5 cool things about hostel

1. The Bitch club – We have a secret cult in our hostel. Membership is restricted and what happens inside the cult stays inside the cult. The objective about the cult is to bitch, bitch and bitch. We critically analyze and dissect individual’s personal and professional characteristics. No matter how busy we are, assignments, tests, none of them matter. It’s mandatory for members to attend the daily meetings. The president of the cult has assigned code names to all its members which range from Chennai slut to mad bull.

2. Frustrated boys – The hostel is filled with frustrated boy (w.r.t girls). It’s quite fun when likeminded people come together and express their feelings. I was pretty amazed with the level of frustration that exists here. All my misconception about metros being free and open has been cleared.

3. The ladies – The place is loaded with pretty ladies, may I add rich, pretty ladies. There is a park nearby where you would find most of them, jogging, walking or working out. As it came to me that it’s high time I got into shape, I have started to jog in the park daily (well I try to, but I fail most of the time). Let’s hope that I succeed in my endeavor.

4. The lover boys – Well as of now we just have one here, there could be more but this one is the most prominent. Now I have never seen a guy like this before. All of us know that he has fallen for this girl hook line and sinker but he won’t even admit it or for that matter deny it. He answers questions in the same way as Pakistan when asked about its links with terrorism, ridiculous and irrelevant. The answer for his every questing starts with “sala”. And he has a not so subtle way of changing the topic. If you are reading it, get some balls and own up :-P.(to us ie). Any way teasing him every night help us sleep at night peacefully.

5. This place is filled with people who talk utter crap. Especially 2 guys who live vertically opposite to each other. One guy comes to me and tells me that I am the man every 3 seconds and enquires about a girl. I am pretty amazed with the way in which he comes out with different praises for me (sarcastically of course). Another guy prefers to start every sentence with a word which starts with the letter ‘M’. It’s not like others do not talk carp, but just that these guys stand out. The thing that scares me the most is that some of these guys are going to manage thousands of people in the future :-P

John Mayer - Comfortable

Just got adicted to this song !!I can even feel the pain in his voice

I just remembered that time at the market
snuck up behind me and jumped on my shopping cart
And rode down aisle five
you looked behind you and smiled back at me
crashed into a rack full of magazines
they asked us if we could leave.

Can't remember what went wrong last September
though i'm sure you'd remind me, if you had to

Our love was, comfortable and
so broken in

I sleep with this new girl I’m still getting used to
My friends all approve, say “she’s gonna be good for you.”
They throw me high fives.
She says the Bible is all that she reads.
and prefers that I not use profanity
Your mouth was so dirty
Life of the party,
And she swears that she’s artsy,
But you could distinguish Miles from Coltrane
Our love was comfortable and so broken in.

She’s perfect
So flawless,
Or so they say.
Hey and
Say, Heyyyyy.

She thinks I can’t see the smile that she’s fakin’
Poses for pictures that aren’t being taken.
I loved you
grey sweat pants
No make up
So perfect
Our love was comfortable and so broken in.

She’s perfect
So flawless
I’m not impressed
I want you back

No, no, no, no I want you back.
Want you back.
Back.

That you were my first love
Is just dumb luck.
A technicality.
You were ahead of me.

That you were my first love.
Is just dumb, dumb, stupid luck.
A technicality.
You will always be ahead of me.
Oh, oh, tell me.
Why I have to practice on you.
Why I have to practice on your heart.
Oh.

Some more bitching about life in hostel

Too many peepers: I would be sitting in my room, minding my own business, chatting with my friends, showing the pictures of my life in Delhi, telling them which girl I have an eye on and so on. Out of nowhere some random idiot pops into my room and starts staring at my screen. They yell out the name of the person to whom I am chatting to and start reading out my conversation as if they are doing me some favor. Well some are more discrete, they just peep silently, without commenting. I do not know if it’s something which only I experience or if it’s something experienced by hostilities across borders. It’s quite awkward when a third party comes in and reads stuff about a person he knows:-P. Some would argue, as a solution to this problem one should lock the door, but that is not something which is practical here :-P

Studying is not something that can take place there, at least for me. It’s impossible to study there. In our course we learn that to get the maximum productivity, the environment in which work is being done should be conducive for working. Someone needs to tell that to the person in charge of the 1^st year boy’s hostel. You have this small room with a bed in it. How can any one study when they see a bed in front of them! And the chair that they have provided has a stupid design. Whenever I open my book I fall asleep.

Now enough bitching about the hostel, in the next post will write all the good things about it.

Crazy habits of my roommate

I am a person who believes that music is meant to be played out loud. Unfortunately, due to certain activities of my roommate it’s not possible me for do so. When I play some thing, he starts singing it out loud. Now if someone is a decent enough singer and he sings along, its bearable, but this guy unfortunately is bad! He tells me that he is not that bad a singer. Now I know that American Idol is all realty (when it comes to bad singers believing that they are good). Now the singing part can be pardoned, but freaks me out is his dancing. He has this weird/ridiculous dance moves. He is a tall, thin guy and very elastic in nature. All his elasticity comes in play when he dances. The worst part is when he combines both these so called talents that he has. It is quite a sight!

The next thing is actually quite funny or some might say it’s a little scary. At times my roomies takes time out of his busy schedule to watch some movies or sit com’s. When he does so, he gets all pumped up. He starts laughing like anything, start talking to himself, clapping and so on. The fact that he is doing all this while he is wearing his headphones gives people viewing the scene the impression that he is a total lunatic. I am planning to upload a video of him doing the same so that people can actually relate to what I am saying.

This is all that I can come up with now. Overall he is quite a decent roomie, who keeps himself clean and is not a thief :-P

Things my roommate would hate about me

· I am a bloody mess. It’s something that has been given to me from god since birth. My room is always a bloody mess. Before I left for Delhi, my mother would tell me that she feels sorry for my “would be” roommate. I would like to think that I am not as messy as I was when I was at home. At home I admit that I was a total mess. After a shower I would just walk out of the bathroom dripping water all over the place, or when I change my cloths I would just put them in the floor and let it dry for a few days. Here I am only moderately messy. My books would be all over my side of the room, you would need to be an expert explorer to get something from my table and don’t get me started on the way I keep my cloths. Even though my side is a mess, I am considerate enough to ensure that it doesn’t spill over to my roomies side.

· I have weird sleeping habits. Fortunately for my roommate, he has only witnessed only a few till now. Now I am a big guy and most normal beds won’t fit me. I prefer to sleep in a diagonal manner and I am used to sleeping in that way. Unfortunately when you have a roommate who is 1/5^th your size, this habit becomes a problem. I think every night he fears getting crushed by me! Apparently the poor guy begs me at night to give him space and surprisingly I oblige.

· I love to have ventilation in my room. Unfortunately at our hostel, if you get ventilation you get a lot of blood thirsty insects with it. I hate staying in a room with no ventilation; I rather get bitten than get deprived of oxygen. Now my roomie gets all emotional when it comes to insects. He jumps up and down, screams like a girl when he sees one. To avoid all this he keeps the doors and windows close, which is not something I would agree to and in the end we both get bitten by bug and get ridiculously huge and disgusting scars and he blames all that on me!

· This is kind of a secret. I am not sure if he knows about it or not. He has this liquid soap which is so convenient to use. I tend to steal it at times. Well who am I kidding; I use it at every possible opportunity that I get.

· Now this is a very emotional issue for my roommate. I sometimes like to indulge in gay humour and he gets all sensitive about it. I have spread the word that all the scars on my arms and legs are not insect bites but have come as a result of certain things that he did during night. The guy doesn’t have any sense of humour to takes these things as a joke and would go all emotional.

There would be plenty more things which would drive my roomie crazy, which I believe he would let me know loud and clear in the days to come. But as you can see, one should be blessed to get a roommate like me, who has only a very few bad qualities:-P

Hostel Life

This is the first time I am living in a hostel; so naturally, I would be very “bitchy” about it. The thing I hate most about our hostel is the Indian toilets that we have. Goodness gracious me, we are bloody MBA students in the 21^st century and we have to forcibly do squats every morning! As I recently found out tummy trouble and Indian closet do not go hand in hand. Sitting in a crouching position for more than 30 seconds is not the most comfortable thing in the world. Getting up after 30sec for some pain relief aint the most comforting feeling either. I could go on, but to maintain some order its better if I stop now. Ah one more thing, there is no bloody ventilation inside the toilet! When you are sick it’s not the best place to be in.

Next in line would be the room. It’s too bloody small. There isn’t enough space to move around or even keep my books. There is proper ventilation but the problem with the ventilation is that, when it’s there, all our insect friends come in. I have insect bites all over my body and it’s pretty nasty. The insects in Delhi are quite mean. They are out to kill you! My arms and legs are filled with disgusting and painful sores.

Now something that is very close to my heart, food! We are served garbage here. Its filthy and tasteless every day, well let me be fair, some days it tastes good. I seriously doubt if they wash the plates. The way the people who serve the food play around with it using their hands arises a special feeling which cannot be explained. The bloody food is same on most of the days. These people are obsessed with potato and chappaties!! They give you lassies which taste like water! On the rare days they give us sweets, its pretty good. I had never thought that a day would come where I would eat just for the sake of eating! And don’t get me started on the quality of water I get. I get the feeling by the time I pass out; I would get familiarized with all the water born diseases.

The worst part of the hostel is that it’s about 2km from the college. So a whole lot of fun is lost. Regardless of all these atrocities, it’s pretty cool being in a hostel, one gets to have a whole lot of fun. The birthday celebrations where “Happy Birthday” is sung by boys in the worst possible way, getting to know about the swear words in different languages, sitting at talking about girls late at night, all the “brotherly love”, wacky roommate with whom you would have stupid differences with, etc are things which you won’t get if you stay at home. So over all life in the hostel is fun and one would just ignore all the crappy things around and have a good time.

Vote for the party

Its election time and the question that came to my mind is if one should vote for the candidate or the party? After thinking for a while, it was pretty clear. In a parliamentary system like Indian, for the central elections, one should always vote for the party rather than a candidate. 

Let’s get the facts straight. The voters are voting for a government that is supposed to rule the country, not their state or district. One has to think of the larger picture rather than what will the candidate do for a particular constituency. I do believe that MP’s have a responsibility towards their constituency but more than that I believe that it’s the state government’s job to take care of the state. National elections are more than just about ones constituency. It should be based on national issue not local issues. 

From the little understanding that I have of a parliamentary democracy, I find that the party is god. In the parliament, even though every MP represents his constituency rather than a party, an MP cannot act against his party (and still be an MP). The job of the central government is policy making at the national level and not what the MP’s can do for different parts of India rather, what the party(or alliance) can do for the nation as a whole. I strongly believe that we need to vote for an ideology rather than “a particular candidate”. The central government decides what the foreign policy of the nation should be, they dictate the defense policies and in fact everything that will affect us as a nation is government by the central government. Do we really want to see a government which refuses to talk to America or refuses to make defense deals with Israel? 

Now I agree that MP should bring funds to his constituency and all, but its not done just by the MP alone. All work an MP does is with the help of his party. No MP can go against his party and get anything done. I seriously believe that we got our priorities wrong when we vote for central elections. Left may or may not be good in kerala, but when it comes to central elections we should see if they would be good for the country. What we see now is that for national elections, people vote for local issues, which is totally wrong. 

This is how regional parties have gained power. All they have to see is that their region is satisfied. They wouldn’t look at the nation’s interest at large. On the other hand, a national party would take a more considerate view of things. 

Issues such as foreign policy, reservations, defense expenditure, expenditure on agriculture etc should be the issues, not why isn’t there water in my taps, where is the fly over. These issues should be left for the state elections rather than central elections. I believe that the job of the voter is to vote for a party which they believe would take India forward. So vote for the party !!!

Wasted opportunity

I had a GD/ interview last week in a certain B school. After the GD was over I thought that I did exceedingly well. The topic was “freedom of expression, shouldn’t there be limits”. Even now, if you compare my performance with that of the group, I did exceedingly well. Now later when I reached home, I was thinking about how well I had done the GD and the kind of points I brought in. I was telling to myself that I should be getting full marks for the GD. Then suddenly it struck me, the things we said in the GD were utter crap. Even if it was not crap, we had a very narrow view on the topic. All of us were talking about freedom of speech and things related to it. None of us talked about freedom of expression in movies, paintings, cartoons etc. None of us talked about the nude paintings of various goddesses and how certain right wing groups are totally against it, none of us talked about various movies which gets banned or on the content of various movies. We didn’t mention about the Danish cartoonist nor did we mention about writers like Salman Rushdi or Taslima Nasreen. In short we didn’t do any justice to the topic. I started off the discussion and I guess I would be getting maximum blame for the sorry state of our GD. I would be blamed for not taking the group in the right direction. 

Had I brought in all the points I just mentioned here, my selection to the institute would have been more or less certain. Yet again I missed the bus. What’s the point in having all this freaking knowledge if you can’t use it when it matters the most. You will get only one chance and you have the grab the opportunity. That’s what winners do. Getting all these points after the GD is over is immaterial. There is absolutely no use. You will be judged on what you said during the GD and there is no way that the panelist could find out how much knowledge I have. 

It could be said that it’s not just my fault that all these points weren’t discussed. Other people in the group should have brought these points. To a certain extent, the group in which you are matters, a good group can make your performance look even better, more points would come up and the panelist would have a good impression about the group. But in gd’s even though team work matters, individual contributions plays a huge role. Just because others didn’t bring various aspects of the topic doesn’t excuse you from not bring them, even if you had brought a lot of points on your own. 

Performing when it matters the most is a trait of winners, something which I seem to lack. There isn’t much difference between some one great and some one ordinary. Great people grab opportunities with both their hands where as ordinary people lets some slip. I let this particular opportunity slip, now all I can do is to wait and hope that I get in. 

Obama the visionary?

Since the time when Barcak Obama came into the limelight, we in India were full of praises for him. We would look at our politicians in contempt and would say that the world and the US need such visionary leaders. Overlooking the fact that the speeches made by him were just campaign speeches we would say that, he truly is a statesman.

It has been a while since Mr. Obama took office and even though its too early to comment on him, from that little that I have seen of him, the only conclusion that I can come to is that he is no statesman but just a politician. He had made a lot of noise about Mr. Bush’s policies, but most of his present policies are just a logical continuation of Mr. Bush’s policy. Agreed, Mr. Bush was a horrible president, he was in fact a shame for the nation. Obama was a breath of fresh air, the much needed “change” that the US and the world were looking for. To be honest, any one who could form a sentence properly would be a breath of fresh air compared to the previous president of the US.

To be honest, the kind of issues Obama talked about during his campaign was what all US presidential hopefuls talk about. Just like in India, every election politicians talk about free TV, building a temple, rice for Re 1, etc, politicians in the US always have been talking about the state of the health care system, problems with higher education, unemployment, etc. In content I do not see anything unique about Obama’s campaign. The way he said it, the timing (when people were fed up with Bush) and all mattered a lot.

The fact that strengthens my argument is Obama’s view on immigrants. Clearly that’s a knee-jerk reaction to please the public. Even though the technicalities ensures that all the hype about immigrants loosing jobs and end of outsourcing, remains just a hype, the point here is the kind of perception that Obama is giving out. If he was truly a statesman he wouldn’t give out such crowd pleasing statements without addressing the complexities of the issues (what a sentence :D ). If he was really a statesman he would have considered the implications of what he is doing once the recession is over. His views on nationalism, buy only American also isn’t a sing of a visionary leader.  It’s not just about the immigrant issue, most of his issues are just an extension what Mr. Bush’s policies.

The only reason why he could unite a huge majority of America is that all of America speaks one language, English. That is the reason why we don’t see such leaders in India. The fact that majority of the Indians still live in villages, the fact that its next to impossible for a person to communicate with all the Indians, is one of the main reasons why we don’t have a national leader. The thing that went in favor of Nehru was that, the sprit of freedom struggle was still alive back then.

I feel that we are being unfair with our politicians. Politicians all over the world are the same. Not that it’s a good thing, definitely we need to change that, but to say that only our politicians are bad is really unfair. All politicians at present think just about the next elections. 

Am I always a little too late?

I usually take pride in the fact that I am a kind of person who doesn’t get bogged down by failure or setbacks, who always learn from his mistakes or who never regrets anything. I usually come up with statements like "that is what I thought right in that point in time so can’t regret the decision". If you really look at it, these statements are a way to save once face. It’s good to learn from mistakes but the fact that one is making many mistakes isn’t a very good thing. To have the feeling that what you did in the past need not be the best way to go about things, that too often is kind of disturbing. 

I sometimes get the feeling that I am always a little too late. It’s not something recent, it has been there in my mind for quite some time. I feel that quite too often I realize the importance of something only after the opportunity passes. 

Now I feel that I should have been more ambitious when i was in school. Should have taken part in various competitions, should have improved my oratory skills and also my interpersonal skills. Any way since I was gonna get into engineering; I feel that I should have put in the effort and prepared for IIT's or NIT's. I feel that in the kerala entrance exam that I had taken, I should have attempted more number of questions, I knew many questions and didn’t attempt them because i was scared of getting them wrong, doing so would have gotten me a better rank. 

In college I feel that I should have studied some subjects much harder, many of the subjects no matter how hard had I studied wouldn’t have been of much use, but certain subjects had I studied much harder would have done better in college. I regret the fact that I wasn’t a friendly person and didn’t get to know my juniors or seniors well, for that matter even my batch mates. I feel that it was stupid of me to be hung up over a girl for a ridiculously long period of time, I can understand being heart broken, but my case of simply ridiculous. I feel I should have been a more proactive person, should have taken part in a lot more competitions, should have done something for the society. I had 4 years with relatively not much work, should have utilized it better. Not regreting what I didnt do, but I wonder, why is it only after a situation passes, I think I could have done better 

There is of course a positive side to every statement that I made. There is more that meets the eye. It was not like, I just didn’t do it. There were many times I was up against the odds and tried my best to handle the situation But I feel that one should at times be cynical to themselves. My whole argument can be countered by just saying a few things like, destiny or since I didn’t know what was right at that point in time how would i know what to do or there is a time and place for every thing. Having said that, I wonder if I missed the bus one time too many. There is definitely not gonna be an answer to the question. 

Red+pink=bad

Even the though of the “Third front” having a good chance of winning the coming elections is a cause of concern. First of all the way the alliance was formed was wrong. Their USP is that, they give a third alternative to the people of the nation, the chance of a non congress, non BJP lead government. This was exactly what the BJP did to come to power and quite frankly it’s getting a little old. Even though the other main national parties do not have a proper national agenda(other than the life long dream of the BJP to build a temple and the congresses never ending endeavor to give reservation to every caste that exists in India), the formation of the third front just magnifies this fact.

Another problem is that the third front doesn’t even have an excuse for an ideology. The only ideology that I can see is that they don’t want either the congress or the BJP to form the government. The problem with this is that, once if they come to power, there is nothing holding them from staying together. The same dislike they have towards the 2 national parties will crop up among each other. We all were displeased with the way the present government got its numbers in the house. The third front will be much worse than that. It is an alliance of people who are hungry for power and have suddenly found a short cut to get it. It is a mixture of various regional parties. All of us know what kind of trouble the regional players create for the national parties when they are in power. Imagine the situation if all these regional parties were in power together. We would have the supposed Prime Minister building her statues all over India, people jumping up and down opposing anything that is not Russian Chinese or Iranian, various other groups asking for more funds for their respective states and so on. 

The situation of having many regional parties ruling the nation is quite scary. The congress and the BJP at least want to be all over India and hence would work or say that it will work for the development of all regions in India. That hope is also trashed with the arrival of regional parties. On the bright side, the third front is a pre poll alliance and we all know what happens after the election results are announced. 

The formation of the third front from the beginning was a bad news (just look at their Prime Ministerial candidate). The only thing that they are going to bring to the nation is instability. A country run by regional parties would never be able to please the nation. When there is no head to control and no excuse of an ideology to go by, god save us if such a situation happens. Even though I do not think that the third front will come to power in this election, the fact that regional parties are getting to have a major say in national politics is a cause of concern. Its up to the national parties to ensure that they remain as the 2 major national parties and do not let some sorry excuse for an alliance to gain momentum. 

Top story, a child actor from the movie slumdog got slapped by his father. This was the tops story in one of the news channels. This happened when one thought the media couldn’t get any lower. Come on, give me a break, I have been beaten up far worse by my father many a tome and no one gives a damn about that. Children in India get abused a lot and no one reports it and when something happens to a child actor its breaking news. On this incident the whole family was interviewed. The child was like dad loves me so hit me. Mother was saying there is plenty of love in the family. Dad was like it was just because he got angry at that point in time. Come on!! I don’t think I need to say anything more on this issue to highlight the utter absurdity of the whole thing. 

A news report that caught my eye was the feud between ICL and BCCI. I knew that BCCI didn’t like ICL but only came to know about the ridiculousness of the whole issue recently. Sachin and Karthick were pulled out of a charity match because in that match there was a player who had once played in the ICL( who is currently not playing). Can the BCCI get any more childish? It’s like saying the players under BCCI won’t have fun if the people who are even remotely associated with ICL are part of the fun. Can it get any more stupid? Laxman was not allowed to play for a county because that particular county had players from the ICL. If you look at it in a rational manner whose lose is it? The BCCI won’t have this authority for long. They appear as an insecure dictator who will soon loose its power. Not allowing people to play in a charity match is condemnable. I can understand not allowing players from the ICL playing in BCCI events, I don’t see what the problem is if players under the BCCI play along with ICL players (not under ICL). This is modern racism and shouldn’t be allowed.  

What the F***?

For the past few days in various news channels every 2 hours debates, discussions, stories about whether Valentines Day should be celebrated or if it’s against Indian culture. Various groups getting hold of various arms to suppress people celebrating Valentines Day. Women getting hold of kitchen utensils, men deciding to proclaim people as husband and wife, people enacting what will happen if Valentines Day is celebrated. On the other hand you have the pro Valentines Day group. They also have come up with various innovative ways to tackle this issue. For a developing country with too many problems to count, aren’t we spending too much of our time and other resources on such a ridiculous problem? To celebrate Valentines Day or not? Is that even a real problem 

The turn of events is absolutely disgusting and appalling. Why on earth is any “sena” spending this much effort to tackle the “problem” of Valentines Day? Various sections of society across religions and castes are marginalized in India, why can’t these religious fanatics champion their cause? Farmers take their life because they don’t have money to buy the food that they produce and all we get to see is a documentary once in a blue moon. Ridiculously high numbers of children are not getting elementary education and no one give a damn. Women get raped, college girls are forced into prostitution because they can’t pay their fees, parents sell off their children so that they and their children can have a meal and do we ever get to see the real depth of the issue? Ridiculously high number of children and elderly sleep without a roof over their head, and scores of them die every year because of extreme cold or heat strokes. Do we give a rat’s ass about them? Family’s die of thirst and hunger because neither water nor food is available to them even though tons of food gets spoiled in various go downs, but why should we care? If we start to write down the problems we as a nation is facing, that list will never get over. 

Celebrating Valentines Day or going to a pub, is that really an issue. We have the Women and Child development minister and the health minister going hammer and tongs on this issue. Agreed, beating up of the women was the job of a few sexual sadists and they should be trashed but why should a minister directly get involved in such incidents? Even though I know the answer is “Politics”, still, it’s appalling. In a country (in general) where women are tortured for not providing dowry, where women cant get out without the fear of getting molested or raped, is it right on the part of the minister to give her complete attention on ensuring that Valentines Day goes on or the working of pubs are not disturbed. I am not saying what she did was wrong, but I am hurt with the kind of emphasis that this issue got. If such hype was there around various other issues we would have been a developed country 10 yeas ago. 

It’s not just about the people who support Valentines Day. Don’t the so called “protectors of Indian culture” have anything better to do?  Is Valentines Day or Pubs the major cultural problem that we are facing? I agree, it’s important to protect Indian culture and heritage, but having agitations for such petty things is nothing less than school boyish. Throw stones at the government for the status of the holy ganga or the appalling condition of the various temples in our country. Of all the things Valentines Day? I don’t   care if its politics or anything else, its simply ridiculous.

To ensure that such things don’t happen, I guess we should be the change that we want to see. This much hype for such an issue is not justified, at least in my humble opinion. It’s high time that we as a nation set our priorities right. Issues like poverty, hunger, exploitation, death might not be as fancy as celebrating Valentines Day or going to pubs but its high time that the former issues get hyped more. 

Any eye for an eye

As per latest reports, a certain so called cultural organization will go on a rampage on Valentines Day. They will either forcibly marry off couples or ask them to wear rakhi. Come on!! Are people allowed to make such threats publicly in India? I know the various political implication of taking strong action and how it’s hard to crack down on cultural groups in a country like India. But come on! This is getting out of hand. Any organization with more than 20 members can threaten to create havoc or create havoc and get away with it. Its happening in the congress ruled states as well as the BJP ruled states. After a while it’s really frustrating. Any Tom, Dick and Harry can do anything if he does it in the name of Indian culture.

The problem lies in the fact that as a nation we are not that courageous. I feel that if 50 odd people come and start enforcing their own law, the rest of the citizens should mob up and trash the living day lights out of them. That is the only solution to the problem. Even though doing so is also taking law into ones own hands, what this does is that it will act as a deterrent for people who want to make a name for themselves through hooliganism. I strongly believe that this is the way forward. If 10 “sena’s “come and attack you, 20 of you should gang up and beat them up. Even though this is a highly uncivilized way of going about things, I feel that we are running out of options.

Another thing that I have noticed is that, the media will go all hammer and tongs about leaders committing crimes and let off on bail and allowed to speak to the public freely. The absurdity of their concern is that the same channel, who cries foul about the accused allowed to talk to the media, is the media to which the accused is talking to. Such incidents make you believe in a lot of conspiracy theories. Another thing that I have noticed is that how media gets to all the place well before the police gets there. And if the accused is hiding, the media is able to contact them from an undisclosed location! Is there a tie up between the police and the media? Is there a tie up between the culprits and the media? Are all the 3 parties in it together? Or is it just coincidents? Now I understand why the Americans come up with various conspiracy theories.

What ever may be the truth, I feel that people are getting more and more frustrated. If such incidents are not controlled by the authorities, the unrest will increase and it could turn real nasty

Do we need more, younger politicians?

I was listening to the usual rhetoric of a certain right wing extremist/ fundamentalist chief minister from a certain state in south India. It made me wonder if we needed more, younger politicians. Most of the political leaders we have are above 70. There are only a handful of young political leaders emerging. Then I thought about the various “elderly” politicians and realized that not all of them a maniacs. There are sensible ones and there are the insane ones. There are religious extremist, people who bring out regionalism, people who play cast politics. On the other hand there are many who are quite modern in their thinking, pro development, against fundamentalism.

Young or old, people are the same. Even among the youth there are extremist, fundamentalist. Good and bad are not just restricted to the old politicians. The same traits that are seen in the old politicians are seen in the young politicians, across the political spectrum. There are many examples of various young politicians create havoc against the so called “modern” life style of people. India is a unique country. Left, Right and Center, you have it all here.

So does the age of a politician really matter? I feel that age is a psychological thing, after all the whole world runs on sentiment. Perception matters a lot. If some one can instill confidence, it can make a world of difference. So when one sees a old guy who is about to collapse, heading a government, naturally confidence level of the people won’t be high. It can also affect how others view the government. On the other hand, if a young person with a lot of energy is heading the government, there will be a lot of positive energy surrounding him and it can rub off to others. Even if both the old and young do the same thing, a fresh face can make a lot of difference.

I believe that even if young politicians come, there will be extremist and religious fanatics among them. The only way such evils can be eliminated is though education and a change in mind set of the people. Even if a lot of young politicians come up, as there is illiteracy, poverty and various other issues, many of them would be tempted to exploit their sentiments for obtaining power.

In my book, young or old, it really doesn’t matter. It’s the person that matters. If a person can radiate energy, be sincere to his job and do the right thing, age wouldn’t really be a problem. Well to answer the question, “do we need more, younger politicians?” well of course we do, but youth doest necessarily mean, abracadabra and every thing is perfect.  

A month is a life time in politics

I remember a month ago saying how the congress is going to have a tough time in the coming elections and how the BJP is going to get a clear cut advantage. A month has gone by and the tables have turned 180 degrees. It seems that the congress is making all the right moves and the BJP is jumping from one mistake to another.

The people associate with the BJP all the right wing groups that are present in India and its justified. Unfortunately for the BJP many of these right wing groups with or without the BJP’s consent are creating havoc. The response the various chief ministers of BJP ruled states give isn’t helping matters either. Many instance of violence by right wing extremist have been witnessed in Karnataka for the past few months. In other words since the BJP came to power in Karnataka, a lot of right wing extremism has emerged. The various statements that the “esteemed” chief minister and the home minister of Karnataka have made, made me conclude that those two are right wing extremist and religious chauvinist. Well what else can be expected from a person who takes decisions on the basis of what his poojari says?

These incidents of right wing extremism do not help the cause of the BJP for the coming elections. People’s memories are very short and all these incidents are happening just before the elections, one can easily imagine what the out come of these incidents will be. On the other hand take the case of the congress. Last December inflation was at record high, prices of basic commodities are off the roof, the Mumbai attacks, and people were questioning the competency of the government. The situation has changed drastically. Fuel prices have come down by more than 7 rupees, prices of commodities are slowly coming down, inflation is supposed to hit 2% by March, the government is being very proactive while dealing with terrorism and Pakistan. The UPA government is making all the right noises. Credit must be given to the new home minister P Chidembaram. He might be doing the same job as what his predecessor has done, but his is able to connect with the masses. People get the impression that work is being done. He has managed to change the perception of the people to a certain extend. Even the Prime Minister looks twice as strong as he was couple of months ago.

General elections are going to happen in little over 2 months time. As we have seen for the recent events a lot can happen in 2 months. At this point I do feel that the UPA has an edge in the coming elections but then again 2 months is a long time. Any thing can happen. No one with full confidence will be able to say what the next government will look like. In fact I believe that even after the results are declared it will be quite hard to predict the core of the next government. As the saying goes there are no permanent enemies in politics. 

The value of life

I was watching the various award ceremonies that took place around the republic day. Various gallantry awards were given by the government and various other organizations. What I saw was that most of the awards went for the heroes of the Mumbai terrorist attacks. It was good that these heroes were given some recognition. Even though nothing can bring back to life the gesture of appreciation was good.       

This incident made me wonder. Are these people getting all the recognition and respect just because they literally died in front of us? Every year many Jawans die protecting our borders and yet we don’t seem to give them half of the recognition that we gave to the people who died in the Mumbai terrorist attacks. These Jawans also gave their life protecting the country, why should their death have any less value. I also have heard that all the people who died during the Mumbai attacks were not given the same recognition by the government. Some got a “higher” awards where as others got a “lower” award. How can one value one death more than the other. I am not saying that jawans who die in the border don’t get any recognition but many don’t. The terms of the awards they get are also different. 

Indian after independence had decided that all titles such as Sir would not be permitted in India as it will cause division in the country. Can’t a similar approach be taken on these gallantry awards? Surely the basis on which one classifies which person should get which award depends on the perception of the adjudicators. Is that necessary when it comes for people giving their lives for their country? I can understand various film awards, as it can be considered as a marketing gimmick. Is that needed for our gallantry awards? I am strongly opposed to putting a value on different lives. Doesn’t matter if it’s a constable or the head of the police department, nor does it matter if its fighting terrorist in Mumbai or Kashmir, the bottom line is they died fighting for the county. Even if a person didn’t die fighting for the country but put himself under danger, he should be given the same recognition as the martyrs. Even though these awards wont hamper national integration or anything similar, symbolically it looks bad when patriotic deeds are being rated. 

In a related incident I heard the pugilist who went for the 2008 Olympics were crying foul when they were not given the Padma awards. Personally I do not think they have any right to feel dejected. Its not as if they have been performing for a very long time and they are not getting recognized. True, they did the country proud, but surely they can’t be compared to a Abhinav Bindra. Bindra has been performing consistently for around 10 years or even more. I surely hope that they don’t think that they are as good as or better than Bindra. They also brought in the angle for the government being biased towards cricket. Even though harbajan might have had a few problems this year, he has been performing consistently since 2000. Other sports need encouragement, but lets not just be lenient on then just because they are not cricket. 

Slumdog Millionaire

You might say I was a little prejudice about the movies even before I saw it. If a movie is good rarely you see its cast and crew running around in circles going here and there. People will not go on yapping about the movie if it’s a master piece. So I was really circumspect about the movie. 30mins into the movie I felt completely justified.

If many people tell you that a movie is good, then it has to be good! If you say its not then you are not normal. I get the feeling this might be one of the reasons for the popularity of the movie or they might have paid the critics off. The western audience can be excused. They might have been under the impression that this was an “ethnic Indian” movie and we all know what purchasing power those two words have.

The problem I have with the movie is that for a realistic movie it chooses to be realistic when it pleases. I do not have any problem with the showing of the slums and slum life and the various atrocities surrounding it. If we want to be a developed country we need to address these issues. It could well be an eye opener for many. The thing that moved me the most was the love story in the movie. The lead character was in love with a girl who was literally raped by his brother and who was a full time prostitute, kind of put things in perspective for me.

I couldn’t understand what’s so great about the movie. The story isn’t that great. I do agree that India has many problems but it’s not as screwed up as the movie shows. Will any host mock his contestant about his life, in public? Will an overburdened Indian police officer even give a damn about a person who “ALLEGEDLY” cheated in a TV game show? Had it been made by some Indian director the critics would have definitely tore the movie apart. But as its not, it has to be good. God knows how the Hindi speaking children in the slum all of a sudden speaks English with an accent. It would have been much better if they had spoken English from start itself. The whole rise form the slum life was quite ridiculous.

The thing that bugged me the most was a line in the movie where a conversation broke out on the real Indian and the real America. That was way too condescending. I know that all of India is not developed but since when did the slums of Mumbai represent the real India? Am I also a part of India, aint I real? Don’t get me started off on the “real America”. 

I have never understood why we Indians feel that if anything is remotely associated with India, it’s Indian. The movie is not an Indian movie. We have many good Indian movies, embrace that. Are we that desperate that we have to find ridiculous connections and adopt non Indian movies as Indian? I wouldn’t say that this was an American or a British movie but it was more of an international movie. I hate it when Indians make something which is remotely associated to India as Indian. We are much better than that.  

The movie is definitely a good watch. Lets not over hype it!

Compromise or being realistic?

I have always wondered what is the difference between being compromising and being realistic or practical. We all say that one should never compromise in life, but what is a compromise? Consider this example; I say to myself that the next girl I sleep with should be Priyanka Chopra. Now if I sleep with another girl, am I compromising? Or am I being realistic and practical as I have a better chance of becoming India’s Prime Minister than sleeping with Priyanka. The reason why I chose this example is to emphasize on what is realistic and what is not.  

In life there are many occasions where we have to take decisive decisions. One of the main things that creep into our mind while taking a decision is whether we are compromising or not. Most of the time, as the narcissists that we are, we forget what is a compromise. Compromise happens when we set standards for ourselves and we fail to meet those standards. Now what if the standard we set for our self is too high? Now there is a point of view that nothing is out of reach. Now even if it’s true is it practical in this world. Is it viable for one to stick to a particular path, no matter what, even though there is another path which is more reachable?  Even if nothing is impossible should one spend way too much time than normal to get there? Doesn’t the amount of time spent chasing the dream make any difference to the dream itself? 

The answers to the above questions, I don’t know. The reason that these things came to my mind is because I am in a predicament. I had set a certain goal for myself (short term) and was not able to achieve it even after taking twice the "normal" or the preferred amount of time. Was my goal too unrealistic for me or should I postpone my goal or should I lower my expectations, well these are questions to which I guess there is no correct answer. Am I compromising if I alter my goal? Was my goal too unrealistic to be achieved at this point in time? 

People will have short term goals and long term goals. Short term goals might be the various steps that are required for reaching ones ultimate goal. A person might plan out on how he will reach his ultimate goal. I feel that the ultimate goal is more important than the various intermediate steps taken to reach it. The ultimate goal that a person has is the meaning of that person’s life. Ultimate goal may or may not be achieved, even if it’s achieved it will be towards the later part of ones life. To enhance ones chances of achieving his/her ultimate goal, I feel that too much unnecessary time and importance should not be given to various intermediate steps that are to be taken to reach the goal. If there are two ways of doing a task and if the first option doesn’t work, we should always be open to the second option (as long as there is no drastic decrease in standard) instead of spending more than the necessary time on the first option.  

Whether the conclusion I came to is right or not, I dont know. I might change my point of view a couple of months down the road. I guess no one will ever have a correct answer to the question. I guess all must judge themselves honestly and objectively and have a measure of ones ability. Its one thing to aim high at every point in life, but at the same time one must be realistic also. I feel that going for a wild goose chase is pointless. I also feel that every dream should have a realistic time limit. If the time required goes beyond that, one should always seriously consider plan B or C. Now am I being pessimistic or realistic is a topic for another debate.

Modi the great ?

I have been hearing a whole lot of crap about Narinder Modi these days. The whole story about how Gujarat has endorsed development. Modi’s modal of development etc.  A whole bunch of industry leaders proclaiming Modi would be an ideal Prime Ministerial candidate. Well you can not blame them for kissing ass, as they need to get their work done.

I was sitting in a seminar organized by a MBA entrance coaching institute in Trivandrum. I was listening and all of a sudden I hear about Modi. How the custodian of Hindutwa demolished many temples for the development of the state. That was the last straw! When such statements come from people in authority definitely it will have an impact on the innocent minds sitting and hearing it.

Let’s get things straight. In Gujarat the BJP is ruling with a huge majority. So it’s much easier to get things done. Hence they don’t have to worry about staying in power. Next comes the temple demolitions. When any thing related to the Hindu religion comes up, like the demolition of temples, the main organizations that take up the cause are the VHP, RSS and the Bajarang Dal (BJP too ). Now we all know what relation do these organizations share with the BJP. The whole temple demolition was pure politics.

The BJP wanted to be seen as a pro development party before the general elections. They also wanted to send a message that they are willing to do what ever it takes for the sake of development. So they came up with an agreement with these organizations that a certain number of temples will be demolished, after that these organizations can start raising their voice, get a little melodramatic, and then a few more temples will be demolished, then a few meetings will take place and in the end the demolition drive will be stopped. It’s a win-win situation. The BJP will be seen as a pro development party and the other organizations can take pride in that fact that they intervened in the matter.

Had it been any other party, I guarantee you that even before the first temple was demolished, these organizations would have created mayhem there. So let’s not give undue credit to people. I am by no means saying that BJP is the only party which does similar stuff. The same is true with the left in Kerala. When they are in power, the number of strikes is less and when they are not, strikes will be called for no apparent reason. For gods sake we had a strike when Sadman was hanged.

The problem with us is that we have a short term memory. Narinder Modi was responsible for the carnage in Gujarat. I do not care about the various state sponsored reports that give a clean chit to him. As the Chief Minister of the state he has to be held accountable for what had happened. Just because a few years have passed, it doesn’t mean that every thing is forgiven.

I do agree that a lot of work is being done in Gujrath. Let’s not blow things out of proportion. The reason why work cant be done in other parts of India is because of the opposition of various political parties. They oppose just because they are not the one who is implement it. Just take the example of the Ram Sethu project. The projected was initiated by the BJP and when they present government went forward with they, they had to face all kind of opposition.

The real problem is, various right wing and left wing organizations oppose everything that is not done by them and when they oppose they don’t hesitate in using any means that they can. So lets all have a reality check and think before jumping to conclusions. 

The right decision !

I have always wondered, is there anything such as a “right decision”. At different points in life, a person will have to make various choices. I often hear people saying, “that was the right move by him”, “it was a wrong decision”. Can anyone with complete confidence make such statements?

At various stages of life you will be forced to make tough decisions. You have to pick one way from several ways as the way forward. The way I see it, one should do what they believe is right. No one should feel any regret after doing what they thought was right at that point of time no matter what the outcome is. When I say choices, I do not mean to kill a person or not to kill a person. It’s more in the lines of which stream to choose after 10^th or which company to join or whether to ask a girl out or not. The reason why I believe that one should never regret a decision taken after listening to your hear and brain is because, we will never know what would have happened if we had gone for the second or third option. We might have ended up in a even worse situation had we gone for some other option. There is no sure shot way of telling if a decision was right or wrong. We certainly can not build a time machine, go back to the future, erase our memory so that we don’t remember anything that happened after we took the decision and then opt for the second option. There are far too many variables at stake. Even if a move you made turned out to be good initially, no one knows what will happen a year down. Never let any one tell you what is a good decision or what is a bad decision. One should definitely listen to what people have to tell, use your knowledge, weigh in the options and take the decisions in your best interest.

Once you take a decision you should stick to it. Good times and bad times will come and go. Life is full of ups and downs. We should always keep in mind that the main thing is to win the war not the battle. Tough time make a man strong. It gives us experience and confidence to come out of any situation. It will make you a stronger and better person. Do not regret a decision just because the going gets tough. Have faith in yourself and move forward. If the going gets tough, instead of mopping and regretting your moves, you should ensure that you do what ever it takes so that things work out in your favor. I would like to end by partially quoting one of my favorite sayings

If there is a problem and there is no solution for the problem, what’s the point worrying about it? If there is a problem and there is a solution for the problem, stop worrying and work towards the solution. 

Hypocrisy at its worst

Recently I heard the congress making a statement that if the LTTE leader is captured, they were looking forward for his extradition and charge him for the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi. Hypocrisy personified!!

The main problem I have with this is that the congress government has been more or less silent about the whole LTTE issue.(the policy of other government were more or less the same, just mentioning congress because they were the one who maid the claim) They come out with the usual crap that only way to resolve this problem is through dialog, stop the violence etc. It might be true but India could have been much more proactive in dealing with the LTTE issue considering the fact that it revolves around Tamils. If they were seriously interested in capturing the people behind the LTTE and take them to task, India should have helped Sri Lanka a lot more in the form of military aid. Instead for narrow political gains there was constant diplomatic pressure put by India because of certain LTTE sympathizers in Tamil Nadu , whenever some action was taken against the LTTE. Of course, the government’s hands were clean as it was just “concerned” about the plight of the “Tamil Civilians” in Sri Lanka. Now when the Sri Lankan army has done all the hard work and the major LTTE strong hold almost captured we speak about extraditing Prabhakaran! Can there be any act more cowardly than this?

Let’s say that the Sri Lankan government due to some bizarre reason gives the LTTE leader to India, what are we going to do? Sentence him to death and keep him alive for no apparent reason like in the case of Mohammad Afsal, the man behind the parliament attack. The official explanation given my the government is that there are 27 or 26 people in death row and Mohammad Afsal is number 27, the President only after considering the clemency plea of number 26 can go to number 27. This may be true but it sounds absolutely ridiculous. A person who was the master mind behind the attack on the India parliament which epitomizes the India democracy is not punished because of a technicality. I do not think that the situation would have been any different had any other party were in power.  

India as a nation has a lot of problems. Why do we want to add on to these problems? Say that we got the terrorist leader of the LTTE and we are serious about hanging him. I am pretty sure that within no time we would have added one more enemy to our list. Along with LeT, HuJI etc we would have to worry about LTTE and related suicide bombings, not to mention the mood of the LTTE sympathizers in Tamil Nadu. We lost our PM because of the LTTE, but if we were remotely serious of capturing the master minds we would have done it a long time back. I am absolutely clueless why this is being brought up now, may be for some political gains to show that UPA is not “soft on terror”. It’s always better not to get into unnecessary problems