Shyam Prakash Jha's blog

अहोरात्रि साधना

2012-02-06T09:49:00.002+05:30

अस्ताचलगामी सूर्य को
कौन करता है नमन ?
हार कर जाता है वो
रात भर सागर के शरण
वहां जल में जल कर
न जाने क्या तेज पाता?
होते ही प्रभात
हर नर - नारी
उसको सर नवाता !

रोने वाला ही गाता है

2012-02-03T19:02:00.002+05:30

(Sharing this poem I read long back in my text book. Not sure but I think its written by Harishvansh Rai Bachchan)

रोने वाला ही गाता है
मधु-विष हैं दोनों जीवन में
दोनों मिलते जीवन क्रम में
पर विष पाने पर पहले
मधु मूल्य अरे कुछ बढ़ जाता है
रोने वाला ही गाता है

प्राणों की वर्तिका बनाकर
ओढ़ तिमिर की काली चादर
जलने वाला दीपक ही तो
जग का तिमिर मिटा पाता है
रोने वाला ही गाता है

अरे प्रकृति का यही नियम है
रोदन के पीछे गायन है
पहले रोया करता है नभ
फिर पीछे इन्द्र-धनुष छाता है
रोने वाला ही गाता है

Bachchon ka doodh - Dinkar

2011-12-15T11:01:00.001+05:30

dont remember the entire poem and could not find anywhere. With my memory I could capture few lines from Dinkar's heart touching poem:

jeth ho ki ho poos, humaare krishakon ko aaraam nahin hai
chhothe kabhi sung bailon ka, aisa koi yaam nahin hai

mukh mein jeebh, shakti bhuj mein jeevan mein sukh ka naam nahin hai
vasan kahaan? sookhi roti bhi milti donon shaam nahin hai

bailon ke yeh bandhu varsha bhar kya jaane kaise jeete hain
bandhi jeebh, aankhe vishann gum khaa shayad aanso peete hain

par shishu ka kya, seekh na paaya abhi jo aansoo peena
choos choos sukha stan maa ka, so jaata ro vilap nagina

vivash dekhti ma, anchal se nanhi jaan tarap ur jaati
apna rakt pila deti yadi phatati aaj vajra ki chhati

kabra kabra mein abudh baalakon ki bhookhi haddi roti hai
"doodh doodh" ki kadam kadam par saari raat sada hoti hai

"doodh doodh" o vats! mandiron mein bahre paashaan yahaan hain
"doodh doodh" taare bolo in bachhon ke bhagwaan kahaan hain

"doodh doodh" ganga tu hi apani pani ko doodh bana de
"doodh doodh" uf koi hai to in bhookhe murdon ko jara mana de

"doodh doodh" duniya soti hai, laaoon doodh kahaan kis ghar se
"doodh doodh" he dev gagan ke, kuchh boond tapka ambar se

haton vyon mein se megh panth se swarg lootane hum aate hain
"doodh doodh" ae vats tumhara doodh khojane hum jate hain

That first day of ragging.....

2011-09-27T16:51:00.002+05:30

(This is some part of my upcoming novel and all characters in this small story are fictitious)

...........and then all of them lined up in front of their 2nd year seniors in that small room of one of the senior around 10 O Clock in night. Second year and first years folks had finished their dinner together but seniors looked hungry because juniors joined college a little bit late and so they had a delayed start for ragging session. Some of them in seniors were quite excited to start the session. Mota sardar was the ring leader from seniors. Juniors were bit puzzled. No one was sure that how will it start and what will happen? How long it will go? All kinds of questions were jumping in their young engineering minds but no one had enough courage to ask to any senior. Chachwa (from first year) looked over aged and so first all of the senior laughed at him and asked juniors to also laugh. Delhite (He had already proven his singing talent in front of seniors earlier in some of the mock-up ragging sessions earlier) was asked to laugh in a tune of famous song of singer Mukesh "Kahin door jab din dhal jaye.........". He quickly followed the dictat.

and then, all of the sudden..... Patalu Khas shouted and asked everyone to stop laughing.

A pin drop silence everywhere and then Patalu pulled Moti Bekar out of the queue.
"Where is the girl who was supposed to join Comp Sc in your batch"? – Patalu shouted. His throat was almost out of his mouth.
Moti didn’t move an inch. No reaction from Moti. He didn’t utter a single word. Juniors were puzzled.
Seems Moti told seniors that he has a confirmed news that a girl is going to join in this batch for comp sc and after hearing this news seniors were happy. This was very rare that a girl joining this college from that part of country and they probably thought that at least they have opportunities to talk to a girl now. But when they saw a lean and thin black guy joining instead of a girl in comp sc, seniors already had planned to teach Moti a lesson. They felt Moti has made them fool to escape ragging.
Moti thought it’s better to explain them how it went wrong than keeping silent and started explaining.
Moti had all kind of explanation but could not escape slaps and kicks from seniors. Seniors didn’t get convinced with his explanations and everyone of them took pride in assaulting that chap.

After that beating session of Moti, again all juniors were lined up. Moti was still not recovered from trauma and sobbing quitly in corner. Juniors were standing quite and looked scared. All of the sudden Laund Boss came out of line and pulled a small letter from his pocket. He offered that letter to Mota from his right hand and in respect held his right hand elbow with his left hand. He told Mota Sardar that he has a letter for all of them. Seems Laund got a letter written from a senior from other engineering college and he had firm believe that after reading this letter, seniors will not rag him (poor chap......). In fact other juniors were feeling jealous of him because of that letter. Mota sardar very politely took letter and started reading loudly. In letter, the sender has asked seniors to not rag Laund Boss. After reading letter, all seniors started acting like they are going to follow instruction as per the letter and wont rag Laund. Poor Laund felt his letter trick worked and was happy. Other juniors were still feeling jealous of him. And then... all of the sudden.... more than one seniors under the leadership of Patalu jumped over Laund and started beating him mercilessly...........

It was a horrible start of ragging for those new comers of that engineering college.....

BlackBerry Bold 9780

2011-07-19T15:15:00.002+05:30

Recently started using BlackBerry Bold 9780 and found it cool. It has 2GB memory, 5 mega pixel camera, nice email interface and of course very good screen resolution.

Ninth House e learning

2011-07-19T15:10:00.001+05:30

Went thru the different modules of ninth house e learning in last one year and found it very useful for leadership skill development. It is interactive and training modules are designed in quite innovative way where learning is easy.

मन .... रे तू काहे न धीर धरे....

2011-06-09T14:00:00.003+05:30

Last saturday, Baba Ramdev started fast in Ramlila maidan with his supporters against black money and corruption issues and by late night police came to forcibly evict him. No one knows how long Baba would have continued his fast but Government was in hurry.

One of the biggest problem seen with this government is that if someone questions about the bad state of internal security, govt or congress party doesnt even bother. If someone starts agitation for onion price raise, again government or congress party doesn't bother (they easily distance themselves on the name of coalition). In those situation, they even don't respond. On those issues, they perhaps adopt no action theory of P V Narsimha Rao and hope to let these issues handled by themselves :). But as soon as anyone starts agitating about corruption issues, they become hyper active. चोर की दाढ़ी में तिनका Here too they did same. They started negotiating with Baba Ramdev initially (senior ministers went to airport initially and then they held several meetings in luxury hotels with Ramdev) and then when they felt that things are not going their way they took aggressive approach in 3-4 hours. Apart from evicting the crowd, Within 24 hours they attacked Baba Ramdev thru the verbal salvo of Diggi Raja, Manish Tiwary and everyone. They started proving Baba Ramdev and Hazare as RSS man and started linking these anti corruption movements with communal issues. They also called Baba Ramdev a cheat. I just dont understand one thing even if Baba Ramdev is cheat and criminal, issues he is raising are very much valid and if issues are valid why should not we support? Why government is not answering question on corruption issues and black money than proving Ramdev a criminal or cheat. Even if proven criminal will start these anti corruption campaign, we must support him/her to clean up the system. Why only a political leader can start these agitation? This is responsibility of each and every individual of this country to come up and speak against all which are taking our countries backward.

Ba Adab Ba Mulahiza Hoshiyar Yuvraj padhar rahe hain......

2011-04-08T13:47:00.000+05:30

Yuvraj of congress party is in full form. He is really very active. Looks like he is rotating in the outermost orbit and trying to grab some threshold energy to come out of shell and get the crown. Sycophants are happy and enthusiastic. They are singing Yuvraj stuti day and night on podiums and on TV channels. Yuvraj is traveling to many places in India. He is going to big cities and all of the sudden sometime stops at a main market place and withdraws some money from ATM. He is alos going to remote villages and entering to poor people houses and eating with them. Shaking hands with common man and also sometime working with labors in fields with sports shoes and white spot less kurta payjama. Perhaps he took lesson from Mahatma Gandhis biography and wants to know India better before taking bigger responsibilities for nation and party.

Oh Yuvraj is so good.... He is dynamic, he is young and he is over enthusiastic. Initially I felt Yuvraj is honest too but slowly that image started vanishing. Yuvraj is yuvraj and his role is to demonstrate his interest towards nation and take over the crown. Yuvraj brought a lot of style & fashion statement in politics. When majority of politicians hesitated to go to poor villagers, Yuvraj didnt hesitate to meet them and shake hand. Bravo.... Chamchas are happy as usual. Chamchas become happy even if Neta fart. That's reality of world. Yuvraj doesn't know ABC of Indian economy or social structure or culture but he knows how to grab attention. Yuvraj came to watch India Pakistan cricket match at Mohali and at the final moments, he was standing on the grounds with Rajmata. I am sure Yuvraj even must not be knowing who all plays for India. But Yuvraj demostrated that he is too much in the match to support his nation and he is like a common Indian who gets excited when national team plays with Pakistan.

We too feel happy when Yuvraj comes near to us and ask useless questions like "How much per day you earn" or "where do you study?" or "don,t you have shoes". Sometimes he starts eating with us. Will all these gimmicks solve problems of India. Surely not but the... Yuvraj is yuvraj....

Ba Adab Ba Mulahiza Hoshiyar Yuvraj padhar rahe hain......

Way to go Yuvraj..........

Jagooo Mohan Pyare...

2011-04-06T12:31:00.003+05:30

Lot of things are going on. Corruption charges and investigation. Blame game and justification. Everywhere there is noise, commotion about corruption at various level but our beloved Mohan is sleeping. He doesn't want to wake up and open his eyes. He has his own reasons. First he says that he himself is very clean and there might be some people in his team who may be corrupt or with very low on moral ground but why should he bother about others. He has maintained his clean image successfully. There is no allegation against him about any scam. Second he also says that all these corruption at various level were present with earlier setups also only difference is that now media is very active. Earlier there was only print media and no electronic media so even if things were murkier they were not reported at that time. Third he also believes that in coalition politics and government, some corrupt people can hold govt posts.

I just want to say Mohan ji you must demonstrated some kind of accountability. You cannot escape with these lame excuses and keep enjoying the benefits of highest office of country. Yes we all know that at your home your wife cooks meal for you and you have a very simple living but that is of no use if almost everyone else in your team is getting accused with some corruption charges very frequently. Time to wake up Mr Singh and take some stringent action to demonstrate your leadership skills in cleaning up the mess and give some clean image to your government and country. If you think clean governance is not possible in coalition government then feel free to leave this office and let someone else try to provide a clean setup. Who compelled congress or for that sake any political party to form a coalition government. If you believe that a clean government cannot be formed with coalition, don't form a government.

Jaggo Mohan pyare............

and they won

2011-04-04T16:51:00.002+05:30

They started slow. Sometime they looked vulnerable. The strong batting lineup was not able to perform well in batting power plays. Bowling was looking dependent on a part time spin bowler. Then they lifted their game at right moment. Defeated all the previous world champions in 4 match stretch. They defeated 1975,1979 champion West Indies (in league match), Then they defeated 1987, 1999, 2003, 2007 champion Australia. After that it was turn of 1992 WC champion Pakistan. In final they defeated 1996 WC champion Sri Lanka. First time a host nation won WC. Captain clicked in crunch game. Most prolific batsman scored consistently. Main bowler bowled to his caliber. Everyone pitched in whenever team needed them.

I still remember the night India lost to Australia in 2003 world cup. Rickey Ponting and Co thrashed Indian team left and right. Looked like Indian players were very nervous that day but things were different this time. They were full of confidence and played to their potential.

Way to Go....

small story - in the parliament

2010-09-09T11:27:00.003+05:30

As soon as he finished his last line of speech in that joint session of houses, he could heard sound of clapping, appreciation, slogan in support of him. Leaders from all party started reaching him and congratulating him for a great speech. He was sure that this is going to be his one of the best speech which will be remembered in the history of parliament. Prime Minister himself came and congratulated him. He has been always appreciated as a strong speaker in and out of the house and party heavily relied on his oratory skills. Few days back, Prime Minister called him and asked him to prepare speech on the issue of child labour and he wanted that speech to be very efficient. He wanted him to specify each and every scheme government has started or the steps government has taken to control child labour in our country. Netaji took this very seriously as he felt there is a chance to get inducted in cabinet. He worked on each aspect of this issue and used every tricks to make his speech best of quality. He collected, analysed and included data from different sources. He also added efficient words and phrase to message out government policies in best possible ways. He worked day and night with his associates to come up with this speech and then practiced it several times at home. Indeed his speech was revolutionary. As soon as he came out of the parliament, print and electronic media surrounded him. His party worker were raising slogans continuously. He answered all the media question very efficiently. He was sure that the live telecast of his speech has been great hit and yes it really was......

After a hectic day, Netaji was tired and came back home late in the evening. His phones were still ringing. His party leaders from his state were congratulating him. With every appreciation, Netaji was feeling more and more proud. He was feeling sure of getting inducted in cabinet soon. He also got phone calls from his son and daughter who were studying abroad. He ate his dinner without much taste as he was very tired. Because he was feeling very sleepy so he ordered his personal assistant to not disturb him with any phone calls now. He was so tired that he just fell down over the bed and then he realized how much pain he is having all over his body. He ordered someone send Ramu to give him a massage. Ramu was eight year old son of his old domestic help Kishna. Ramu used to help his father and mother to do work at Netaji's place. Netaji always felt that massage given by Ramu is most refreshing. While Ramu was busy massaging his foot gently, slowly Netaji fell asleep....... He was going to have a hectic day tomorrow too. A NGO has called him for inaugural speech for a week workshop on child labour......................

Who is clean?

2010-08-30T16:00:00.004+05:30

With recent spot fixing allegation on some players of pakistan cricket team, everyone jumped over them. Media, former players, politicians, social leaders everyone from every possible corner of world started critising them. But then who is clean? Former players? I still remember Pakistan- Bangladesh one day match in a world cup where no one expected that Pakistan will loose but they did. Wasim Akram was the captain that time. In India itself, few players had been banned for lifetime a decade ago. Investigation agencies found players from almost every country weere in contact with bookies and in some cases they recieved money from bookies. This is proven fact. The entire cricket system is in mud whether we would like to accept or not. Indian politicians (who are usually supposed to be very corrupt) getting interest in cricket is directly or indirectly proving this. Lets closely observe Indian Premiur League of India. The entire setup of IPL indicates that cricket has gone beyond sport and has converted into money, high society contacts, parties and liquor. IPL has the teams where players from all playing nation participates. Naturally they must be close to all background activities which goes on along with IPL schedule.

Are we serious to clean cricket? Its a joke. No one is serious. Media is making money with these revelation and why would they like to seriously investigate this and get the truth out? After all, these (fixing news) are a good coverage for them. Cricket boards are full of corrupt officials and they themselves are making money thru these corrupt practices. If we start counting the names of officials, majority of the names will have tainted image. How can we expect them to clean the game and the entire setup.

Lets avoid watching cricket.

Its not raining here at Pune

2010-07-16T11:47:00.002+05:30

History is repeating itself. This year too, Pune has received scanty rainfall till now and the water level in four dams (which supplied drinking water to city) has gone down rapidly to create drinking water scarcity in city. Same thing happened last year. That time government authorities promised and declared that they have made plans on paper to handle this kind of problem very efficiently in future but then nothing happened. As soon as monsoon arrived in August/September last year, all plans on paper got washed away with rain water flow in dams. Compared to November 2008, we had more water reserved in dams in November 2009 and also municipal corporation has reduced water supply significantly to city, then too we have only around 1.5 TMC water left in dams and we are going to face acute water crisis in coming days. Issues are still same:
1. Water distribution system here at Pune is faulty and need revamp. 25%-30% water get wasted in distribution. Some areas get more than average quota and some don't even get 50% of average quota.
2. Authorities are busy in making money or at least busy in trying to find out a situation to make more money. They are not serious to really take on this situation and work out for a good robust solution which will work for long term. Might be they are thinking that rain god became happy in August/September last year and same pattern may follow this year too so why to put extra efforts.
3. Citizen are wasting water to their full capacity and don't understand (or don't want to understand) the importance of natural resources. We feel happy in keeping ourselves educated illiterates.

All eyes on rain god. Who knows he may become happy soon and all dams will get enough water for next one year. Lets prepare for YAGNA to make rain god happy......

Spain is champion

2010-07-12T11:28:00.002+05:30

Spain won FIFA world cup 2010. They were a good side and played very good football throughout the tournament. Octopus Paul was correct when it predicted Spain as a winner couple of days back :)
In hogh voltage tournament like World Cup, patience, consistency, teamwork matter more than individual talent. I have seen Spain coming to WC with player like Raul and not making big impacts. This time players like Xavi, Villa were bit low profile but left a huge impact in this tournament.
Celebration on for Spain........
Wait for WC 2014 started.

Its Spain vs Holland

2010-07-08T12:19:00.002+05:30

FIFA world cup 2010 is at final stage. European teams Spain and Holland will fight for lifting the cup. At quarter final stage, out of 8 teams, 4 were south Americans but only one reached semi final and now its all European final at world cup. The question that whether they deserved or not is useless at this stage and we must accept that both teams must have played some extra ordinary football consistently and thus they will fight for the crown. It must be a classical final if both team continue the rhythm.

And they lost.....

2010-07-05T10:45:00.003+05:30

They started very well. Throughout the first half Brazil played like a winner. Robinho scored a timely goal and created some opportunity for Kaka who missed two chances. Overall Brazil was on fire. Robinho was hitting top form. There were glimpses of Joga Bonito. Fabiano was colorless though. Then came the second half, a complete goof up between defender and goal keeper and equalizer goal. The story got a dramatic turn from here. Brazil started playing like a looser and conceded another goal to make score 1-2 against them. They started committing too many fouls which eventually saw Felip Melo out of the ground with a red card. With 10 players it was difficult to score another goal. Fabiano was completely out of touch. Dunga sent Milmar which could do very little to bother Holland's defence.

At last Brazil lost and now are out of WC 2010. Did they play very bad in quarter final against Holland? No. Absolutely not. If you see the statistics, ball possession, hit on target, corners in every department they were better than Holland but they lost confidence in second half and that causes them match. Romario in his recent article says it was over confidence but I felt it was a bad strategy to tackle Holland's player Robben which eventually cost them the match. They unnecessarily committed too many fouls against Arjen Robben. Dutch think tank was probably aware of Dunga's strategy to closely mark Robben and they exploited that. Every time Robben was tackled, he fell down on the ground like he got heavily injured.

Lastly even after getting reduced to 10 players, they had chances but no one at forward line could use those opportunity to score an equaliser. Kaka was playing very average. Robinho was playing well but heavily marked. Maicon was good but couldn't create impact. Elano was missing because of injury. Bastos was busy in committing fouls than playing to his potential. Lucio and Juan looked confused after Dutch equalizer.

On other hand Argentina played a very average level match against Germany and lost very badly.

एक पुरानी कविता - दीप बन जले हम

2010-07-01T16:14:00.003+05:30

आओ दीप बन जले हम
तम को संपूर्ण शक्ति भर
एक हो छले हम
आओ दीप बन जले हम !

श्रृंखला बद्ध हो एक कतार में
आँधियों के तीव्र वार में,
वृष्टि , तूफानों के संसार में
दर्प अंधियारे का दले हम
आओ दीप बन जले हम !

झोपड़ी में या महलों में
निर्बल में या सबलों में
आत्मा लेकर कर कमलों में
नव विद्युत् बन चले हम
आओ दीप बन जले हम !

पाप जलेगा पुन्य मिलेगा
ब्रह्माण्ड का शून्य मिलेगा
सद्कर्मो का पुन्य मिलेगा
पवित्र श्रम से पले हम
आओ दीप बन जले हम !

उलूक चढ़ कर देवी लक्ष्मी
आकर देखे रात में रश्मि
मुदित वो फिर कैसी कमी
देवी वर से फूले फले हम
आओ दीप बन जले हम !

-- श्याम प्रकाश झा

एक पुरानी कविता - शक्ति पुंज

2010-07-01T16:04:00.004+05:30

मुट्ठी भर
बिखरी हुई ज्योति
बिखेरा था जिसे
सैकड़ों दियों ने,
पुरजोर कोशिश कर
चुल्लू भर तेल के सहारे;

वही ज्योति शनै: शनै:
हुई लुप्त
घटता गया शौर्य उन दीयों का
और सर्वत्र व्याप्त हुआ
घुप्प अन्धेरा !

सुबह पांव फटने से पहले
फट गयी छाती उसी अँधेरे की
छिटकने लगी सूर्य की किरणे
यत्र तत्र सर्वत्र
हुआ लोप अकस्मात्
कुहनियों के बल रेंगता अँधेरा ;

सैकड़ों दीप नहीं
एक और बस एक
शक्ति पुंज
शौर्य प्रतीक
सूर्य को लालायित संपूर्ण विश्व ...... !

--- श्याम प्रकाश झा

Brazil 3, Chile 0 - Round of 16

2010-06-29T12:55:00.002+05:30

Chile attacked with 3 forwards. They tried to display a fearless approach against Brazil but after some initial balance in game, match slowly started drifting towards Brazil. Before half time score was 2-0 and match ended with 3-0 on board. Kaka, Robinho and Fabiano still not very best but looks like they are improving. That's good sign for Brazil. If Kaka achieves his rhythm in next 3 matches, they will surely have good chances.

First two matches of Brazil - Group stage

2010-06-23T12:10:00.003+05:30

I didnt find anything great with this brazilian team in WC 2010. Although they won both matches but could not display the quality play. In pockets, Kaka, Robinho, Fabiano, Elano, Maicon, Lucio demostrated brilliant play but could not continue that for 90 minutes. Fabiano was looking similar to Rivaldo :) Robinho has good dribbling skills but converting that in goal matters most. Kaka is heavily marked but his game was bit improved against Ivory Cost compared to first match. Hope he finds his form back. Elano was a surprise for me. I never heard about this guy but probably he was the star for Brazil with his hard work and excellent passes.

I am with Brazil. What about you?

2010-06-11T11:55:00.003+05:30

Soccer world cup has arrived again with full of colors and excitement. I am with Brazil. No doubt at all. I dont know how it started and when it started but I have been with Brazil since 1990. I still remember how I was following Brazil in world cup 1994 and became fan of Romario Bebeto combination. Then in 1998 when Brazil lost final I felt too bad. In 2002 Ronaldo did the trick along with Rivaldo, Ronaldinho. After a not so good performance in 2006, its time for Brazil to fire again.

I am with Brazil because I have seen them playing best of ground play with very artistic move. Sometime in such a manner that you will feel like listening any musical instrument.

Lets enjoy this World Cup. Best of luck seleção.....

small story - path to parliament

2010-05-11T11:04:00.003+05:30

Netaji is very much worried. He is worried because next day voting is scheduled for his constituency and he is not sure about victory. Yes he is a sitting MP and holds ticket of a national party but his contribution in the development of his constituency in last 5 years compelled him to think that he might lose. Its well past 9 PM. His poll managers are busy on mobiles and laptops to find out the ground realities.
Manager1: "Sir looks like tough chance for you this time. Yes because of majority of voters in this constituency are from your caste so you will get some votes and there are also some fixed party cadre votes but then too I can project that it will be a tough chance for you."
Netaji: "How much will be the difference? Do you have any figure around that."
Manager1: "Yes. Its close race. Margin may be as less as 20 thousands - 50 thousands."
Netaji: "It’s not too small to arrange overnight."
Manager2: "I have an idea sir. If you would like to listen"
Netaji: "Sure. tell me"
Manager2:"I have arranged voter list of few pockets in this constituency where relatively poor people stay. My study indicates that they are mostly slum areas of city. We will target 100000 voters from these city in 10 groups of 10000 each. We will distribute one Rs 1000/- note to each one of them overnight. It will cost you Rs 10 crores. In case even 50 % of them turns to vote you, you will win this election "
Netaji:"Its too big money to invest. Why the rates has soared to Rs 1000/- per voter. I thought it must be Rs 500/- per voter"
Manager3: " That is the rate for MLA election sir. Also in last 5 years money has depreciated a lot." This guy was a finance graduate and lost his way to join politics.
Manager2: "Anyway you are not in loss. In last 5 years you made lot more than this 10 crores figure. Only MP fund fetched you Rs 10 crores for last 5 years."
Netaji: "Let me think."
There was a pin drop silence for some time and then Netaji asked again.
Netaji: "Do we have cash arranged?"
Manager1: "Almost sir. We just need to finalize 10 teams of 2 persons each in different areas. One will hold the bag full with currency. Other will go thru the voter list and call the voters and hand over the Rs 1000/- note with a stern warning if they won’t vote for us"
Netaji: "Please also involve our party workers in respective areas for help and give priorities to workers with criminal background."
Manager2: "as you wish sir".
Netaji: "Dont do much delay. It’s already 10 PM"

Quickly 10 teams got formed. Notes of Rs 1000/- got arranged with the help of some local businessmen. Police and IT authorities were not an issue for them because Netaji belongs to ruling party. Every team left the poll management office by 11 PM. Whole night, lot of areas in constituency were awake. People waited for their turn in queues to get Rs 1000/- note from Netaji's worker. Some places notes got distributed with help of torch light. Around 5 AM in morning every team returned back with 100% utilization of budget.

After 3 days and whole day counting Netaji won election by 25000 votes. The areas where money were distributed, Netaji got huge number of votes. Success rate was more than 75%. Netaji picked some youngsters from these areas and distributed 2 bottles chilled beer to each one of them and some additional money to arrange for music system and crackers on public chowks to celebrate the victory.

Netaji is feeling relieved and very happy. While going to bed he is thinking what a cool way to get into the parliament and is also feeling bad about why did he waste last 2 months campaigning in his constituency in these very warm summer days..........

Accountability

2010-05-10T15:48:00.002+05:30

Last week, secretaries and other office bearers of almost every sport bodies rushed to meet prime minister Mr. Manmohan Singh. It was an emergency like situation for them. They worked tirelessly. They wanted PM to intervene in the tussle between sport minister Mr. Gill and sport authorities. Sport minister wanted to fix age limit for office bearers (most of them are politicians who doesn’t even know A B C of respective sports. For example Mr Abhay Chautala is President of the Indian Boxing Federation) and that was the main problem for these office bearers. They are running sports bodies in this country for years now. Some of them are heading their sport body for last 15-20 years. They don’t want a cap for their tenures. They never got baffled like this when India didn’t win any medal in Olympics or won very few medals in Asiad with such a huge population. They also never got bothered when athletes and players complained about the facilities and training provided to them. They were also not worried when news of bribe and wrong doing surfaced in media surrounding their sports bodies. But when news came of limiting the age of officials, they were highly active to lobby and persuade sport minister to take back this decision. Reason.......? Comments ........?

आशा

2010-04-27T12:12:00.005+05:30

संभल संभल के चल रहा
ये रोशनी का कारवां !

है स्याह रात का सफ़र
निशा का अंतिम प्रहर
खड़ी दनुजों की फौज है
गिरहकटों की मौज है

मगर उम्मीद की किरण
पर पल रहा ये नौजवान
संभल संभल के चल रहा
ये रोशनी का कारवां !

सफ़र जरूर है कठिन
प्राण भी पड़ती मलिन
जवाब दे रहा शरीर
देव बने हैं मूक-बधिर

बिना किसी वरदान के
मगर वो छू लेगा आसमां
संभल संभल के चल रहा
ये रौशनी का कारवां !

उसे पता वो जो नहीं चला
मौत क्या छोड़ेगी भला?
उस पार ही तो भोर है
आगे निकलने की होड़ है

अगर अभी रुका जो वो
ठौर भी मिलेगी कहाँ ?
संभल संभल के चल रहा
ये रौशनी का कारवां !

हर सुबह

2010-03-26T14:04:00.004+05:30

किरने रश्मि की स्पर्श करती हैं
हर सुबह
उड़ेल कर भर कटोरी रंग सिन्दूरी
आकाश में ;

अंक में माँ के लेटा शिशु चहका
आँखों में थी
रात भर के संसर्ग की सम्मोहिनी शक्ति
और
मुंह था जिगर के पास में;

बूँद बूँद टपका दूध
लपक लेता है वो
माँ के जिगर से
और दिख ही जाती है संतुष्टि
उसके प्यास में;

हर शिशु न श्याम जैसा
न हर माता है यशोदा
पर यही संबंध
दिखता है उन सबों को
जो हैं वात्सल्य के तलाश में !

-- श्याम प्रकाश झा (सालों पहले की रचना)

A Brief intro of Charlie

2010-03-23T15:44:00.003+05:30

(This is some part of my upcoming novel and all characters in this small story are fictitious)

While naming him "Charles Chhutkania", his parents never thought that his name will be a great topic for his engineering days. As soon as Charles joined college, his friends nicknamed him Charlie. Charles never got offended with his nickname until Chachwa who was weak in English took out a English-Hindi dictionary and found the literal meaning of word Charlie in Hindi. Once this meaning was shared within the group, none of these BIHARAT members called him Charles. They teased him and sometime offended him by repeatedly calling him Charlie. Charles who was initially popular among his group member because of his 6th standard school love story could observe more attention in his nickname from his group members very soon. The first name Charles and last name Chhutkania was lost somewhere in that boys hostel.....

Once Malik and RD observed a cartoon in some newspaper where the cartoon character was named “Uncle Charlie” and the caricature was really funny. Both of them started collecting this cartoon and sharing with other group members. In Charlie’s absence, all of them would sit together and go through that cartoon with different analysis and sometime visualize that their friend Charles is in that cartoon over a couple of cigarette shared among them. It was REALLY very funny for them. Laund was a person whose imagination will always be revolving in last orbit like an electron waiting for threshold energy to go out of orbit. This new cartoon character indeed worked as threshold energy for Laund’s imagination and he hatched a plan to make fun of Charles Chhutkania. Few marker pens were bought / borrowed and Malik started practice to draw that cartoon character on paper. Once he got proficient, all the hostel inmates from the same floor were taken into confidence to make this plan successful. The D Day arrived soon. Everyone was ready to contribute. Late night after Charlie was fast asleep, Malik drew this cartoon character with markers on all the mirrors (hanged over wash basins) in washroom area. Some of the other people signed the drawings and wrote their funny comments below the caricature. Totally unaware of the proceedings going in washroom, Charlie was sleeping in his room and two boys were standing out of his room as guards to restrict Charlie going to washroom if in case he wakes up and go to toilet. The half an hour operation was successful.

Next day, like every morning at 7:30 AM, Charlie woke up, took toothbrush and toilet mug in his hands and ran towards the washroom. He was surprised to see all the four toilets were available for him to use. Usually he had to wait for his turn and mostly he had to kick the toilet doors several time till the person relieving himself will come out of toilet. Actually it was well planned that no one will be in washroom area when Charlie will enter. A little surprised Charlie entered toilet. He could sniff some conspiracy but was not sure. He was still in half sleep mode when he came out of toilet and stood in front of wash basin. He washed his hands and looked at the mirror. He saw some caricature and comments on the mirror. Oh…. Its Uncle Charlie drawn with some interesting comments. He rinsed his eyes to have a better vision. He could still see Uncle Charlie caricature. He tried to clean that from mirror but in vain. He turned and had a look on other 3 mirrors. Everywhere he found same stuff. He understood that there is something very fishy here and he is the target today. All of the sudden few of his friends appeared there and started showing sympathy to him. They all were looking very disturbed with what had happened with Charlie. His friends lambasted the unknown planner of this incident and consoled him that they will thrash people behind this humiliating stuff. Charlie was aware that this is done by them only and he was not interested in false sympathy. He was upset and angry. He didn’t utter a single word, didn’t brush his teeth and vanished. As soon as he left, his friends assembled in washroom area and started laughing.

Whenever Charlie would get upset, he will start studying very hard. After this episode same thing happened. He stopped going out with his group members and mingled more with other people in hostel. It continued for weeks and then slowly his friends started feeling bad and one day they erased all the cartoons from wash basin mirrors. After this Charlie could not continue his “boycotting the group” attitude for long and came again in same fold. That semester, Charlie scored more in almost all the subjects :)

Revisiting "Katha" - Basu - Rajaram theory of life

2010-02-11T11:24:00.007+05:30

In my childhood days, once I got a chance to watch "Katha", a 1982-83 movie on Doordarshan. Being a small boy, I didn't like this movie much. I was more interested in Amitabh's, Mithun's movies those days :). Later when I grew, I again watched this movie and started liking this so much that I watched this several time. This movie is directed by Sai Paranjape and the director has made this movie simple, straight and she is successful in messaging the audience that in this world everywhere you will find either a Basu or a Rajaram. Usually the probability of getting a Basu than Rajaram is more in current world. Basically each one of us has some attributes matching with Basu and some with Rajaram. With concept of relativity some Basu may be proven Rajaram in front of more skillful Basu.

Character of Basu was played by Farukh Sheikh and character of Rajaram was played by Naseeruddin Shah. Both of them had done enough justice to their roles.

When I went to college for higher education and then started job, I started finding more and more Basu than Rajaram. In fact lately I started realising that Basus are more successful than Rajarams.

Going back to movie Katha, director had ensured that at last it was Rajaram who was the real hero. But then this movie is 28 years old. I suspect if director would have ended this movie in same way if she would have made this movie in current world.

Watch this movie to understand these characters and then co relate these characters with your own life, surroundings and society.

Let's appreciate Nitish

2010-01-14T12:29:00.002+05:30

Recently me and my family travelled Bihar. Our last trip was in 2007. We took a Mumbai-Patna flight and then drove to Muzaffarpur. We stayed at Muzaffarpur for some days with parents and then drove again to Bhagalpur to meet my eldest brother and then again drove back to Patna from Bhagalpur. I was pleasantly surprised by observing the change in Bihar. Roads have improved a lot. Everywhere roads looked in good condition to drive. We didn’t feel security problems at any place. The electricity situation has improved. Lot of new flyovers were seen in Patna and also some at Muzaffarpur. Policemen were seen on road doing their duty. Traffic police was also seen controlling traffic (at least I had never seen them active at my native place Muzaffarpur earlier). We also came to know that now government schools and hospitals are operating well and are in good condition. People are not afraid of travelling. All together it was a good change seen.

We must appreciate Nitish for his good work. Lalu-Rabri combine had took back bihar at least by 50 years but Nitish worked on basics and results are seen. But still a long way to go.....

We need people like Nitish to run our government at every level.

education cess paid by us - where is it used?

2009-11-16T16:40:00.003+05:30

Since 2004, we are paying good amount of education cess thru income tax deduction monthly and also indirectly in different transactions. This cess was started by P Chidambaram giving reason that we need to educate poor children and for that Indian government needs some money. Very noble cause and really smart way to pool some money. Millions of rupees goes to government exchequer and I always felt that government must be doing something at very base level to boost education system to educate kids of different section. But on 14th November, while watching news on television, I found that still almost 10 million kids doesn’t get chance to attend school mostly because of financial conditions.

Where does my money deducted as education cess by government goes?
Does it get wasted?

Does it get used for some other work?

Does it get lost in between?
Who will answer this?

I felt if I myself had started using that money per month, at least few underprivileged kids would have gone school for sure.

delayed monsoon and water problem

2009-06-26T11:12:00.004+05:30

In Pune, monsoon usually arrives in 2nd week of June and we witness good amount of rainfall in June itself. This year monsoon arrived quite late and that too without any rain. Every day is cloudy but it doesn’t rain. Till now it rained just 3 mm in Pune. The water level in dams (which supply drinking water to Pune) has gone down drastically and Municipal Corporation has started rationing on drinking water supply. Citizens are feeling the heat. We usually never bother to save water and when scarcity is seen then only we start realizing importance of conserving natural resources (like I am writing this blog :)). In a recent report, I read that in Pune, Municipal Corporation provides 150% of average water need per person per day to citizens and also 30%-40% water gets wasted just in transmission. With this rate of consumption of water from dam, naturally by June dams get dried up if rain doesn’t arrive. When monsoon gets delayed and water level goes down in dams, Municipal Corporation starts extra rationing. Instead of that if they would have taken action to ensure proper supply with less wastage of water even if monsoon gets delayed or rainfall is below normal, people can have drinking water supply for extended period. People seating at higher level never do any planning. It’s very common with government authorities. Hope we will soon have blessings from rain GOD.

One of those ragging days.....

2009-06-17T12:22:00.006+05:30

(This is some part of my upcoming novel and all characters in this small story are fictitious)

It was really very cold outside there in agriculture field where all those guys assembled on that winter night. Well it was past 2 AM and in this part of India mercury goes down below 5 C in winter. 18 first year new joinees of this college of BIHARAT group were taken there by less than 10 second year seniors. It was a ragging night. Seniors were led by Mota Sardar (on-paper leader) but Ranga (undisputed original leader) was also there. Billa was not present. He was out of college for more than 2 months for medical treatment. Juniors had heard Billa’s name and appreciation by other seniors several times during ragging sessions but never had seen his face. It seemed that poor chap had burnt his lung at this tender age with chain smoke and he needed immediate medical attention. So he was not there but his presence was always felt with all other seniors reciting Billa chalisa every now and then (perhaps to keep Ranga happy who was feeling lonely after Billa has gone for treatment). Anyway as soon as all of them reached to the field, Sardar baljit singh sitarawala ordered all those scared juniors to line up else he will show them stars. Another senior Patalu Khas (who was not more than 5ft and 45 kg at that time) unnecessarily screamed to the best of his physical capabilities “hurry up you ben…ch…“.

All juniors lined up quickly. Who can take panga with Patalu Khas? The person who just might be more than 40 kg of weight could slap juniors with the impulse even more than Ranga could create with his slap. Patalu always looked like a thirsty senior who perhaps got ragged brutally by his seniors a year back and looked like he had decided that time to retaliate with his emotions only after a year. Anyway here was this late night game. Patalu Khas explained them that today there will be a competition where all juniors will compete to claim title of PLD. Patalu was over excited today. He pushed his bigger than face specs above his nose and screamed again “hey all you $%&*^&%.... take off your all cloths and keep aside, get yourself divided in 3 groups and decide within 2 minutes that who is the winner.

One… two… three… start……. Each one of the juniors started taking off their cloths and keeping aside. And they formed group and started comparing themselves to choose semifinalist….then finalists….and at last winner. Time was passing by but juniors (perhaps) already had better idea so they were finalizing finalist quickly. Oh my god what’s going to happen? By the time juniors were trying their best to decide the winner; Baljit Singh Sitarawala was silently mixing cloths of every junior. All the underwear, shirts, pants, socks, shoes were mixed to make a single bundle. Baljit Singh Sitarawala was “really” very creative or at least he always tried to demonstrate his creativity with the able input from Mota sardar. Well within time, naked juniors decided that PALDI is the winner. PALDI was a very lean and thin guy. Nobody could have ever imagined that PALADI may be PLD of this batch. SERPANT informed Patalu Khas that we are done. Our PLD is PALDI. Patalu and all seniors rushed to congrats PALADI. Seniors ordered everyone to celebrate PALADI’s victory by dancing and clapping. PALADI was ordered to take “Fake Shabashi”. In “Fake Shabashi”, a person keeps his left hand on his chest and keep looking to sky and with right hand raises slogan three times “Wah Ma…ch.. I am great I did a great job".

Now the celebration time was over. Suddenly Patalu Khas realized that these juniors have not been slapped even once in this ragging session. Oh how can this happen? He felt itching in his palms and approached those naked juniors under that diminishing moonlight. He completed his turn by giving 20 slaps each to every junior. With every slap Patalu used to spin on his left or right foot. Because of his short height, he always had problem in slapping juniors like MOTI BEKAR, SERPANT, JHADU KHAN. For them he always used a chair or stool in hostel rooms to close the gap but here he just ordered them to lean themselves to make it easy for Patalu to slap everyone. After the rounds of slaps, Sitarawala emerged from nowhere. He had a cryptic smile on his face. He called everyone near to him. Seniors like Chikna Sahlawat, Manindra Punde, Chatur Chintit and Tang Chu also gathered near him. Sitarawala explained next activity. He told juniors that you have 2 minutes and there are your belongings mixed together. He showed them the bundle of cloths he had created. Everyone needs to put on everything in two minutes. Underwear, pant, shirt, socks, shoes, sweaters, jackets everything should be worn within two minutes. If anyone doesn’t get his belongings, wear anyone’s but each one should ensure that they are wearing everything. Race to reach to the bundle of cloths, shoes, socks started. Cloths were full of dust. Naked juniors arrived to the cloths bundle and started picking up whatever they were getting. Bravo… within allotted two minutes each one of them had put on cloths, shoes, sweaters. Only funny part was that they were mostly wearing others cloths. SERPANT (who was 6 ft tall) was wearing chachwa’s cloths (chachwa was just 5 ft in height) and had put underwear on top of pant. He looked a funny double of Spiderman or Phantom. For all seniors it was fun time. One by one they had a look on each of the junior and started cracking jokes. Patalu’s laughing was so loud and vibrant that he lost his balance. Perhaps his centre of Gravity got shifted and he fell down. Juniors had hidden smile on their faces looking at him. Patalu quickly got up and screamed “You ma….ch.. ! I fell down because of you so divide yourself in 9 pairs and start slapping each one 20 time”. Slapping activity started in able observation of Tang Chu, Chatur Chintit and Chikna Sahlawat.

After everyone was done slapping his partner, It was Sitarawala’s turn again. He was not angry. He had the same cryptic smile on his face. He asked each one of the juniors whether everyone has put underwear inside or outside the pant. Scared (some were crying too) juniors nodded their head. Sitarawala repeated his question. He threatened them that if he will come to know that some one is lying, it will be dangerous for that person. Again all junior nodded their head. Actually while juniors were busy in slapping their partners, Sitarawala went to the place where he had created the bundle of belongings and found one underwear still lying. So he was sure that at least one junior has not put on underwear. He felt immense joy within and found an extra opportunity to punish those scared faces. Sitarawala’s voice echoed in that cold calm night,”You Bhen…d….. I am sure at least one of you is hiding the fact. You still have a chance, just come in front and accept that you have not put on your underwear and I will not say anything. But if I will find then for god shake no one can save you”. Still the same silence from juniors. No one accepted Sitarawala’s offer. All seniors assembled there and Sitarawala told them about this issue. Mota sardar came in front and ordered each one of the juniors to unzip their pant and Patalu started inspecting every junior closely in that fading moonlight. Oh my god….. Sitarawala was correct and really one of the junior had not put on underwear inside or outside his pant. He was Laund. One and only Laund………. A very favorite character among juniors. Sitarawala could not hide his anger and pulled Laund out of the group and started beating him mercilessly. Patalu accompanied him and then Mota Sardar, Chatur Chintit and everyone except Chikna Sehlawat. Chikna always had a soft corner for Laund. Ranga also played his part. Laund was lying on ground and seniors were beating him mercilessly. All juniors were too scared to utter a single word. Seniors kept on beating him and all of the sudden Laund’s body started shaking like he was an epilepsy patient. Mota sardar was baffled. He ordered everyone to stop but Patalu and Sitarawala didnt stop because they felt that Laund is acting. They continued there onslaught on Laund. Some juniors were almost in tear. But in reality Laund was not acting. He had got severe beating and perhaps the trauma inside him was shaking his entire body. Chikna Sehlawat intervened here and beating was stopped. Other juniors were allowed to take care of Laund. He was in bad shape. Chatur Chintit was as usual too much worried and perhaps felt that these juniors will complain against all seniors to college authorities. He shared a bottle of water with juniors and seniors decided to take them to final year hostel where they wont get any more beating and will have fun so that things will normalize in due course……………….

That eventful night - Part 1

2009-04-30T11:08:00.004+05:30

(This is some part of my upcoming novel and all characters in this small story are fictitious)

It was almost 12 in night. The much hyped techno-cultural festival was just ended. One of the main security incharge of that techno-cultural festival, Manduwa of BIHARAT group was just back from his duties and was sitting in his 3rd floor room in EKALAVYA bhawan with other Biharat Group members Chacha, Golua, Takla, Charlie, Lungi, Laund Boss, RD Boss, Doctor, PLD and Malik. They were happy that how they managed to get college girls *NOT* allowed in the rock show which was the last event and held late in the night. Manduwa shared his security related experiences during the rock show and info about some small fights which broke out during rock show between few of their batch mates from different college groups. All together they were happy and were feeling satisfied with their effort to convince college authorities and city police to not let girls come to the show. It was a big victory for them (why? Read that in another blog). They were also feeling relaxed because this entire college event had been very controversial and disturbing for them and now it was all over. Around 12 PM in night, Sangwan of electrical batch came to meet them. He was not from BIHARAT gang. He was neither a good friend nor a rival for BIHARAT ies. He told Manduwa that he wants to thrash MOTU who was staying at 2nd floor. Looked like Sangwan had an altercation with MOTU during rock show to get near the stage where the performance was going on and because MOTU was a security committee member and had good friendship with few of BIHARAT group members so he felt safe and he fought with Sangwan and threatened him for bad consequences. Sangwan felt humiliated and he grouped some of his close friends to go to MOTU’s room and teach him a lesson. He came to Manduwa’s room to ask whether BIHARAT will interfere if Sangwan and his friends will thrash MOTU. Takla (who was friend of MOTU) quickly advised all of BIHARAT members. He told them that in last 6 months he too realized that MOTU is exploiting his proximity with some of the BIHARAT group members and trying to do DADAGIRI with other students of their batch. He expressed that its good time to get him thrashed and later take him for first aid if MOTU gets injured. Deal was done. Sangwan left that place. Few of BIHARAT members came to the 3rd floor lobby from where stairs were going to 2nd and 1st floor. Jhadu Khan and BHOOT (also BIHARAT guys) too joined. As expected within 5 minutes of time, in calm hostel night, all kind of fighting noises with extra ordinary abusive language heard. MOTU was beaten badly by Sangwan and gang. After 5 minutes or so Biharat members waiting on 3rd floor first made sure that everything is back to normal and then one of them (BHOOT) went to 2nd floor and visited MOTU. He was totally thrashed and his face had swollen like bread. He was badly injured and was having pain all over his body. Bhoot asked him to come with him to 3rd floor. Biharat members expressed their unawareness of entire stuff and queried that why MOTU didn’t called for any help from them when all this happened. Everyone was sympathetic towards MOTU. Perhaps MOTU had got a hint that it was already in BIHARAT’s knowledge that Sangwan and co is planning to beat him. He didn’t answer anything. JHADU offered his help and took Jinwa’s bike to take MOTU to a nearby medical polyclinic for first aid. Others again assembled in Manduwa’s room and were laughing and discussing further about that entire episode……………..

Jai ho.....

2009-02-24T16:25:00.002+05:30

A R Rehman recieved two oscar's for his music and song in Slumdog Millionaire. He is a good musician.... infact very innovative. He already has given very good music in many Indian films. May be better songs than "Jai ho..." several times. I always felt that he is today's R D Burman but perhaps Burman was ahead of what A R Rehman is now. Burman never had any oscar because he never explored himself beyond Indian film industries. Bottom line is if you want to get oscar awards, explore yourself beyond Indian boundaries. India doesnt have talent scarcity. I also feel this year only Indian film industry had several films better than Slumdog Millionaire.

Beijing Olympic 2008

2008-08-25T10:09:00.002+05:30

Yesterday Beijing Olympic ended with good amount of happiness for Indian sports lover. Indian sportspersons performed well. Few of them were exceptional including three boxers (Akhil, Jitender, Vijender), one shuttler (Saina Nehwal), one wrestler (Sushil Kumar), one shooter (Abhinav Bindra). Others were probably not up to the mark or probably had a hard luck (archer Mangal Singh Champia). But one thing was proved that in Olympic sports, India has progressed. It may be very slow progress but progress is noticed. We had three medals and three other guys just missed the medals. Time has come for all of sports lover to give Olympic sports more attention. A least at par with cricket. People like me have been biased in approach towards sports. Let’s see how. I have been watching Olympic sports (especially Olympic, Asiad) since my childhood and I have good knowledge of Indian sportspersons but I never wrote a blog entry. I have been always assuming that India cannot do better in Asiad, Olympic. Government should finalize a strategy for the progress of Olympic sports with all honesty and with good set of people. People like Suresh Kalmadi cannot take India anywhere. Government should sanction funds to let sportsmen have better training facilities. Corporate should chip in to let common Indian have an increased interest in Olympic sports. Common Indian should have positive attitude towards the sportspersons representing India at different games. We all should think beyond the barrier of Sachin, Dhoni and Yuvraj. Sportspersons should also be more sincere and focused towards delivering good results to fans. If a Milkha Singh do wonders (in Rome 1960) with limited facilities, If a Dinaram Singh can win steeplechase footless, If a P. T. Usha can win four gold medals in an Asiad (Seoul 1986) why not others. Time has come to surprise the world. Best of luck for coming Asiad in 2010.

Lastly…. three cheers for all the sportspersons represented India in Olympic 2008. Hip hip Hurray …….

How seriuos we are?

2008-07-28T10:14:00.001+05:30

After two consecutive days of serial bomb blasts in two of the Indian cities, common people like me have two questions:
1. How safe we are now?
2. How serious the central government and state governments are to tackle terrorism?

The answer to the first question is we are not safe. At least after several serial bomb blasts in different cities in last 2-3 years indicates the same. If its fact that we are not safe, we should accept that and then start working towards a goal to make this country safer. I am not worried if I know that we are not safe but we are doing every possible thing to make this country safe to live. I am only worried if we live in a fabricated and false world of feeling safe and then doing nothing to tackle terror. That’s what baffles me at least. The answer to the second question is related to this same fact.

I doubt the seriousness of governments and law enforcing agencies to tackle terror. Not even me but even the terror modules are thinking in same ways. Let’s see how. On Friday 25th July 2008, after Bangalore serial bomb blast, central home ministers (Mr Patil and Mr Jaisawal) came with stereotyped comments. I guess now they have every words of these comments memorized because they use almost same comments after each serial bomb blast in last 2-3 years. Anyway we also heard news on TV that government has put all big cities on high alert. Ahmedabad was on high alert on Saturday when terrorists easily placed all vehicles loaded with bomb all over the cities and exploded them in evening. What does that mean? That means that the term “high alert” was just the eyewash for us. Government was not serious. To just pacify the country, security establishment made this comment (putting cities on high alert) and perhaps thought that very next day the same serial bomb blast would not take place and they won’t be in uncomfortable situation. But the same thing happened. Even after Saturday’s serial bomb blast, on Sunday, in Surat two vehicles loaded with explosive material were found parked. Fortunately by this time the common people were more alert and they timely alerted police. But question remains same, why terrorists were were easily conducting their operations when cities were on high alert. Answer is crystal clear that even they were sure that governments were not serious.

Preventing the situation to arise is one thing and fighting after that is another thing. Let’s assume our intelligence network was not quite good to warn us of terror attack and so the different serial bomb blast took place. But then after that, how many culprits of last several serial blasts were arrested by government agencies? How many of them booked and punished? What is the state of different investigations? Loads of questions are unanswered and that make common people think that government in not serious in tackling terror.

We need to live in a real world than living in a false world and understand the ground realities to come up with a concrete plan to thrash terrorism. For that we need honest approach and clear thinking. Coming on TV heavily guarded by security staff and making statements are very easy. People sitting at different government positions need to chalk out plans to tackle terror. Time has come to see just two communities in country one is national and another is anti-national. Time has come to strengthen ourselves to crush anti-national elements at all levels. Time has come for different political parties to come above the caste, religion based politics and work for the betterment of security situation. Time has come for common man to understand the security threat, be alert to avoid threats and also teach a lesson to all political leaders who are not capable of delivering the solution while being in government at different position.

Will this govt survive?

2008-07-22T11:29:00.003+05:30

Today is result day for Manmohan Singh government. It is going to face floor test by evening. This political commotion was created because of nuclear deal. A person like me understands very less technical, social, financial aspects of this deal. Few knowledgeable persons are against and few are in support of deal. Thus it’s more and more confusing for common man to understand the different facets of this deal. I am not sure whether I am for or against the deal but one thing is sure that I am in support of government today. Not because deal is good or bad but because I am against Karat and Company. I always felt that communist parties in India are biggest destructive force. I am against them. So if they want to topple the government, I am opposed to them. The performance of Manmohan Singh’s UPA government has been very disappointing in last four and half year on economic and security fronts but nobody can deny that the prime minister is really very honest person and its always pleasure to see people like him with a clean image leading the country. After this recent political turmoil over the nuclear deal, I have more respect for Manmohan Singh because of the courage he had shown to not succumb to left pressure. It also gave a signal that current prime minister is not as weak as we kept on assuming in last four and half year. I know there will be lots of horse trading behind the scene, lots of deal, money and muscle power will play their roles in today’s vote. People from both sides will try their best in all ethical/unethical practices to either save or topple the govt. An honest person like Manmohan Singh had to directly/indirectly endorse these things if he had to save his government. This may not look very ethical but I remember 4 lines of hindi poem:

“आग के साथ आग बन मिलो
पानी के साथ पानी ,
गरल का उत्तर है प्रतिगरल
यही कहते जग के ज्ञानी!”

Dulcamara (homeopathy remedy)

2008-07-08T16:25:00.003+05:30

Rainy days arrive and you can see people frequently catching cold. The dampness in climate causes the cold viruses to survive more. Cold is irritating and may cause frequent sneezing, nose discharge, watering of eyes and sometime flu kind of fever too. For me this is the time to use Dulcamara (30) with Rhus Tox (30) 2-3 times a day and it really works wonder to treat me for cold and mild fever. Cold caused by damp weather indicates Dulcamara as the homeopathy remedy. This medicine also worked wonders for me when the big temperature difference (places where days are relatively warm and in night mercury level falls down heavily) between day and night caused me frequent cold. Here is the link for this medicine http://abchomeopathy.com/r.php/Dulc

क्या निराश हुआ जाए?

2008-07-08T10:22:00.001+05:30

It has been raining here at Pune regularly since last month. In Pune, rainy days are worst to drive in a city. The roads will start seeing water logging and potholes will slowly appear and then grow rapidly. You need to have certain level of driving expertise to successfully avoid potholes. We usually don’t have separate footpaths for walking people and if there are some footpaths they are not in condition where people can walk. Usually people walk at the sides of the road. In rainy season to avoid the rain water accumulated at sides of the road, people start walking at the middle of the road. Thus for me it’s really frustrating to drive on city roads in monsoon season. But I had to. So what do I do? I keep on managing myself to somehow drive safely and decrying the system, government and everyone who looks like closely or remotely associated with city planning and management. Few days back I drove to buy groceries for this month. I was feeling frustrated after that small drive to the shop and somehow search to park my small car. On top of that, the prices of essential commodities made me feel totally down, dejected. In recent times, every month when I see my groceries bill, I start feeling uncomfortable and what can I do maximum? I start criticizing the system, the government and the entire setup. I feel frustrated, helpless and hopeless. While driving down back to home, I was in full swing to criticize everything and express my anguish. Mostly the finance ministry to tackling the inflation. I was trying to find out where they spend majority of tax money they deduct from my pay cheque including the education cess. I still see the same poor children begging on the traffic lights. Where does the tax money go? By now I felt its biggest life time puzzle for me. I thought enough is enough I should express my anguish in my blog. I should write a hard hitting blog to express my anguish, unhappiness, frustration and everything. I should express my thought that how hopeless I feel at road, at shop, when I go out of my home.

Next day I reached office early morning. It was still raining outside. Most of the employees had not reached office. I planned to organize my thoughts before writing my blog. I wanted to make my blog hard hitting and effective. To breathe fresh ideas; I walked into dry pantry of my office and started looking out of the office thru the big glass window. Looked like rain had just stopped and traffic was in full swing on the road. People were rushing to their offices, schools, and workplaces. It was still not very clear sky but not too dark too. Freshness after the small spell of rain was visible. All of the sudden I observed three small girls (looked from very poor background) in dirty, untidy school uniforms with school bags, barefooted enjoying the water logged on the road and rushing towards their school. Looked like they were in hurry to join the government school which is few meters away on the other side of road. I kept on looking at them by the time they disappeared from my sight. I had finished my cup of tea in dry pantry. I started walking back to my seat, I had abandoned my idea of writing a blog to express my thoughts that time had come to feel hopeless.

भेड़, भेडसमूह, भेडचाल और गड़ेरिया !

2008-06-04T12:45:00.002+05:30

कई भेड़ , एक भेडचाल
एक समूह एक गड़ेरिया !

समूह कई जगह
ऐसे ही भेड़ओं का
हरेक समूह के लिए
अलग परिभाषित
भेडचाल और
अलग गड़ेरिया !

कई गडेरिये
ख़ुद बने भेड़
किसी और भेडसमूह के लिए
किसी और भेडचाल में चल रहे
किसी और गडेरिये के पीछे !

भेड़, भेडसमूह, भेडचाल और गड़ेरिया !

Indian Premier League

2008-05-28T13:48:00.001+05:30

By the time IPL entered the semi final stage, few things are clearly visible:

1. In 20-20, big names couldn’t accommodate themselves with this format. Sachin, Saurav, Dravid, Laxman and their teams are out of tournament. Except one or two good innings none of them either could play to win matches for their teams nor could they motivate the other youngsters to do the same. They also were major flop as captains of their teams. Although they keep on claiming that they are fit for 20-20 and they should get a chance to represent India but the answer is clear to everyone who understands cricket.
2. Some less known players has been performing consistently and looked better than lots of 20-20 players of Indian team. These performing (young) players should be given chance to represent India on the basis of their superb performance through out this tournament. They have showcased their talent to the cricket world and looked like they have been neglected by selectors earlier.
3. Most of the under 19 players of Indian team which won the world cup 2 months back are not really under 19 years of age as they looked older than the age they may have shown on certificates to play in Under 19 world cup. I also had a feeling that during World Cup 2008 a good amount of makeup work had been done on the faces of some players to hide their real age. They were really looking under 19 in the world cup.
4. I liked ICL too but IPL looked more competitive. BCCI with its politics and pressure on ICC and other cricket board managed to make IPL mega success and steal all limelight although this type of tournament and league was brain child of ICL organizers and BCCI just copied the idea.

UPA's four years in office

2008-05-23T15:03:00.002+05:30

Yesterday, UPA government celebrated four years in office threw a lavish dinner party and UPA chairperson Ms. Sonia Gandhi had all praise for the Prime Minister Mr. Manmohan Singh. So far so good. Patting own back has been in our culture since ages and this one thing Ms. Sonia Gandhi has certainly learnt from our culture.

Now let’s look at the ground realities. Let’s start with our economy. That’s because Mr. prime minister is famous economist. I am not an economist so I would not understand all the big numbers and different term/criteria to measure the economic performance but certainly I do understand the extra pressure coming on my pocket. I will start with the prices of essential commodities. Since august 2003 I have been staying in same city and almost in same locality so I guess the prices I consider must not have any external factors to influence. In 2004, one kg of rice (whatever I and my family eat daily) was costing me Rs 19/-. The same quality rice costs me Rs 28/- per kg. Simple mathematics shows almost 50% rise in price. Similarly 10 kg wheat flour (atta) of a particular brand was priced Rs 135/- to Rs 140/- and now it costs me around Rs. 200/- to Rs. 210/- Price rise for mustard oil has been shocking. In 2004 I was buying one liter mustard oil of a specific brand at Rs 52/- per liter and now its simply Rs 82/-. Simple mathematics tells me its price rise of around 60%. Similarly price of almost every essential commodity increased in range of 40% to 60% during the last 4 years and our prime minister celebrated 4 times and some sycophants kept on praising him and patting his back. When this government took over the office, I always thought people like Mr Manmohan Singh as PM, people like Mr. Chidambaram as FM and people like Montek Singh Ahluwalia in planning commission will take our country to great economic path and we need not to be worried about the prices and economy of our country. But unfortunately it proved wrong. I am not sure how the poor people are managing their budget because their salary has certainly not increased in 40 to 60 % range in last 4 years or so. There is a famous saying in hindi “Jyada JOGI Math Ujad” and this saying is perfectly matching this government on economic front. Now come to the security front. Everyone knows how our government is reacting with all naxalite and terrorist threats over the years. There is no concrete plan to tackle the security problems (at least didn’t get visible in last 4 years or so) and in some cases also looked like the government is trying to appease certain section. That is basically compromising with the national security. They were trying to have a nuclear deal with US which might have taken care of some of our energy needs in coming year but that also couldn’t get materialized. Only one thing they can claim is the rail passenger fare which didn’t increase in last four years but then we all know the how the facilities is getting deteriorated in Indian Railways. Almost no minister now travels in rail so they need not to worry about the facilities in train and railway station. We also know that how if you book rail ticket from a computerized centre of a different city; you need to pay extra money. We also know that how much the charges of tatkal booking tickets increased and number of tatkal reservation seats has increased in last four years. Sometime I felt Mr. Laloo Prasad is better economist than PM or FM because he is sneaking in your pocket and you even don’t come to know about that. You always feel that rail fare is not increased.

Apart from rail fare, another good thing was the image of PM Manmohan Singh. He is really an honest person and in current political environment, if you see an honest person at powerful position you don’t loose hope with democracy. We had some hope when we saw several young people won the election and were active in parliament (they were called as BABA log in parliament in 2004) but all the hope were shattered. No one did anything and looked poor copy of their father, mother or uncle who was also the same kind of politician (TANY TANY FISSSSSSS…). They just kept on talking big (in hindi LAFFEBAZI) and are slowly getting converted from young to old with time………..

sad part of entire story

2008-05-20T09:52:00.002+05:30

So almost after one week of Jaipur serial bomb blast, our PM Mr. Manmohan Singh realized that the main problem is less number of police force in our country. Not sure why a prime minister equipped with all kind of resources took more than four years to find out the "root cause" of increasing terror threats in different parts of our country. But please hold on.... if this is really the main cause then who has stopped him to increase the number of police personnels in the country? That is one question probably neither no one ever asked him nor he would like to answer. In last one year or so, many bomb blast has taken place. This shows the failure of intelligence agencies of our country. Prime Minister may again has an execuse that even the intelligence agencies doesnt have enough man power but why does he forget that all these agencies are mostly busy with investigating some political cases and wasting thier time in less important investigation. Even we keep on hearing (several allegations) time to time that these agencies work on the direction of ruling parties to spy against opposition political .

As soon as this kind of incident takes place, our "beloved" ministers Mr. Sriprakash Jaisawal and Mr. Shivraj Patil come into action in front of TV cameras and repeat the same statement like "we wont compromise" or "we will take stern actions" and once the heat goes away and attention of nation diverts with some other issues, no one knows about what kind of stern actions they are taking. At least some results should have come and visible to nation. I will request these responsible persons to talk less and act more to make our country a safe place.

Vijay Tendulkar

2008-05-20T09:51:00.001+05:30

Yesterday Vijay Tendulkar passed away. I had heard his name in my childhood days but could come across his work only when I was in college and was seriously looking for a good script for college one act play competition. I got a chance to come thru his play “Khamosh Adalat Jari Hai…” (hindi translation of “Shantata court chalu aahe…”)
His style was unique and the script looked so heavy to us that we were hesitant to start rehearsals and take the play to the stage because we felt that we may not do the justice to this play with all of our skills and efforts. Thus we had to abandon idea of staging this play and start with some other play. Later I realized that Aakrosh and Ardh Satya (hindi movies) were written by this same person. He had revolutionary way to narrate his story which was always hard hitting to audience. May his soul rest in peace....

insurance policy renewal with New India Assurance

2008-04-23T14:22:00.001+05:30

I own a Hero Honda bike and since the time I bought this, it is insured with New India Assurance Company limited (NIA) which is a public sector organization. Every year I get my insurance renewed by visiting their office in wakadewadi, Pune. They never bother to give me any reminder about expiration of my policy (usually private players does that) and so I had to put my own reminder. I never thought to change my insurance provider because going to another provider will again require filling the forms and all mundane stuff and I wanted to avoid that and also till last year my office was at a walking distance to their branch office. Last Friday my mobile reminded me about the expiry of my bike insurance and then I thought of visiting New India Assurance office. I reached office at 10:15 AM and found that office was locked because it was “Mahavir Jayanti” vacation. I was disappointed but then I thought I will visit them again on Monday. On the main gate of office they have painted the office timing as 10 AM to 5:30 PM (Monday to Friday). I took note of that and came back.

On Monday, I traveled all the way in Pune traffic and managed to reach NIA office by 10:15 AM. I was happy that I reached well on time and will get my policy renewed quickly so that I can join my office well within time. To my utter surprise, I saw there were just 3 employees in to the office. Branch manager was also not in. Fortunately the officer who was responsible for renewal of policy had come and so I approached him. He took my “about to expire” insurance policy papers and forwarded the same to another lady on next table. This lady had 2-3 applications kept on her table but she was not processing any of them. She was arranging her table. I asked her to process my request and she told me please go and have a seat and wait for my turn. They had put a sofa in front of manager’s cabin and there is no fan to make you feel comfortable while waiting there in summer days. I came and sat there. Few customers were already waiting there. I started looking here and there and trying to kill (waste) some time. I saw they have put calendars on the wall. One of the calendars was having Mr. B. R. Ambedkar’s photo. Another calendar was for national language “hindi”. I remember once visting branch of a public sector bank. There was a calendar of Mr M K Gandhi and his quote that how precious time is for people and nation and also how important a customer is for an organization. My clock was showing 10:25 AM. By this time few more (2-3) employees had come and were trying to settled down to their tables. Branch manager was still not in. All of sudden I heard my name and ran to the lady who was processing my application. She conveyed me that I need to pay Rs 617/-. I pulled out my wallet to pay that amount but then she gave me back my paper (where Rs 617/- was written) and told me that payment needs to made to the cashier and not to her. She also informed me that cashier is still not in and I should have a seat and wait. I started the most annoying wait seating on the sofa with some other poor customers of NIA. After 10:45 AM, more and more employee started to come and started talking with each other, signing the attendance sheet and arranging the table. I spotted the lady who was supposed to be on cash counter. She was in to the office but still had not gone to her counter. Most importantly, branch manager was not in till that time. I was helpless and so were other customers. We all were getting late to go to our workplace to join duties. At last we started forming a queue in front of vacant cashier counter. Around 11 AM the lady luck smiled and counter opened to receive money. I came with proper change and she took money and directed me to go to other table. On other table one gentleman just had the work to press a button on the keyboard and collect 3 page printouts and hand that over to the customer. He did same for me and directed me to go to the officer in charge for policy renewal. He was the same person who started process earlier. I went to his table and he signed all three pages and directed me to go to another table. I thought perhaps some more process remains after the signing of documents. I approached to the directed table where a person was sitting with a stapler and some empty envelops printed with NIA address. He took all the three printout papers from me and one by one separated original document with duplicate by removing the stuffed carbon paper between them and stapled, folded the original pages to put them in envelop and handover to me. He informed me that I am done with my policy renewal. At last my policy was renewed. I was happily (?) returning from office of NIA by 11:15 AM and while returning I take a look at the branch manager’s cabin. He was still not in to the office.

While riding back to my office I had lots of questions blowing my mind away. Few of them were:

1. If they can’t entertain customer at 10 AM, why do they put working ours from 10 AM?
2. Who was/were responsible for wastage of my time?
3. Why there were having a separate table and separate person sitting to do a single small work in the process of my policy renewal? Like calculating the sum, accepting the money, taking the printout, signing the document, separating the original and duplicate and taking out the carbon paper and folding the signed document in an envelop was done by 5 different individual. Does not this clearly depict hidden unemployment?
4. Where was the Branch manager till 11 AM? If he was on leave, who was the acting manager on that day. In these cases even people are willing to escalate the issues to higher authorities but mostly they themselves will be absconding.
5. Why doesn’t government or responsible authorities desire to improve the functionality of public sector?

Confusing creamy layer

2008-04-11T12:39:00.002+05:30

Yesterday Supreme Court Judgment cleared the path for 27% seat reservation for OBCs in central institutions. I believe at state level, mostly this reservation is already in place. I only got confused with the term associated with the judgment "creamy layer". First of all what will be the criteria to find out whether someone will come under the creamy layer or not and secondly who will decide that criteria and implement it. I am sure once the criteria will be decided (in future) a new practice will get started to exploit the loopholes where an able guardian (who should come under creamy layer because of wealth and property owned) will start (legally) declaring that they have dissociated themselves with their son/daughters. I wont be surprised to see grandchildren of Mr. Laloo Yadav applying for reservation with an affidavit attached that his/her parents doesn’t inherit any property from Mr. Yadav and so they don’t come under creamy layer. In India although the law is well settled but there is enough lacuna to exploit it.

Aconitum Napellus

2008-04-11T12:32:00.001+05:30

An excellent homeopathic remedy. It’s very helpful for anyone who gets easily affected by the change in surrounding temperature. Perhaps that’s the reason I found this remedy useful because I am very sensitive to the changes in surrounding temperature and this remedy helped me a lot. Assume you are walking on road and its very hot and all of the sudden you entered your office which is centrally air-conditioned. You may develop some kind of discomfort (like headache, sneezing……) and this is the perfect use case for Aconitum Napelles. Similarly if you are suddenly exposed to hot weather and develop problems this remedy can be tried. You can read more about this remedy here http://abchomeopathy.com/r.php/Acon on internet. For quick effects try lower potency.

Ayurveda and Homeopathy

2008-03-17T09:20:00.004+05:30

Sometime back, one of my close relative was diagnosed with jaundice and Hepatitis B. She was getting treatment in my native place in Bihar and was taking all precaution (like complete bed rest and eating habits) to avoid any further deterioration for liver. Her bilirubin level was around 10 (that is suppose to be dangerous level). In one more week it (Bilirubin level) climbed to 17 and doctor expressed his suspicion that she might be having lever cancer. Patient was although able to talk and was not feeling too much weakness. The treatment continued with all precautions and in another week Bilirubin level instead of going down, reached 31 which is supposed to fatal. Hepatitis B was positive in all different tests. In our small town we don’t have enough medical facilities and we couldnot find a liver specialist to look for her liver condition. We were feeling hopeless because doctor advised that in such condition even moving her to big hospitals in New Delhi might be dangerous because she now needs no movements and should not have any exertion. Here the patient was put on ayurveda remedies. There were two different thing tried on patient simultaneously. One was suggested by an allopath doctor somewhere and came in knowledge to us thru someone. It was ½ ounce of juice of castor (in hindi arandi) leaves (grind the fresh arandi leaves and extract out all juice) mixed with another ½ ounce of coconut milk (grind the fresh coconut pulp and extract out all the white color juice) and to take in empty stomach for three days continuously. Another remedy was suggested by Baba Ramdev and Shri Balkrishna on aastha TV channel to use Phyllanthus amarus (Bhoomi amla in hindi). Baba Ramdev and Shri Balkrishna believe that Hepatitis B is totally curable thru Ayurveda. Within a week of using these ayurvedic remedies, the bilirubin level of patient came down to 17 and then 5, 2 in three weeks. Starting fourth week she diagnosed no jaundice with Hepatitis B negative. It was like miracle for all of us. She is now totally fit

Ayurveda and homeopathy was extensively used in India till sometime back and then slowly the western style of medication started dominating. Government also doesn’t encourage homeopathic and ayurvedic study and treatment. Now the situation is that we don’t find enough experts in these areas and so we go towards easily available allopath. After the work done by Baba Ramdev and Shri Balkrishna, now again we started knowing the power of ayurveda and lot of ayurvedic remedies with proper medication advices are easily available.

Similarly homeopathic treatment is also very handy and can cure lots of diseases easily with minimum side effects. I read about some of the homeopathic medicines recently and tried out with the advice of a homeopathic doctor and found homeopathic treatment is also very useful. In my childhood days, I was mostly treated by homeopath. In next few blogs I am planning to write about some of the homeopathy medicines and their effects.

Serious and honest soul searching is required

2007-12-31T11:04:00.002+05:30

We lost again with a considerable margin in Boxing Day test against Australia. Getting defeated is not bad but habit of getting defeated is dangerous and I am sad to see that Team India is going in that mode. I still believe the biggest problem with the Indian team is larger than sport image of few Indian players. We (the fan) and Indian media unnecessarily make them hero with a modest performance. For example, in first inning Sachin scored 62 and that was enough for all the media (print and electronics) and fans to praise him heavily and start day dreaming about his performance in 2nd inning of the test to win the match. At the same time, poor chap Phil Jaques scored 2 fifties in two innings and has marvelous career records (till now) but no one knows him. Dada scores a 40+ and everywhere we start talking what a comeback dada? At the same time look at this guy ... Hussey. He almost averages 80 (Sachin and Dravid struggling to reach average of 60 and Dada is below 50 in test average) in test cricket but he doesn’t think he is bigger than game and go to field to just perform to the best. Talks less but perform well. That’s the story of all Australian players. But almost all STAR Indian players have attitude problem. Last Indian coach Greg Chappell has indeed raised this issue but no one gave a serious thought towards this. People started lambasting him and he was shown the door by BCCI. But its fact that the attitude of (STAR) cricketer has been always a problem and because of that team could never performs as a team. Even in today newspaper Indian cricket manager (Lalchand Rajput) accepted that Yuvraj Singh is having an attitude problem. Fortunately Anil Kumble is still not in the same league. Indian captain deserve lot more praise and media attention that some of the other Indian player (if compared) and he doesn’t have attitude problem. Whenever he is in filed, he tries to perform to his best. One more problem with the team is to avoid doing serious soul searching and always be in day dreaming mode. On the eve of 3rd day of Boxing Day test, Harbhajan singh told the media that getting 500 runs (in 4th inning of the test) might not be impossible and difficult for such a great batting lineup of India with so many big names. Poor sardar is also a pampered Indian cricketer who doesn’t know how deep we are in water.

unstable Pakistan

2007-12-31T11:04:00.001+05:30

Last week Pakistan again faced a bomb blast and assassination attempt in which Benazir Bhutto died. Bomb blasts and assassination attempts have been now almost daily story in Pakistan and it clearly shows that how the law and order situation has deteriorated in Pakistan. With every terror attacks, hundreds of innocent civilians are dying and looks like Pakistan leadership is not even bothered or not enough strong to curb the terror attacks and networks. Looks like Pakistan is on same path as Afghanistan and Beirut had been earlier. It may lead for civil war. Pakistan's leadership and people have directly or indirectly encouraged the terror elements in last few decades and the side effects are now clearly visible. A highly unstable Pakistan is dangerous for neighboring nations specially India. India doesn’t enforce a VISA policy with Nepal and that’s the route most terror element can enter India without any problem. Anyway last week Rawalpindi attack has given good masala to our news channels and they are trying to repeatedly do unnecessary analysis of every angle related with this attack under different "BREAKING NEWS" headings. Yesterday I saw few channels had called some astrologer and numerologists and were trying to establish an astrology/numerology angle with Benazir Bhutto's assassination and also with future of Pakistan.

well done Aamir

2007-12-31T11:03:00.000+05:30

Yesterday I watched "Tare Jameen Par". After watching this movie, I started feeling more and more bad that why did I go to watch a movie like "Om Shanti Om" in same multiplex about a month ago. Anyway coming back to movie, I read lots of movie reviews but I would just like to make a comment that this was a simplest story told in great way so that it kept me interested throughout the movie. This was (I guess) directorial debut for Aamir Khan and he truly has shown that why he always has difference of opinions with his movie directors. Movie direction is not just creating few scenes (in different flavors like music, romance, emotion) and present that to audience but its more than that where the director should first feel that he is not making this movie to fool the audience and then he should tell a story to the audience in his/her own way. "Tare Jameen Par" is a meaningful film which should be watched by every one of us to encourage such kind of movies. The child artiste (Darsheel) has been too good and I felt in some places he is better than Aamir in acting. I heard this movie got good opening and may become a super hit in near future. This will be good for Indian cinema. Aamir's star value also helped this movie to pull the crowd otherwise there has been some honest approach in meaningful cinema by less known names and the movie succumbed and some useless movies (with big star value) became huge hit.

new education trend -- more business less values and education

2007-12-20T09:24:00.000+05:30

I started sending my daughter to play school in June 2007. School was reputed and they had good (not extra ordinary) facilities. The fee I was told to pay was INR 23,000 per anum. I felt bit uneasy but then I had no other option because most of the (so called) good schools had their fee in same range. The same school has recently announced the admission for next year (June 2008) batches and last week when I went to school to pick my daughter I was shocked to see on notice board that they have revised their fee from next year. Now parents need to pay INR 33,000 per anum for Play Group, nursery and KG. The fee was hiked more than 40%. I thought to change school for my daughter next year onward but then bouncer came that all of the schools (of same level and facilities) have revised their fee to INR 33,000 per anum. Means it was a collective decision and they may have some association to decide these things. I felt education is now purely a (fast growing) business in India.

At home I sat and did some calculation. Took out the school calendar and found that school only operates for around 200 days per year. Playgroup has just 2 hours timing so you will now pay INR 33,000/400 per hour and that comes INR 82.5 per hour. I completed my Bachelor of Technology from a reputed institute. I was there for 4 years and we had hectic schedule for classes. I paid around INR 9,000 for four years. This is 9 year back story. I am not sure how much my Alma meter charges now for four year B Tech courses. Even if they charge in tune of INR 50,000 per year, that is justified because that includes rich library and book bank setup with lots of lab instruments(hardware and software) and 7 hour per day classes. The school where my daughter goes just has PlayGroup to KG. It is running in a 2 flats setup in Aundh. They have limited set of kids playing facilities. They have around 6 teachers and 4 admin staff. They have some maids (around 8). They have around 50 students. Thus cumulative sum of fee is INR 1150000 per anum. For 3 hour school they won’t be paying a high some to their school staffs. I feel the management makes good some of money. This was all about the initial stage of education. Now I will let you know another story. Someone told me this story. Few months back, one of his college friends (in US) contacted him on chat and requested him to go in person to one of the reputed engineering institute in his city for collecting the admission forms (paid seat) for his sister who was not from that place. He told that he had visited the website of institute and the last date is in next week and it seems the paid seat fee is just around INR 1, 00000 and he can bear the expense. When that person went to institute and enquired, he came to know that for getting a paid seat admission, the candidate needs to pay extra INR 3,00000 (under the table) to the institute management apart from the usual fee (specified on the website and forms).

In India, education is converting rapidly as an industry. Institute has goals to create more profit (sometime white and sometime black) than to provide quality education and create role models for society. Most confusing part is that government is not giving any attention towards this. It is just interested in providing reservations in government/private institutes and taking back the autonomies of some institutes and universities. Government schools at different levels are dying. Either there is no teacher or if the teachers are there they don’t get salaries properly or they are not good enough.

A VIP cricketer and a (by default VIP) politician

2007-12-11T11:38:00.000+05:30

Last month we traveled to our native. We took a flight to Delhi from Pune and then went to Patna and took a cab to reach Muzaffarpur. I was happy to see good quality road between Patna to Muzaffarpur. At Pune airport, while standing in security check queue, I observed the CISF officer (security in charge) invited someone who was standing behind me to get his security check done first and that gentleman politely refused and told him that he will come in queue. I was surprised. I was sure that person standing behind me is VIP and thought to find out who this gentleman is. I turned back and I saw he was Sunil Gavaskar. I talked with him a little while we were in queue. I felt happy that he didn’t exploit his VIP status.

While coming back, at Delhi airport, the GoIndiGo flight was late and my 3 year old daughter had lost her patience and started creating problems for me and my wife. We were waiting and then a long queue got formed to board the flight where a final security check was getting done. The queue was moving too slow and my daughter's was almost uncontrollable. All the passengers were getting frustrated and somehow they were waiting for their turn. All of the sudden we observed one airline official with one CISF personnel came with *someone* and bypassed the queue to board the flight. The gentleman was again a VIP. He was a MP from Maharashtra. I started feeling so bad and angry for the entire system. The passengers with small kids and family are suffering but Mr. VIP doesn’t have any problem in taking privilege of his status although he also knew that he has to fly in same plane so boarding first doesn’t make any difference.

I do know that all cricketers might not be like Mr. Gavaskar and also all politicians might not be like Mr. VIP but at least that day I felt like politicians are the most morally uncultured class in this country.

Remembring Sunil Joshi....

2007-10-18T11:42:00.000+05:30

Thus the One Day series is over and Australia won it 4-2 and they really deserved it. Yesterday was Kartik’s (Murali) day. He bowled superbly and then batted sensibly to fetch runs from the track where Australian pacers were bowling superbly. Murali Kartik’s performance revived the memories of Sunil Joshi against South Africa (http://content-ind.cricinfo.com/indvaus/engine/match/66242.html). Sunil Joshi was also a left arm orthodox bowler. That was his day but unfortunately in next match, the South Africans took so many runs against his bowling that he could never come out of that psychological pressure. Hope history won’t repeat for Murali Kartik and he will be bowling at his best in coming future. In yesterday match, clearly the pitch was for bowlers. The pacers got the movement in the air and also the spinners had adequate help coming from the track. I believe Australia would not have even scored 160 if the India pacers would have bowled properly. They lacked accuracy and with the helping wickets they were getting all swings converted in wide. On other side, Australian bowlers read the track properly and bowled in right areas to expose the depth of India batting. Coming back to entire series, one thing which MS Dhoni and Indian management could not read was that the Australian bowling attack was almost ineffective against the Indian tail enders. They really didn’t have any plan to get out Harbhajan, Zaheer and Co. Have they (Indian Team Management) known that in 6th game at Nagpur, Uthappa and Dhoni would have charged Australian attack a couple of over early clearly thinking that the players like Zaheer, Harbhajan, Kartik can fetch runs in death overs against Australian attack. Look for the all One Day matches in these series and you will find that Australia always struggled to get out Indian tail Enders. In fact in every match Indian tail Enders had scored consistently. This is a fact which can give some advantage for Indian camp for the test series (in Australia) where usually the tail Enders also gets chance to bat for long.

This One Day series can see the demise of a talented pacer like S Sreesanth. He unnecessarily got himself involved in all useless controversies which affected his state of mind and that negative effect was seen in his bowling. He could never concentrate. Actually Australian team was successful in getting this bowler disturbed himself his rhythm and they did that in a much planned way. I remember an article written by Ponting in TOI during the final phase of 20-20 world cup even before the Australian arrived to India for the One Day cricket series. In his column he targeted Sreesanth and wrote his bowling figures are far better than the quality of his bowling. As I read the column I understood that the right hand Australian batsmen are getting difficulty in playing Sreesath. In fact that was seen in earlier 20-20 match. Ponting understood that this single guy can make difference and so he started targeting him. They used to target Sachin earlier when they thought Sachin plays like a match winner but now as they know that Sachin is not in same touch they pointed out Sreesatnth. Sreesanth had bowled some inspiring spells in earlier test matches where India won against West Indies and England. Ponting felt this guy can make the difference so he and his company started targeting him to disturb his state of mind. In the same way like they do with Kevin Pietersen and Andrew Flintoff knowing that these guys can change the result of ashes series. Dhoni, Sreesanth and Indian cricket management would have understood this tactic much earlier and would have avoided all on and off the field talking tactics. Hope Sreesanth will be back in the same rhythm to bowl well spells in incoming test series in Australia. Else it will be a victory for Ponting and Co in the mind game.

Pune roads in this monsoon

2007-09-27T09:34:00.000+05:30

Since 2005, western part of India started recording more rainfall every year in monsoon and so the Pune. It improved the ground water level at Pune but the biggest bad effect of extra rainfall was seen on roads in Pune. In last two years during rainy season, Pune roads were usually full of potholes and were dangerous to ride or drive your vehicle. This year the situation was far improved. Roads were not in that much bad condition. The municipal authorities have "perhaps" taken more care or may be the change in guard at the administration of the municipal commission has done the trick.

Power Of Youth

2007-09-25T10:00:00.000+05:30

India is ICC 20-20 world champion. They played some really exciting cricket throughout the tournament. In bits and pieces each member of team contributed in this journey. The one thing noticeable is that team was young, captain was new. The famous trio of Sachin, Saurav, Dravid were not in team. Altogether that helped the team a lot. That helped them in dressing room. That helped the team in field. That helped the team in celebrating the victory with full expression with all media attention on them.

Let’s see how. This is almost the same team which traveled WI for WC 2007 in early this year minus three seasoned (mentally and physically tired, exhausted) cricketers plus few very new young players. But the result is totally different although the coach is missing, captain has zero match leading experience, Indian cricket fans were pessimistic and media had almost no attention. The absence of three famous senior players did the trick. In dressing room almost everyone was young (forget Agarkar he was a lost case in this championship at later part and that was a great decision) and new and was expressing his thoughts freely there was no shadow of heavyweights and their experienced thoughts. In field, the captain was feeling all the freedom to experiment and was able to direct the team as per his plan. In final match against Pakistan, Dhoni sent Yusuf Pathan to open the inning. Imagine if Sachin, Saurav would have been in team, they would have felt bad and forcibly tried to go to open the innings because they think *they* play better as openers (this story has been in news during WC 2007) and it doesn’t matter if team performs bad with that opening combination. Similarly in crunch situation like in last over of final match where Pakistan had to score 13 runs, the poor chap Joginder wouldn’t have got the chance to bowl because Sachin would have thought that he is a better bet in dead overs. Even media would have highlighted this point. Thus the purpose of having a captain would have been defeated every now and then. Imagine Saurav running breathless while going to stop a boundary and Sachin rubbing his knees in slips :) with Dravid chewing his nails. But in absence of these guys Uthappa got a chance to play and he fielded a ball played by Younis khan and broke the stumps of Imran Nazir to get a smart run out. The same guy jumped forward to hold a difficult catch at boundary line which he could not but at least he tried. Similarly Rohit Sharma demonstrated some smart piece of fielding in earlier match to get run outs. Limited over cricket is truly for young and energetic players who are looking for the dawn of their career than for them who should get retired instead of sticking (chipaku) with team like glued with FEVICOL by using their demigod image.

This victory was also a great comeback for player like Irfan Pathan. I feel we should also appreciate behind the scene contribution of last coach Greg Chappell who worked hard to create a pool of pace bowlers to strengthen the bench and thus we have pace bowlers like RP Singh, Sreesanth where even one of them clicks, India performs well. This victory also has an unsung hero in Gautam Gambhir who played well almost in every game but no one talked about him. This victory also indicates that perhaps Indian team knows to play better in absence of a coach. Dhoni took some decison which fortunately clicked but he needs to continue his approach to the game and the team. He has to prove his leadership quality in upcoming Australia series.

Online Rail Ticket booking with IRCTC

2007-09-12T09:52:00.000+05:30

I am planning to travel to my native in November and I had to book a rail ticket. I don’t have enough time to spend in endless queues at various Indian Rail reservation counters and so I decided to use IRCTC (http://irctc.co.in) to book my tickets online at my home on broadband internet. I was aware that it was a big risk. I had to prepare a lot to do the successful booking at IRCTC. Tickets for the desired day starts getting booked 60 days in advance (that is today) at 8:00 AM and I was fully prepared. I got up early today and first logged in to net and checked whether everything is fine. I was able to login to IRCTC and it was very fast to use. I was confident that at 8 AM I will surely book my tickets in Rajdhani express.

Booking at IRCTC for festival season tickets is risky, unreliable and Herculean task.

At 7:55 AM I again started a fresh session at IRCTC and logged in. I prepared my query and got ready with all details. At 8 AM I pressed the OK button at IRCTC website and was shocked to see a blank page with "Service unavailable" message displayed. I kept trying many times. I tried with Internet Explorer, I tried with Mozilla firefox. Mostly it was not proceeding a single step after getting logged in to IRCTC website but Sometime I was able to proceed one or two step ahead and then it was displaying "Service unavailable" message or was hanging. I started getting frustrated. I was sure if I cannot book in next 15 minutes or so I cannot get a confirmed status railways reservation. I didn’t loose my heart and kept trying. Till 8:30, I might have logged in and logged out to IRCTC at least 100 times and somehow I could never proceed because of all the different kind of error displayed by IRCTC website. Looked like the server of IRCTC got unresponsive and got chocked due to heavy load at opening time. At 8:30 AM suddenly I could go one more step ahead and I saw status that the tickets are "NOT AVAILABLE". I lost the opportunity to book Rajdhani Express tickets on desired day. This is not the first time I had seen this happening.

All the services provided by Indian Railways are pathetic. Whether it’s catering, seating, security or even ticket booking. Indian Railways NOW claims they are in profit. They should utilize people's money to improve the services instead of going to all business schools to showcase there skills to convert a loss budget in profit budget and patting their own back.

Anyway I have changed my planned departure date and postponed my journey by one day and will be trying my luck at long quesues at Railway reservation counters at 5 or 6 AM tomorrow. Hopefully I will get a ticket.

I (and tens of thousands of railways passengers) usually remember these four lines and try thier luck every day with Indian Railways:

MAN MEIN HAI VISHWAS
PURA HAI VISHWAS
HUM HONGE KAMYAB EK DIN............. !

My Daughter's first day in school

2007-07-04T12:29:00.000+05:30

Before she turned two and half year old, my daughter Dhriti started attending school for Playgroup standard. I and my wife were very much excited with the idea of her going school and playing with other kids for hour long or so. We reached school on time and playgroup teacher requested us to stay in school because it’s first day and in case she starts crying they will call us. Dhriti liked the place initially and was playing with toys, wallowing in sand pit and dancing on baby rhymes. I quietly left the place and was waiting outside the school. She was enjoying the music and was dancing. All of the sudden she started looking for me and even when my wife's presence didn’t stopped her crying then there were no other options left. I had to go there and take her back to home. Even in my lap, she was holding me tightly like I should not disappear again. Back at home, the whole day she was bit silent and appeared to us that she is thinking something. We usually never observe her sitting silent and thinking. All of my enthusiasm of sending her school suddenly vanished and I started feeling bad for my little daughter.

I was five year old when I started attending school and I still remember even at that age I was feeling very bad and was feeling like going too far from my parents, family and home. Dhriti is not even three year old and so naturally she is not very mature to digest the concept of school (even for playgroup standard). At this age, putting pressure of a routine of attending school everyday is really not a good idea. But we need to do that to keep her upbringing on good track. When I was a kid, the social structure was not like of now. Families were mostly grouped on combined principles and were bigger in size so the initial learning of kids was very much possible within the family with highest quality and ensured safety. Now the things are very different. Concept of nucleus family has slowly arrived. The family grouping is mostly on tune of the western culture and usually size of families is very small. Now the family just constitutes Wife, Husband and kids. The families in the colony, society usually don’t interact much with each other. But the society is yet not fully transformed and the transition is still happening. In this transition period most suffered lot are the kids. Whole day at home they don’t see enough faces and persons to keep on playing and they get bored. They just interact with parents and don’t get a chance to interact with many people so the learning curve is also not very healthy. That’s the one of the primary reason people started sending little kids to schools at very tender age. The idea is to let them mingle with many kids there and also let them allow learning small things while being in school. The concept of playgroup, nursery and kindergarten in schools are well seen everywhere now and were not easily seen 25 years back in every school.

Bappi Da .... a legend?

2007-06-18T09:45:00.000+05:30

Rewind back to 80’s……. my childhood days… everywhere there were songs composed or even sung by Bappi Lahiri. He was riding the success of disco beats. There was no one else to compete with him in that disco zone. Apart from his disco style, he created very few good music scores too. In 90’s, Bappi Lahiri slowly vanished as music composer and then suddenly re surfaced again in music and film industry as a singer to other composers (I know two songs for sure). Now he is seen everywhere…….. on TV shows, in award ceremonies, as judge and sometime as a music expert too. The success of 80’s made Bappi Da think that he is a legend. Most funny part is he himself claims he is legend. In one of the TV reality show where he was a judge, he was repeatedly comparing himself with the genius of R D Burman and was patting his back. Sometime it looks so funny and sometime it irritates you. Matter becomes worst when suddenly here and there he starts singing too. Recently there was a spat between a singer (Abhijit Chatterji) and Bappi Da. The singer lambasted Bappi Da while talking with news reporters and Bappi Da reacted, “That person is 3rd class person and singer. He is talking nonsense about a legend of music industry”. Bappi Da seriously thinks and he himself declares that he is a legend.

Bappi Da it’s true that in 80s, there were only your songs getting hit in music industry and you did every A B and C for disco music but why do you forget that 80s is supposed to be worst music decade in Indian music and film industry. Please don’t compare yourself with greats like R D Burman.

Hope if someone can help Bappi Da to learn some modesty.

Type of Unemployement

2007-06-07T11:43:00.000+05:30

A basic definition for employment is work available for an interested worker and unemployment is no work available. When I was in 5th standard in a government middle school in Bihar, we had a subject called civics where I understood that altogether unemployment is of three types:

1. Complete unemployment
2. Half unemployment
3. Hidden unemployment

Complete unemployment is a situation where you don’t have any work to do thru out the day, week, month and year. It’s easy to understand. You wanted to do some work but there is no work for you. Next one is half unemployment. Half unemployment is, if you have some work available for you during some time of year and don’t have any work after that. Best example can be taken from some seasonal farming when a labor gets some employment while doing the paddy farming and sits unemployed after the season is over. This type of unemployment is also easy to understand. Third one is most difficult and confusing. Hidden unemployment is where from the outside, others think that everyone is employed but usually few of them have work to do. For example if n number of labors can do some work in time t but the m (where m>n) labors are employed to do same work in same time t then its hidden employment. Earlier the accurate and real world examples for this type of unemployment were the government departments where more than required number of engineer and helper were employed to do some work which can be completed with less number of worker. Socialist and communist philosophy encourages this type of unemployment. One more example is where a more skilled worker does less skilled work. For example, if a PhD holder is employed to do some work which can be easily done by a diploma holder.

Think positively Mr Prime Minister

2007-05-25T10:47:00.000+05:30

Today I read an article in TOI (http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Trim_fat_salaries_of_CEOs_PM/articleshow/2072751.cms) where our beloved Prime Minister has requested India Inc to not give fat salaries. The reasons given by he was that in today’s world, thru media channels the life standard of these highly paid guys is visible in villages and in slums and that can cause social imbalance. Great suggestion Mr. Prime Minister. Keep on doing some more research regarding this and you will take Indian life standard 20 yrs back and that’s what you looks like aiming for. Your plain theory is to squeeze as much as you can and frustrate as much as you can the people who are doing good in life and having good life standards and don’t give that squeezed money to poor’s but fill your pockets. Here are few points I would like to mention here:

1. The same village and slum people also do see the lavish and corrupt life style of our politicians, bureaucrats, thru media channels. Will that not affect the social balance?
2. In your career, altogether you yourselves accumulated a great wealth thru salaries (seems your bank balances goes up in crores as declared to Election Commission of India) by serving to Indian as well as International bodies. Didn’t you think in same way that time and voluntarily received a small salary which will be enough to run your family and expenses?
3. What is the source of income for Mrs. Sonia Gandhi? Will the life standard of Rahul Gandhi have any impact on the slum people? Or there is also a reservation rule applicable and slum people don’t get impacted when they see the lavish life style of you people and also come to know about your fat bank balances?

I had heard a story when I was a kid. There are two lines drawn on board and you need to make the size equal. A constructive approach is to extend the smaller line to the size of bigger line and another destructive approach is to delete some part of longer line to make that look similar to smaller line. Our respected Prime Minister has chosen the destructive path. He wants everyone in India to have a similar (poor) life standard so that everyone will be happy to see the hopeless standards of each other. Seems he has given up to the idea that we should improve the life standards of village and slum people. His comments and thoughts are disappointing and frustrating. May GOD give him some strength to think wisely and intellectually......

Leader Follower paradigm

2007-04-18T09:58:00.000+05:30

In this world, everyone is either a leader or follower or in some cases both. Means a leader may be follower for some other leader. Everyone posses both leader and follower instincts in their body and mind. Only the proportion of these instincts depicts their nature as a leader or a follower. This concept is pretty similar with the concept of Male and Female hormone in our body.

Usually leaders are few in numbers compared to followers and decide a path and follower (may be blindly) follows that path. This creates a famous tree kind of structure. Also a follower might have more than one leader (remember the multiple inheritance). Now the question is how the chain gets established? Means how a person who is of follower nature, decides which one person from the leaders community is actually his leader? I did some study, analysis and research in that and I believe its just a simple fact that if a person encounters another person which can do/perform or already performed few of the art which he/she couldn't or cannot, he/she accepts him/her as leader. For example, if a person is very much interested in playing soccer but could never became more than an average soccer player, meets a good above average soccer player in his team. He will surely get influenced and major chances are that he will accept him as his leader. If you will think in this line, you can easily validate several leader follower relationships around you with this concept.

So In case you are leading a team of individuals, first analyze every individual or group of individuals about their interests and passion and just try to demonstrate some good qualities in that fields in front of them which will ensure smooth formation of healthy leader-follower chain for you and your team. This is easy way to achieve "self evolved leadership" which is far better than "force imposed leadership" for a team.

At last, some followers are forcibly made leaders for a group of individual and software industry is good example of that :)

Well Played Greg....

2007-04-06T11:15:00.000+05:30

Now when Greg Chappell has resigned, we should not just keep analysing all the negative aspects of his tenure as Indian coach. He was blunt but was professional and serious with his job. With his resignation too, he taught a final lesson of professionalism and responsibility to all Indian Players and BCCI. The way few Indian cricket stars behaved with him was strange. It was like he never played cricket. He was not an ordinary player. His over all records (career statistics http://content-ind.cricinfo.com/india/content/player/4558.html ) are if not better than Saurav, Sachin then not bad too. He was good player and captain.

Today I read in news paper that Sachin was not having good term with him because of his batting position. This again shows Sachin's selfishness and megalomaniac attitude. It is already proved fact that Chappell is a better strategist than Sachin (see Sachin's poor captaincy records) and as a coach had authority to decide the game plan but Sachin was reluctant to open the innings and when coach didnt agree, Sachin became his enemy. Sachin should always know he is not bigger than team. In past once he had expressed his displeasure when captain declared an inning and he was on 195. He was more interested in completing 200 than giving some extra time to Indian bowlers to bowled out the opposition. That shows his "commitments" towards the team. Hope with Chappell's resignation, senior non performing Indian players will learn the basics of commitment and responsibility and will follow the spirit to take back their names from team. One thing is sure that BCCI under politician Sharad Pawar wont do anything good for Indian team. So players need to take initiatives to clean up the system and image.

Sorry DUDE, No one will listen to you

2007-04-04T11:41:00.000+05:30

So at last, Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar lost his patience and started blaming Chappell for his and team's poor show in WC 2007. The man who is famous to respond his critics with his bat and scores in cricket field is suddenly taking the path of creating sympathy for him among the Indian cricket lovers. This clearly indicates his inability to perform in field and his desperation to somehow be in Indian team for some more time. He says He is sad and disappointed because India is out of WC. I will say you *really* should be sad and disappointed dude else it will be height of shamelessness. People like Sachin has compelled the Indian Cricket to give importance to personalities over performances. After poor WC show, He is trying to harvest on his clear image for 17 long years in cricket.

Lets assume everything was not great with Chappell in WC, but simple question is, why didn't you do your duty to score runs? Take example of our great individualistic player Saurav Dada Ganguly. He never had good terms with Chappell but he scored few runs against Bangladesh and Bermuda. If you would have scored a simple 30+ (individualistic) score against Bangladesh, India would not have been out of WC. Lets also assume you were too disturbed and not in good mental shape because of coach-player strained relations, then for the benefit of team, why didn't you took your name back from the team and allowed someone else to play on your place. If you would have done that, you would have shown great courage and people would have appreciated that. You didnt do these things. That clearly indicates that now you are not good for international cricket and also somehow you want to be part of the Indian team. I sincerely believe, for you its time to GO. Sorry to say but this is a fact and that fact is clearly coming out from all the record books. There are few so called "cricket experts" here in India who are denying the fact that cricket in Sachin is totally finished and trying to create a hypothetical picture of Sachin playing in next WC. These guys are playing with emotions of Indian cricket fans. Indian cricket fans need to be beware of such kind of useless vocal elements and keep focusing only on performances not the personalities before extending their support. The problem with Indian cricket fan is that they are like a devoted wife of cricket personalities. Whenever a personality dies, they behave like a typical hindi movie widow who doesnt accept that she is widow and keeps wearing bangles and vermilion and takes years to realise that her husband is dead and she is widow. Please wake up and say strongly GOOD BYE SACHIN with all due respect.

a man called Arjun Singh

2007-03-30T10:20:00.000+05:30

Since my childhood days, I kept on hearing the name of Arjun Singh thru media. Mostly for some wrong reasons. Earlier it was related to the surrender of dacoits from chambal then churhat lottery scandal then second most powerful person of Congress(I) after Rajeev Gandhi then something called Congress (T) for some small period of time and now for reservations in IIT/IIM. If you closely study his career you will find he was/is an ambitious person who always tried to be at top and hence so in news. Fortunately (for nation) or unfortunately (for him) he could never get the position he thought he deserves and thus at this stage of his life all of his "creative" skills have started converting in destructive skills. This is result of sheer frustration of being an unsuccessfull politician. After Rajeev's assasination, Narsimha Rao took the oppertunity and became PM and poor Arjun Singh missed the chance. Then he started creating problem for Pamulaparthi Venkat Narsimha Rao. In 2004, after Sonia denied taking the post of PM, he again had a golden oppertunity to take over as PM but no one proposed his name and Mr Manmohan Singh became PM. He is in ministry of Human Resources since then and keeps on coming in news sometime when camera catches him sleeping in some important meeting or in some function or for his change in syllabus initiatives or for waking up the reservation monster again and again. News reports has been always circulating in media that he is trying his best to create problems for Mr. Manmohan Singh and the government.

I always believed that PM should assign him some serious work so that he will be busy. Looks like he has ample amount of time because there is a saying in hindi "Khali Dimag Shaitan ka Ghar".

Let's not boycott them..

2007-03-27T10:02:00.000+05:30

So somehow Indian team made it possible to come out of WC 2007 even being in a group which had Bermuda and Bangladesh type teams. The Indian team lost to Bangladesh and made them feel like they have really built a world class team. Bangladesh cricket team is feeling full of confidence. Anyway this feeling will soon go away when matches of super 8 will start.

As soon as India was out of WC, print and electronic media started doing "detailed" analysis. These news channels are now behind everyone related with Indian cricket team. They are the guys who first made the players feel like crowned king by reporting every single movements and activities done by any player. I remember once in prime time news hour, one of the news channels happily reported that there are some gossips going around for Dhoni's marriage. They reached Dhoni's house with camera and microphone to interview his parents to get every small details about Dhoni's marriage. Now Dhoni is villain for all of the news channels. Similarly for Greg. When he took over coaching job, they called him Guru Greg and started reporting each steps taken by Greg as something innovative. Now the poor chap is target of almost everyone including Kapil Dev who once coached India to australia tour (in 1999) and secured 3-0 white wash for India team in tests and 4-1 humiliating defeat in One Dayers. Yesterday I read a column http://in.rediff.com/wc2007/2007/mar/26guest.htm on rediff.com and somewhat I do agree with the author. People like Kapil Dev, Sunil Gavaskar never did anything right for Indian cricket after retirement. They just kept on cribbing on everything from management to players to performances. I do remember Kapil's "splendid" performances for almost 6 years during 1988-1993. I do agree everyone in Indian team performed really very bad in WC and this is a fact. No one can escape. Not even Saurav, because everyone knows that he was the person who was in form. He scored few runs in group matches but this is also true that he slowed down the pace of scoring rate and set the rythm for team to score with an average of 4 runs per over. We can say same things for Zaheer, Munaf. They performed reasonably well but their performances were never threatning to opposition. In cricket even a single bowler can change the direction of match. For team like Bangladesh, score of 192 was defendable, if fast bowlers had taken 4-5 wickets in first 20 overs or so. Thus not only batsmen but bowlers too failed. So what should we do to show our anger to Indian Cricket Team. Should we pelt stones on them? Should we raise some slogans on streets? No. Not at all. We should not boycott them but we should boycott the products they endorse. Like if someone from Indian cricket team endorses one soft drink, we should start using another brand. Anyway there is not much difference in taste of different soft drinks. Similarly for all other products. Let’s boycott all the products endorsed by any one of Indian cricket team. Let’s boycott all the fashion shows (even on TVs) where they walk on ramp. Let’s boycott all the movies where they go for muhurat and all. I thought that will be the best way to express our anger. I was shocked to hear on a TV news channel that representatives of these companies influence the selectors to select the player who endorses their products. So we need to boycott the products than the players. Don’t boycott Indian cricket. Don’t boycott Indian cricket team. Boycott the products they endorse.......

Positive Imaging

2007-03-22T10:28:00.000+05:30

Recently my wife has developed some interest in reading and started reading a book "Positive Imaging" by Norman Pincent Peale. The author is a western writer. I just asked my wife what is Imaging and whatever she explained me that looked pretty similar to the our old Indian theory about "Buri Najar Lagna", "aah lagna" (in negative sense) and similar old existing sayings in positive sense too like "aapaki dua". Basically its about seriously wishing some one with good wishes or with bad wishes. The author claims that if you start imaging something to happen and if you do that very seriously then that will happen. For example if you start imaging that you will successfully complete some work on time and will get promoted in near future and will do that imaging very seriously then that will happen. Talking about negative imaging, I do remember when I was a kid I have heard my mother, grand mother talking sometime that "koi aankh na laga de". Here the term "aankh laga dena" indicates that someone is jealous with something of yours and so he/she will start imaging some thing negative about you and that will happen. Most common observations were with the babies. They look cute and mothers think that there should not be any evil eye on her baby. One good point is that our culture has a self claimed solution also for this negative imaging and that is putting black kajal on head of the baby :) .

I always thought these concepts useless in this modern scientific days but seems I need to think about these things a bit seriously. These kind of theories are difficult tobe proved or denied scientifically. I can write lot more about this.... mainly in our culture but this blog will get stretched to appear a boring blog :)

controversy related to Woolmer's death

2007-03-21T14:05:00.000+05:30

Yesterday late evening I was watching India TV (a news channel in India) and was shocked to know the allegations from former Pakistan pacer Sarfaraz Nawaz that the caoch Bob Woolmer was murdered by the match fixing mafia. He accused almost everyone (from ICC to PCB to Pakistan's players) to be involved in this match fixing scandals. Sarfaraz Nawaz is famous for his big mouth but on the same news channel, Abdul Kadir was also indirectly supporting his allegations. Lets assume everything he said is not correct but then suspicion arises because of unexpected loss of Pakistan to Ireland and India to Bangladesh. As we know that Dravid's decision to bat first on that Port-of-Spain pitch was surprising for almost everyone who knows even A-B-C of cricket. One thing is sure that the cricket governing bodies are not serious about tackling match fixing scandals in world cricket. The indian players who got accused for match fixing in past are now again getting feliciated by BCCI and even Indian Media is inviting them for "expert" comments and analysis during the several ongoing cricket match. I guess we all cricket fans should bycott them.

India in WC 2007

2007-03-20T11:12:00.000+05:30

India won its 2nd match against low ranked Bermuda. After the Bangladesh defeat, fans like me were bit nervous to watch this match too. But it was a cool win with loads of sixes all over the ground.

After India lost first match against Bangladesh, there were lots of discussions and columns in media. My opinion was bit different for the blames the experts of cricket were putting on individuals. I always felt that the over cautious and slow batting of sachin and Ganguly for 3rd wicket took away the match from India. They were not rotating strike and so the confidence of bangladesh bowlers and fielders were getting boosted ball by ball. See the stat. Sachin played 26 balls for his 7 runs and that also with a boundary. That means he socred only 3 runs in ones and twos in 25 balls.