to say to such people. But I can say to the common man that please next time when you go to vote, keep this episode, Antulay, his advocates and his party in mind and then decide on your vote.

In this interview, he tries to dodge the salvo from Sardesai and gives some implausible and senseless arguments in his defence.

Watch this videos as Rajdeep Sardesai, visibly agitated and emotional, grills Antulay and gives him every opportunity to apologize in front of the nation. Alas, if he had any consciences....


http://ibnlive.in.com/videos/81029/i-am-proud-of-my-comments-a-r-antulay.html

Size #10

Quote of the day
"All I can report is it is a size 10." - President Bush, after an Iraqi reporter hurled shoes towards Bush in a press conference today.

Sehwag frustrates the opponents once again

English Captain Andrew Strauss on Sehwag
"He plays a game most people are unfamiliar with, He almost manipulates the field. You change it, and it's like he says: 'Right, I'm going to hit it somewhere else now'."

Shashi Tharoor on Terror Attacks

A very interesting interview I grabbed from ibnlive.com

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Former Undersecretary General of the United Nations Shashi Tharoor says the Mumbai attacks have united the world in India’s support. Discussing India’s options, Tharoor said a military option against India would be an utter folly.

CNN-IBN: The international community has come out in a support of India. You said last night the Jehadis have made powerful enemies in the Mumbai attacks. What did you mean?

Tharoor: The fact is that most of the tragedies that have affected us from terror in the recent years had only killed Indians and therefore for the rest of the world was seen as an Indian problem. What happened in Mumbai in addition – to the terrible toll that it has taken in our country and our people – is that it also killed over 20 foreigners and the governments of those countries to which the victims belong are not prepared to take this lightly. Certainly it was the clearest indication to America, Britain, France and Israel that India has now become the theatre for the enactment of a global drama that this is now the same enemy here; that they had there and in all parts of the world became manifestly clear. And for the first time in a real concrete life and death manner these countries became our direct allies.

CNN-IBN: India was able to get UNSC sanctions against the jamaat ud dawa and top terror leaders- you are a un veteran- in real terms what does that mean? can the list be enforced?

Tharoor: We want more than house arrest. We want genuine prosecution. We want them to be brought to account for their triumphs with whatever appropriate court jurisdiction that Pakistan can muster. Pak is also saying to us at a certain level that this is also their problem, they are also victims. And it is true. The Marriot Hotel bombing took Pakistani lives, (so did) Benazir Bhutto’s assassination, so their are people in Pakistan, particularly in the present civilian government who feel that the people who have done this to us could also do it to them and to that degree there is a common enemy. What they are afraid of is that in acting against those forces, they would come up against extreme opposition within their own military ranks. We don’t know how high that goes - is it being orchestrated at the very top of the Pakistani military and the ISI? Or is it merely being condoned? Is it taking place at the middle and senior levels but not at the very top? We don’t know and we don’t even know if Pak’s government knows. But we know that they are being careful not to cross certain red lines of the military so that they don’t end up being overthrown as every single civilian government in Pakistan has been before completing its term in office.

CNN-IBN: Does India still have a military option left? Hot pursuit, surgical strikes?

Tharoor: The military option would be utter folly. It's exactly what the terrorists want us to do. And there is no such thing as a limited or surgical military option. If you conduct an attack and bomb a few sites, you'd achieve very little because these sites can easily be reconstructed. These training camps involve a few barracks, a few ropes for them to climb, a few hurdles for them to jump and a target and rifle range practice. This is not something that takes effort to reconstruct in any open space in Pakistan. Bombing 2-3 of these is not going to solve anything for us. By doing that we will unite both those who are relatively sympathetic to us and those who are hostile to us under the common banner of Pakistani nationalism. Whatever your differences with the military or ISI if India is attacking your country you are going to rally behind the flag, and that’s what the terrorists want.

Bharat Ratna Pt Bhimsen Joshi

There could not be a happier moment for a classical music lover. Pt Bhimsen Joshi - the maestro of Hindustani Vocal classical music has been selected for Bharat Ratna - India's highest civilian award this year. Even though unfortunately I have never had a chance to listen to his divine vocal performance live, I am extremely proud today to see him honored by the government with this award.

Long live Panditjee. We are proud of you!


Image Source: http://www.outlookindia.com/images/bhimsen_joshi_20060925.jpg

Circular Reasoning

We sacrifice our present happy times to run after money so that we can be happy in future.
We buckle down under stress and hyper tension and lose healthy living while working hard so that we can earn enough money to be able to afford the cost of our good health in future.
The race is never ending. Like a mad dog trying to grab its own tail, running around in circles.
The chase never ends because there is not static destination. The target keeps moving. And in this process, the ultimate goal of achieving happiness is lost. The motivation behind doing all this is to achieve happiness. And knowingly or unknowingly we give up on that. For a better future. And it always remains 'For the future'. The future never becomes Present. What a bargain that is to make! The target is moving. You are always shooting without precision. Or even worse. You are shooting the wrong target.

What Dhoni needs to look at

It's too easy to criticize the seniors. They don't play well in one match and the sword is again hanging over their heads. Ganguly got tired of it and decided to retire. Dravid, Laxman and Tendulkar are still hanging in there. Nobody knows till what time. Dhoni has always been critical of senior players. Mindless criticism and comments have spewed out of him a lot of times. What he needs to look at is the following record of senior players in last one year.

Test match figures....

	Matches	Runs	Highest	Avg	100s
Tendulkar	13	955	154*	47.75	2
Ganguly	16	1283	239	45.82	3
Laxman	16	1171	200*	58.55	3
Dhoni	12	595	92	35	0

Somebody needs to take a look at some numbers to understand what is going on !

Quantom of Solace

I am so very looking forward to it!

Commented

http://xkcd.com/156/

The Difference

xkcd: http://xkcd.com/242/

Say 'Nuclear'

Those of you who have heard Palin say this word will get the joke.


see Sarah Palin pictures

Cricket on Digg!

Cricket appeared on digg for the first time since I have started following it. Here's the pic. Sachin fans must be happy!

McCain's stand up comedy !

McCain is hilarious in this speech. At least there is one thing that I can appreciate in McCain. His talent for stand-up comedy!



*Updated:
And here comes Obama - the stand-up comedian !!

Socialism at its best

Jet reinstates all the employees that it laid off. This move has not come out of philanthropic nature of Naresh Goyal. Neither has it dawned upon him by some divination to take these employees back. He was threatened by Praful Patel as shown here in this article (http://www.ibnlive.com/news/patel-refutes-goyal-claim-says-he-asked-jet-to-act/76057-7.html)

I have nothing against the employees who were fired and I sympathize with them. But think of this. Such a step is definitely a step backwards. This clearly shows how Indian government is still regulating the economy with a clenched fist. Otherwise how can a government official order a private company to reverse its decision which was purely a HR issue. If the company is not doing well in such tough times, it will lay people off. That is how private sector is supposed to work. How can government interfere in HR policies of a private company is something I am not able to digest. Whatever happened to the free economy! Capitalism? Not for us Indians....

Spammed ... This time it's my blog ...

Yesterday my blog page was attacked by a spam-bot. See below the spike of 126 hits! My blog can not become so famous overnight :P (Unless I decide to make it a porn-blog which I am not going to!) I also received about 6-7 bot generated comments, interestingly with not-so-random words. I had to turn on anti-bot mechanisms for comments posting.

Date	Page Views
Fri, October 17, 2008	5
Thu, October 16, 2008	126
Wed, October 15, 2008	22
Tue, October 14, 2008	10
Mon, October 13, 2008	29
Sun, October 12, 2008	21
Sat, October 11, 2008	13
Average: 32	Total: 226

Conversation with a cabbie

"Did you watch last night's debate?" Thus started my conversation with a cabbie who was referring to the VP debate that took place a couple of weeks ago. It was a very interesting conversation as the cabbie was a white male in his 50s who was very passionate about American politics and a life long Democrat supporter. We talked for almost 45 minutes while driving to La Guardia Airport from my place. This conversation brought about quite a few notable points which make a lot of sense in the context of current political scenario in US.

He began by ridiculing Palin and calling her the most foolish politician he had come across in his entire life. "If a person can not name the newspapers she reads, how can she become the VP of United States?" He said McCain was even a bigger fool to select this lady as his VP pick.

And he confessed, as an American, that America is still largely, though not openly, racist. He said what else could explain a very narrow lead of Obama over McCain? If Obama had been white, he would be leading McCain by a huge margin. He said Americans are still racists and that's why the Republican party can get away with such weak candidates as McCain and Palin. He said Republicans are largely the party of folks who are stinking rich with tie-ups with huge corporations and influential churches.

He also said American people will vote for whoever looks smart on TV. I said then what went wrong last two times with John Kerry and Al Gore? He said both of them were horribly unfriendly on TV and they could never appeal the American public. And that is also one of the reasons that Obama has managed to stay ahead in the polls as he is very presentable on camera.

And the conversation went on. The most important point I could take from this was his confession as an American about prevailing racism in the country. The post is in response to Soham's comment on my previous post here.

P.S. The conversation happened for real and the views expressed here are the cabbie's own.