The nation would be grateful to you if you would resign Mr. Home Minister.

Dont misunderstand me. I am not celebrating the horror that occurred. As I told, I am ANGRY.

 This is the MOST INEFFICIENT and LETHARGIC government that India has had in the last two decades. I know this is a delicate time. But that should not stop anybody from talking about the failure of the entire system funded by the tax money of ordinary citizens like me. For a change, we are not talking politics here. We are talking about the concepts of efficiency, honesty, dedication and the true spirit of a public servant. Obviously these are the virtues long forgotten and alien to most of our politicians.

 Dear handsome, fashion savvy  Home Minister, as an ordinary citizen unfortunate to be living in the era of your Minister ship(or should I say fortunate to be still alive thinking aloud), I beg you, beseech you, implore you to pleaaaaaaaaaaassssssseee RESIGN. Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeezzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

 I admit I had the audacity to demand your resignation in one of my earlier posts. I apologise for the same.

 Mujhe maaf kar dijiye. Is bar mein apse nivedan kar raha hoon...Apko apne rangeen suits ki kasam, apko meri umar lag jaye.....plssssssssssssssssssss relieve us of your services.

I can’t bear it anymore....

This time around it has been different. We watched in horror as the terror came home to the supposedly well protected, iconic heart of the country’s financial capital. It has to be noted that till now, most of the terror activities in India targeted easily accessible places frequented by the common man (read as financially poor, lower class, middle class citizens). But this time around the target appears to be the elite class and perhaps for the very first time, the foreign citizens on Indian soil. Not surprisingly, many delicate feathers have been ruffled.

 I may be sounding sarcastic here, but I can’t help it. Like crores of my brothers and sisters, frustration has been building up with in me. I felt as if I am guilty of not having bank balance worth crores, not living in the most exclusive of the apartments, not travelling in Benz or BMW, in short not being worthy enough to be protected by the elitist of them all, the Indian Government. This is exactly why I am ANGRY.

 

The routine of getting ourselves blasted...the new way of life for modern Indians

Over the last 7-8 years, India has been repeatedly targeted by the terrorists, both from within and outside the country. After each bloody incident, we have DELIBERATELY forgotten about the same. We patted ourselves on being resilient, brave and courageous and God knows what other cliches that we could invent. Of course, we raised a big hue and cry blaming the government, the police, the intelligence agencies, the religious hate mongers, the omnipresent ISI and the rogue sibling – turned rogue neighbour Pakistan. We blamed each other, we suspected each other and we fought each other. 

Some of us took it upon ourselves to exact revenge, thus causing more havoc. We blamed our politicians and once the list of those who could be blamed was exhausted, we went about the routine of being in the middle of blast torn cities wondering where the terror would strike next.

 We are the brave, resilient Indian, fancying ourselves as the saviours for the whole world, especially since the American domination of the world affairs is already shattered.

I am angry............

What has unfolded over the last 60 hours is too well known to be reiterated. The images, the sound bites, the deafening thunder bolts, the eerie silence have all left an indelible mark on the minds and souls of millions. So, what do I feel? I am sad, worried, afraid and above all angry as in A-N-G-R-Y.

Terror strikes again and again and again and again.........

The terror strikes, this time at no less than ten places in Mumbai, evokes a collage of emotions. This time around, we have the ghastly images being played out live in the television. My heart goes out to the hostages, the victims, the security forces battling it out for us and the brave men and women in the media who are at the ground zero. Like the rest of the world, I pray for this crisis to be over quickly with minimal possible damage........

We need a unified code of conduct for investigating agencies...

Over the years we have witnessed the growth of Indian Television News Channels. We are now living in an era of ‘Breaking News’,(wonder what happened to the good old FLASH NEWS), ‘Exclusives’ and ‘Sting operations’. This means most of us have become media savvy. Gone are the days when someone had to do something as bizarre as eating a snake alive to hog the limelight for a while. This situation has benefitted common man in procuring any information that he needs more easily and readily. But, there are many negative sides to this picture.

 We had sting operations planned to discredit and harass hapless individuals. More recently, our investigating agencies have also become pro-active in planting and manoeuvring sensitive information about different investigations. Different investigating agencies are now readily giving out information about the arrests and the accused even while they are in the process of collecting evidences to substantiate their claims. This is a dangerous practise because:

·         The concept of ‘innocent until proved guilty’ is undermined.

·         The family of the accused are harassed and humiliated.

·         The investigators often end up looking ridiculous as happened repeatedly in the Arushi Murder Case.

·         Allows political parties, human rights groups and others build up rhetoric based on the claims which are not proven facts.

·         Prejudices the public opinion for or against the accused persons.

·         In case the claims made by the investigators are later proved to be false, the persons who were earlier accused would still have had to bear the defamation and harassment.

·         Causes conflicts and battles among various groups on the basis of unproven claims.

 I think the situation calls for implementing a General Code of Conduct for the investigating agencies across the country. The police should not be allowed to manoeuvre the public opinion.

 It is worth mentioning that in spite of tremendous pressure from the curious general public, the Kerala CBI team which is investigating the Sister Abhaya murder case has refused to divulge any details regarding the evidence and the motive of the arrested accused. This conduct is highly commendable, one that could be emulated by other teams across the country.

Indian Navy – the pride of the nation

The Indian Navy has sunk a Somalian pirate ship.  The Somalian pirates have been striking almost daily and many countries have their naval presence in the area. Indian Navy had rescued a ship last week and in sinking the pirate ship the Navy has proved that it is capable of being pro-active in the face of challenges.

Abhaya case - some action at last....

It comes as great relief to the general public in Kerala that three people have been arrested in connection with the Abhaya Case which has been under investigation for more than sixteen years. The scenes at the court when the accused were brought in yesterday were acrimonious. The police had to resort to mild lathi charge twice to keep the crowd under control. The crowd was shouting slogans congratulating the CBI and denouncing the local police and the Kerala crime branch.

The real hero is the High Court of Kerala. It is the persistent and vigilant attitude of this court that paved way for the arrests. Keeping in mind the fact that even the CBI had applied for the case to be closed for lack of proper evidence, the court has yet again proved to be the saviour for justice.

For millions it is not just an index, Mr. Finance Minister...

As the world reels under the financial crisis, the Indian government kept re-iterating that there is nothing to worry. The Prime Minister and the Finance Minister repeatedly said that the inherent strength of Indian economy will help the country sail over the tsunami and keep ourselves afloat. The debacle in the US, Europe and other countries around the world should have served as a loud warning for the prudent. But, in India, the measures were limited largely to rate cuts and pure rhetoric.

Meanwhile, the prices of essential commodities sky rocketed, the stock markets crashed and industries struggled to keep their factories running. Unlike China, which came out with a substantial investment package to boost the economy, India maintained what many describe as a largely passive stance to the entire issue. But, even with the inflation figures showing some signs of coming down, the stock markets kept plunging to new depths.

Guess what, the finance minister has told that people must stop looking at the stock markets closely as these were nothing more than indices. This is easily the most irresponsible and utterly damaging comment that a finance minister could make at such a volatile time. He may have been trying to calm down the atmosphere by playing down the significance of the stock markets. But in the process, he has completely forgotten that millions in this country have lost their life’s savings in the stock market over the recent months. Billions of dollars worth wealth have been wiped off and the Finance Minister has the audacity to refer to the debacle as if he is talking about a mathematical graph.

Well, with the general elections coming nearer, I guess the current UPA regime could afford to pass over the onus to the next government. But, in the process, we the people are bound to suffer, providing more data for the wise heads like this finance minister to study and lecture about....

The sad story of Kerala intellectuals and writers

Kerala is among the most literate regions in the whole world. More than anything else, the high literacy means the mallu society keeps itself highly informed about the happenings all over the world. Consequently, we have a society where most of the individuals do have an opinion on almost all subjects under the sun.

 Naturally, the teachers, writers and the intellectuals in this society have always been held in high respect and their opinions have always been well sought after. Sadly, over the last decade, a large majority of mallu writers and intellectuals seems to have come under tremendous pressure from the need to survive, and the much larger necessity to keep on the right side of the powers that be. So much so, that the only loud noises that we occasionally hear from one half of these self-proclaimed protectors of public conscience are mostly about the petty, ego-centric and self induced fights among themselves. The other half is busy in aligning in accordance with the factional feuds of the ruling Marxist party.  There are some rare but sane and earnest voices among them, but these are often buried in the frenzy and noise of the battle cry....

 Contrast this with times when these voices were strong and influential enough to deny the state many necessary projects like the atomic power plant and silent valley project. It is another matter, whether I am in favour of the opposition to such projects. The point that I am trying to make is that there has been a paradigm shift in the intellectual creamy layer of this highly opinionated society.

 The common man is reeling under all sorts of problems, the root cause of which could be traced to the in-efficient and corrupt regimes that have ruled this state in the last two decades. The writers, intellectuals and the creative minds once had the courage and the will power to awaken the mallu society and pave way for the world’s first democratically elected communist regime. Now, all that is left is a bunch of selfish minds feuding among themselves...

 What a shame indeed....

Yoga - for health and peace....

I have been attending yoga classes for the last one month at Kozhikode itself. Those who know me personally know that I am fat, over weight. But, to my friend’s dismay, I have never been worried about the same. I have always been reasonably healthy and have been content with it. My friends always used to complain about the long distances that I would walk while we are out for shopping or sightseeing. I guess this is what helped me stay healthy.

 But, ever since I moved to Kozhikode, I have been confined to my Pulsar all the time. This meant I don’t walk as much as I used to, and I put on a lot of weight. While I was worried about the same, I have never been enthusiastic about going to a conventional gym. Finally, I chose to try out Yoga hoping that this might also complement my spiritual and intellectual side.

 After one month of Yoga classes, I find it highly beneficial for staying healthy. Just as Ayurveda concentrates on eliminating the root cause of a disease unlike the Allopathic medicines which focuses on the symptoms, yoga aims at helping a person to stay healthy. It also helps in building concentration and the meditation helps to make the mid peaceful.

Bring the petroleum prices down...

The Prime Minister, the Finance Minister and the Petroleum Minister are all united in saying that the petroleum prices cannot be brought down until the oil companies stop making losses.

 This is preposterous and utterly irresponsible. I know the Indian rupee is in a very volatile position against the US dollar. But as an Indian, I would like my Ministers (yea,in case you forgot, they are supposed to serve me and over hundred crore ordinary Indians like myself) to be compassionate and to be in touch with the ground realities of life in this nation.

 Reducing petroleum prices would have an immediate impact on the food and vegetable prices. It would help common man heave a sigh of relief.

 Economic management is not only about providing leverage to aviation industry, allowing industrialists to amass windfall profits and then vulgarly display the same by building homes worth thousands of crores, offering escape routes to foreign companies by allowing them to increase their presence in sectors like insurance.

 At the end of the day, prudent economic management is all about helping the poor to have proper meals at least once in a day. Making sure the common man has the opportunity and the means to pay back the loans, make both ends meet.

 The average Indian should be able to celebrate life, not by virtue of having obscenely expensive villas, but by having a hearty smile, peaceful sleep and a secure future for his family.

The Night Mare – A Dream Team production

Ironic, but an apt title for the plight of ordinary Indian. The dream team of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Finance Minister Chidambaram has failed miserably in providing solace to the common man. The prices of eatables and vegetables are sky rocketing along with many other essential articles.

 The government and the RBI have been harping about the measures taken to combat inflation for quite some time now. Surely, some measures have been taken. But the question is who is benefiting?

  The only direct impact that a layman like myself see is the interest rates coming down. This is expected to benefit the automobile, infrastructure, housing and industrial sector. The logic is that the spur in growth in these sectors will rejuvenate the economy and lead to wealth creation. This would ultimately benefit the common man.

 This sounds good. Still, it seems to be a process which would take at least six months to start showing significant and consistent results. Simply, this is not enough. We Indians surely deserve better. 

Interest rate coming down is fine.But unfortunately, the banks do not give loans for buying rice, dal and vegetables.

Dada...The true Maharaja...

As India celebrates the famous win over the mighty Aussies and cherishes the Border -  Gavaskar trophy, the Prince of Kolkata bows out of international cricket. His last series has been wonderful for him and he leaves behind a grand legacy.

As tributes pour in, Dada can be proud of what he did for the nation. It is commendable that this gutsy man successfully faced stiff opposition from many people who were not half good as himself throughout his career.

To start with, Saurav was depicted as a rich, arrogant, spoilt young man. Many yester year stars could not come to terms with the presence of such a privileged person in the Indian dressing room. They doubted his dedication and lost no time in attacking the newcomer. But Dada started off with a century in his debut test match, that too in foreign soil. For wise men, this would surely be ominous signs of what Dada would bring to Indian cricket.

 Then the pundits were criticizing his perceived inability to face quality fast bowlers, especially the bouncers (incredibly some continues to do so even now). It is true that Dada had some problems in this front, but he more than compensated for it with his extravagant off-side hits, his wonderful natural timing. And when Dada chose to come down the track to any bowler, spin or pace, it was a treat for the cricket lover. The balls started disappearing in to the stands quite often and Dada made his presence felt.

 Then came the dark era of Indian cricket. The match fixing scandals plunged Indian cricket to the depths of despair. This coupled with some uninspired captaincy from several stand in captains drove cricket fans away from the stadiums. Many, including your faithful blogger, started to keep away from the living room to escape the live telecast in the television.

 When Dada was made the captain of the beleaguered Indian team, he inherited a dressing room full of egos, players with low self confidence and some with much less self esteem. A bunch of losers who were referred to as ‘ a group of highly talented players, who had many records among them, but who invariably failed to perform as a team. The performance of the Indian team out side of the sub-continent was totally amateurish.

 Dada turned things around and look where the Indian team is now. He built a team of confident men. He backed his young inexperienced but talented players like Bhajie, Yuvi, Lakshman and Zaheer. He helped the senior players like Sachin, Dravid and Kumble settle down into their own tailor-made roles as mentors and role models. For me, this is his single most important contribution. Dada even relinquished his opening slot in one day team for Sehwag.

 The opening partnerships between Dada and the Master Blaster is legendary and to make way for a junior player was a wonderful gesture, one that many of his critics would not have even thought about.

 The single most vivid picture in memory? Dada taking off his shirt and waving it to celebrate a famous victory abroad. For pundits, this was a shocking display of arrogance....

 For common cricket fans like me, this he the mascot of young, vibrant, confident Indian team...We knew this team was bound to conquer the world...We knew Dada had done what it takes to lay the foundations for the future captains to build on....

 The Australians believed they were the only ones who have the right to sledge, be aggressive and play mind games. Dada paid them back in style, fluttering many, including the Indian pundits.  Time and again, Dada was humiliated, thrown out of the captaincy and the team. Each time Dada came back stronger than ever. Even in his last series, he made the previous team of selectors look like a bunch of foolish amateurs.

 Dada had such illustrious men as Dravid, Lakshman and Sehwag as compatriots. The fact that these four men carved out a niche for themselves while playing alongside the all time great Sachin Tendulkar speaks a lot about their talent and calibre. These fabulous group of players have given us lot to be proud of.

 Dada  sure has some more cricket left in him. But, I believe it is the right time to bid adieu. Especially since it would not take more than two bad innings for him to be thrown out of the team again.

 After all, from being a Prince, he has long ago graduated to being the Maharaja of Indian cricket and desrves a Royal farewell...

The decline of Aussies....

From the lacklustre performance of the visiting Australian cricket team, it is evident that this is the weakest Aussie team in over a decade.

 The fourth day of the final test at Nagpur will be remembered for the defensive mindset of the Aussie captain Ricky Ponting. At a time when he should have gone for the kill, he refused to make use of his strike pace bowlers. He was more concerned about the making up for slow over rate and hence turned to his spin bowlers. This is not what we have come to expect from an Aussie captain. What could have been the worst case if he had made use of the pace bowlers? He could have been fined and may be suspended for one match. On the other side, the Indians were in real trouble with the loss of quick wickets and if Brett Lee could have picked up either Dhoni or Bhajie, the Indian innings would have ended quickly. Instead, the spin bowlers allowed India to claw back to the game and at the end of the match, this cost Australia the Border – Gavaskar trophy.

 In spite of the brilliant eight wicket haul for Krezja in the first innings, one has to admit that the Australian spin bowling is not even good without the mighty Shane Warne. For that matter, neither is their pace bowling, without Glenn McGrath. Their batting lacks the stability without Justin Langer. The retirement of Adam Gilchrist means they are no longer dominant over the opposing bowlers.

 Ricky Ponting have reasons to be defensive, but without the trademark killer instinct, all that remains is plain arrogance and typical intolerance in the face of better opponents.

 Sadly for Aussies, these are simply not enough to conquer the resurgent Indians....

The campaigning goes digital

L.K.Advani has come up with a portal devised as a means to rach out to the Indian youth. The idea is commendable, one suceesfully used by Obama recently, and could make an impact in India too.....

http://www.lkadvani.in/

An Indian dream....

As America gets a young president, I too wish the youth here in India had a more prominent and powerful presence in the political arena of this nation. By Indian standards, Obama is a kindergarten child as far as his political experience and age goes.

 So far, the only youth to get a shot at the Prime Minister ship in India is Rajeev Gandhi. Ironically, politics was the last place that he wanted to be. But fate, and the fact that he was the only suitable heir from Nehru dynasty at that time, catapulted him to the Prime Minister ship of the world’s largest democracy. It is really sad that even in 2008, the only youth who could even hope to run for the post is the present heir of the dynasty, Rahul Gandhi.

  Is it that the country of over 100 crore does not have able and deserving youth to lead the nation, other than the handpicked ones from the Nehru dynasty?

Its OBAMA all the way.........

As the US Presidential election results come out Barack Obama , the 47 year old African- American who has been a senator for only two years, becomes President Obama. The election has been closely watched and followed here in India as well. The coming years could be very, very crucial for India and the world at large. The new American President, as always, has a significant role to play in the emerging new world order. I do wish Obama will rise to the challenge...

Dada, Jumbo retiring...do they have a job to sustain themselves???

This morning, while I was watching the TV news report regarding the retirement of Anil Kumble, my grandmother (almost 70 years old), asked me “ Does Kumble have a job?”

She is not a sports buff. But, she can recognise Sachin, Dravid, Ganguly, Kumble, Harbhajan and her local boy Sreeshanth. And when she asked the question, I am sure she was thinking about the yester year stars like P.T.Usha, I.M.Vijayan, Shiney Vilson etc who are still household names in Kerala. She knows these athletes and sports persons had been employed by different firms like railways, kerala police etc..

 What she does not know is that in India cricket is one sport, perhaps the only one, that gives financial security to the players. She sure does not know that BCCI is the world’s second richest sports organization. It is about time other sports also had their fair share of wealth. The champions deserve to be able to concentrate on their game without having to worry about their livelihood...

The Jumbo bids adieu...

The legendary Indian spinner Anil Kumble, Jumbo, has bid farewell to the game yesterday. He has taken the tough decision keeping in mind the recurring injuries that have plagued him in recent years. As the Jumbo retreats, he leaves behind a distinguished legacy. Over the last 18 years, he has given us a lot to cherish.

 Beyond the stupendous achievements that are evident in the statistics, Anil Kumble has inspired us by his brave heart. The picture of the Jumbo bowling with a fractured jaw at Antigua, and getting the prized scalp of the all time great Brian Lara is forever etched in our minds...This man has been the epitome of dignity and decency in the gentleman’s game. Naturally, he commands respect both on and off the field. He is a true role model, and may God give him all that he wish for in the years to come...

 We love you Jumbo.....