My Scribble

My Vitthal

2010-07-21T00:33:00.002-04:00

There was never a single time when I missed fasting on either of Ashadhi or Kartiki Ekadashi when I was home. The reason was that I did not have an option to.

Still remember how I used to cherish eating different type of food on those days.

I never believed in just one religion, always tried not to contain my beliefs - of course backed by my cosmopolitan upbringing.

For me, it's always been difficult to believe in something I have never seen, I have always been one of those people who needed physical/material proof to trust something.

For the same reason, when I see People believing in God, the only feeling that engulfs me that of Respect! Sheer Respect!

I read, see, hear about Warkaris traveling don't-know-how-many miles to see Vitthal-Rakhumai on the holy day; they walk, they dance, they sing, they chant without caring for heat/rains/meals. What in the world gives them the strength & will to do all that?

Looking at them makes me proud & humble at the same time.

As said by the great Saint Tukaram: "The god resides in Bhakti (beliefs), not Murti (stone/statues)".

For me too, I see my Vitthal in all these people!

Observing fast on this day has just got a whole new meaning for me :-)

देव दिसे ठायी ठायी
भक्त लीन भक्तापायी ...
सुखालागि आला या हो
आनंदाचा पूर ...

अवघे गरजे पंढरपूर
चालला नामाचा गजर ...

P.S. Dedicated to my Mom & every Believer I know

Give us our God back!

2010-07-10T18:49:00.002-04:00

It disturbs me when someone tells me what to do and what not to. It might be because of my very understanding parents – the way they gave all the freedom I ever wanted – teaching me how to utilize that freedom and not get carried away!

It disturbed me last week when I read about some heinous acts committed – by people – under the name of God, religion, caste.

Iran orders stoning Mother of two

North India Vs Couples in Love

Yet another honor killing

It made me remember the incident happened last month – when I was asked to wrap a Dhoti around my waist since I was wearing shorts to be ‘BLESSED’ with the Deity’s Darshan (visit the God). Aren’t my legs a part of my body which is GIFTED by that god? Why would this God (or people who TRUST in him) feel uncomfortable with what I was wearing? (I agree to expect the existence of a civilized society where you can’t move around naked but this was so Talibanisque)

Taliban is not alone – we have many Talibans all around us. Women are beaten to death for infidelity, loving someone from another religion. It’s not just Pakistan or Afghanistan – it’s all over India – North India kills people for marrying outside the caste while South India beats girls for visiting pubs, wearing short clothes.

It’s not just the Muslims who suffer. Many Temples in India still disallow pregnant women, women going through their periods, people from so-called ‘Lower’ castes. Why do we take this crap? What type of GOD and what type of Religion denies people?

Why are these people lowering the stature of OUR gods?

Is Allah so small that he’s affected by a cartoon on him in a Danish newspaper? Is Ambedkar shallow to be dishonored by some idiot puts cow dung on his statue? Or is Krishna a petite existence that’s insulted by someone marrying out of caste/religion?

How are we belittling our Gods? Why in the world these fanatics can’t think that they are the ones who’re RESTRICTING something as big as GOD!!

Is it forgotten that God is above everything else? No human action can ever affect it.

Why is it that only fraction of crazy people dominate our societies, our religions? It’s because WE bow down to them, it’s we who surrender. It’s us who get suffocated in narrow-minded limits!

For that matter – all the revolutions have happened when WE fought for our rights, when majority fought & won against minority. Isn’t it time we fight to get our God/Religion back?

Cricket to drive India's future?

2010-03-21T16:53:00.004-04:00

Believe it or not: The two new IPL teams have been sold for more money than many of the smaller nations' economies could turn over in an entire year.

As a Punekar, let me first welcome the biggest Cricket brand to Aamche Pune! It will be heartening to see Pune's team get on ground next year ... Cheers!

On a broader level though, IPL's increase in brand value & overall market capture has been nothing less than Astonishing - I mean we all knew that cricket was always gonna earn a lot in India, a major world economy but This fast? and SOOOOO Much?

US $370 M & $333 M for Pune & Kochi respectively is humongous & something we should take notice and interest in.

Just wondering if Cricket could be next driver of Indian economy - we already have software & outsourcing industries but the way Lalit Modi has brought about a change in Indian Cricket as a Product is fabulous & could well prove historic for India.

With deals like Sony TV & youtube making IPL cash rich, it's set for only bigger leaps! Matches being shown in multiplex & improved ground-spectator experience - it is time for much more ... Much more money & much more growth!

Of course, cynics have already made their cases against the money & some crap with 'purity of cricket' - but let me tell these historically-British-ruled people that it's no more an English game. Cricket is going global & India is taking it to the world! (I still maintain it's a sport & the essence needs to be alive forever.)

This is new India, rich India. This is new cricket with player auctions, cheer leaders.

Looking forward to many more of such milestone dates with India & my favorite sport, cricket!

Disclaimer: I am not the only one who's been shaken by these developments, here are a few more (some of the views are bound to match)-

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-03-18/billionaires-in-cricket-mad-india-seek-market-beating-teams.html

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/sport/ayazmemon/100006291/ipl-2010-the-record-sale-of-the-pune-and-kochi-ipl-cricket-teams-has-left-me-speechless/

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-03-21/sahara-rendezvous-to-pay-703-million-for-ipl-teams-update1-.html

IPL franchise valued more than EPL teams: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/iplarticleshow/5709837.cms

[Update on 4/13/2010 - 12:50 PM ET]

Ayaz Memon seems to agree with me in his article on cricinfo about IPL &India http://www.cricinfo.com/magazine/content/story/455812.html

One voice in a Billion

2010-02-25T19:46:00.003-05:00

What a fabulous day was 24^th Feb 2010. I, just like every other Indian was ecstatic to see the first ever double hundred in ODI Cricket. Not that Sachin needed it prove himself but this was SPECIAL, just like so many other moments the little master has gifted cricket fans with.

I bet millions for any cricket fan that did not get Goosebumps after watching the 200^th run taken! Everyone’s common regret: not being in Gwalior on that historic day!

It’s very easy for him to unite the nation, unite the cricket world – such an amazing chemical! Well, there isn’t any adjective left in the dictionary to describe the God!

One after another, he has displayed those masterpieces of batsmanship, he is the only sporting icon of India, the best batsman Cricket has ever seen.

Yeah, Sachin Tendulkar is a phenomenon – calling him a human would burden the definition of a human being.

Enough, I’d not wanna repeat anything that’s been said already – I just had to let out this sheer joy!

Here’s something to treasure forever: Video - first ever 200

I so wanna attend 2011 World Cup Final in Mumbai with India playing - too early but it'll be like a fairytale to see Sachin live at Wankhede pursuing something he has always wished for! (Never too soon to dream ;-))

Before I wind up – I support all appeals for Bharat Ratna for Sachin! (Thanks to Amit Paranjape for bringing the issue up) There haven’t been many Indians who have brought so many happy tears in more than 2 billion eyes!

His modesty, dedication (and all other personal & professional values) are something we are inspired from, something we want our next generations to be inspired from – conferring him Bharat Ratna NOW would only represent the nation’s feelings through a memento & a tag!

I think I spoke for more than a Billion people!

Weak & unsafe, do we deserve this?

2010-02-22T20:05:00.003-05:00

Just heard about players’ probable pullout from IPL-2010 atop reading news of Cricket WC-2011 to be moved out of India and countries not to send players for Commonwealth Games-2010 to be held in India! How unsafe has India become!

Aren’t we like Pakistan now? (With probably a difference that Indian land is not OPENLY used for terror planning). Blasts every month, terror scares on every event, however small. Why is India falling apart? Do we really have control over Kashmir? Have we lost substantial part of Arunachal Pradesh?

I know there are many aspects to India’s weak outlook – ‘experts’ might dig most of the reasons behind it. I don’t wanna go into strategic or political aspects of it. But I wonder every now & then - why are we ‘tolerating’ all this crap?

Perhaps a tiny part of the reason lies in India’s people – yes, the same ones that are supposed to be India’s strength.

1. Do we forgive & forget too quickly? One of the media houses starts some crap – Aman ki Asha – people follow it blindly (just one example, there’s a whole lot similar). No other country is as friendly to its trouble-land (not blaming Pakistan, the nation; but its land has been used against India).

2. Do we really care about what we support? Mainstream India media supported SRK recently & indirectly promoted his movie which was supposedly based on humanity. (P.S. I haven’t seen that movie).

Just an innocent question to MNIK team or people who supported it – if 911 hurt you so much, why didn’t you make a movie about 2700 innocent Americans (+ around 330 foreign nationals to USA) who died?
Is it justified to over-dramatize fake sympathy with people from certain religion just because they had to go through a little more security checks?

3. Why aren’t people thankful for the land? Be thankful, respect the locals! Why do people wanna come to Mumbai for a living and shout “We’re from UP”? Why do these people ‘create’ own flavors of history & proclaim that Maharashtra economy is built by migrants? Isn’t that kind of bad culture?

4. Why always be minority-friendly? Almost all of the countries with good human, economic & cultural indices are OPENLY majority-friendly (E.g. France, UK, Switzerland, Germany, Canada, Australia require migrants to cope with locals). India, on the other hand, expects its biggest religion to accommodate everyone.

5. Are we still under ‘inferiority’ notion the colonial rulers forced on us? It’s only 4^th generation since India became independent & it might be a psychological probability that India doesn’t have enough ‘patriotic’ people.

Probably, we are no different than Pakistan: we can't protect ourselves, the world is withdrawing it's confidence from 'Brand India' & we also do not have ANY solution!

May not be correct, just my thoughts for being weak, staying weak as ‘A nation’!

Khan, Sena & yet another Indian city

2010-02-14T22:25:00.001-05:00

Just like every other Saturday morning, I woke up on 2/13 to connect with my dear ones – and how, this time?

Hearing about the blasts at German Bakery, Pune! Not that blasts in other Indian cities angered me any less (in fact, I should be used to bomb blasts being a proud Indian) but this was a personal attack that left me shattered. A place close to my heart, I can’t myself recollect how many times I have visited this place. A host of many of my mundane moments and not just mine, the GB was witness to my parents’ romance too. Oh the place – how could someone be ever so cruel with you?

Well, does that matter? Every place is connected to someone or the other, every person (especially if you’re an Indian) experiences such traumas. In fact our home minister, PC Chidambaram pointed out (in fact he declared gleefully) that this was the first terror attack on India in past 15 months. Point everything to the government, don’t we?

Some bollywood superstar SRK uses his stardom to promote & create ruckus in entire Maharashtra and we stupidly think his on-screen image is what he’s for real!
Where is Khan now, the one who always sticks up for a particular religion or good/great neighbors? He’s the Khan who gets into such cheap controversies Heathrow or spreads ire in a movie-crazy nation with Newark incident

This person (who never shows any gratitude for his homeland, be it Maharashtra or India) is known to utilize Indian media & chalk out plans to publicize his movies – and we blindly, repeatedly follow this person! Some of this does make a lot of sense: Open letter to SRK

Then we have Shiv-Sena (Sene, VHP, RSS are their siblings) – you people rock! You protect our ‘CULTURE’ by violence, vandalizing properties, attacking innocents, ensuring V-day bans & helping reel heroes look like real heroes!

We have just had enough of these goons now – let’s not just mute protest. Let’s come out, visit Pubs/discs! Let’s come out & celebrate ANY damn day we wish! Let’s watch ANY movie we want! Let’s not give in to these people to decide what we should drink, what we should wear or what day we should celebrate!

Mr Chavan (our CM) has failed to stand up every time – be it against Shiv Sena or Marathi-must-for-cabbies (which actually was a state cabinet decision). Of course with such a feeble leader, we’re bound to be attacked.

All these see their best friend in another phenomenon called ‘Indian media’ – these are the people who make SRK & SS what they are! Repeatedly using coverage as a weapon for controversies & TRPs, Indian media has stooped to extraordinary low levels (e.g. a leading Marathi newspaper exposed by P Sainath: Here & Here).

Yes & if you remember this is the same media that has spoiled India's relationship with China & Australia.

It’s shameful to see people like Barkha Dutt (less said the better for this lady) who went all out to support a movie & Rajdeep Sardesai who doesn’t care dragging Thackeray children into whatever controversy.

One stupid issue after another, Indian media needs an overhaul soon (wish independent journalism takes over soon)!

And then there are we, taking every defeat, every death in our strides & proudly calling ourselves ‘India’. We are made to live with terror, slums, garbage because we SEEM okay with it!

Are we insensitive or blind followers or cowards or selfish losers?
Huh, another outlet of anguish, anger & loss … I am sick of seeing deaths every day, in every city, on every street!

So, Young & innocent Pune bleeds on the eve of Valentine’s Day! What do you think? Which city next?

There’s nothing like ‘War on terror’, ‘City’s never-say-die spirit’: all we have is the remains of what used to be German Bakery & a distraught place – all I can do is help rebuild GB.

Let’s get together pool in all our efforts & emotions in getting this beautiful place back on its feet; we might see some dead souls smiling at us!

One's loss = other's gain

2010-02-08T16:25:00.000-05:00

American (or say, World) recession has turned out to be a horrific reality – The great American dream is shattered, China’s Manufacturing industry is reeling under pressure, Europe’s playing too safe.

The US is putting in money wherever it sees problems (the traditionally American way of solving the problems), Obama has incentivized hiring but saturation & positivity ballooned have taken their toll.

The Wall Street is full with money without trust!

All said, all read – I would not comment further on current conditions & solutions. However, there are some pointers that have not missed my eye (or my mind).

The American entrepreneurs/capitalists have launched a movement (readers might have heard of it): http://startupvisa.com/

It’s extremely critical to fuel the boost for long terms & create meaningful long-run jobs for us to get out of this mess.

It’s sad to see India once again being a slow starter!

Our sorry story is not just limited to physical infrastructure – the roadblocks in broadband penetration are too discouraging – Indian IT growth is repeatedly failing to solve India’s problems!

India could be hugely benefitted to make moves at this time – India can turn this recession into a boon for economy. We already are a better market than China http://bit.ly/dibrAt & with tighter monetary controls, less risky than USA.

Urban-Rural disconnect hampers India’s comprehensive growth again & again – India probably has the highest delta in the world in this regard
India stands at a stage where it’s gotta balance between migration & globalization – we still are heavily confused
Weak policies & weaker implementations do not help much either – India always starts on defensive
Cultural & social barriers majorly block India’s juggernaut – failures are a still a crime!

However, I’d still say it’s a great place to startup!

Shortcomings cease to look bad the moment those are viewed as opportunities!

Bottoms-up growth model, reasonably strong mobile phones networks, decent emphasis on rural strengths, strong consumerism & above all, the People (a nation with astonishingly high young population) make India a land of opportunities.

We also enjoy substantial NRI Investments & other FDIs.

India has still got huge chunk to offer in philanthropy, healthcare, energy, petroleum & social businesses. Cultures & languages stem a new & one-of-its-kind model of entrepreneurship.

All we need is some support from the top, some aggressive policy making by the government to leverage the growth.

We don’t need a startup Visa program – we need to nurture our own entrepreneurs
Still need to boost high-end education & research facilities to retain talent & stop unnecessary emigration (this doesn’t mean setting up colleges tagged IIT,IIM in villages, quality supervision is paramount)
There is GOT to be a Radical shift in traditional policy making process – India has grown more than it’s leaders ever expected it to
Little more opening up the market wouldn’t hurt either (though, debatable)
For the n’th time: Every type of infrastructure needs an immediate overhaul in India

Too much to hope, waiting for some satisfaction!

Is Mahendra Singh Dhoni more than a cricket captain for India?

2009-12-17T21:29:00.000-05:00

Yeah, even I think what the title suggests is pretty weird!

I've always heard/read of old times' India, seen it a little bit during childhood. One thing that has not changed ever is the passion for the sport of cricket. If I speak about love for cricket in India, it'll be like underlining for billionth time!

While growing up I used to watch Indian teams that were king at home on dusty pitches with outfields resembling nothing but deserts.

Those were the times when one dive on Indian grounds could risk your bones, when most of the players who could be best described as 5'5" 50 kg bodies which spoke of malnutrition & poverty in India, when tours were just meant for holidays & shopping, when all media could talk was margins of victory - Indian victories if we played home or other country's if we played away. Yes, those were the times when Indian commentators used to lambaste Indian batsmen for showing even minuscule sign of aggression, when Indians saw nothing but Miandad's sixer or Imran Khan's yorker in their nightmares!
Aah, those were the days when India played the Gentleman's Game Gently!

Not anymore!
Dhoni's team is full of hefty youngsters - they don't look frail or weak when standing with an Aussie, they don't get intimidated, they're not scared, they can kick A**es with bat/bowl/words!
They never take anything lying down, they give everything back perhaps with more vengeance!
And mind you it's not just the aggression - it's aggression with talent and performance.

What made a guy like Sehwag be so arrogant in batting like the way he does? Has anyone seen a front view of his bat?
In a country that still treats 'sex' as a taboo, how come Zaheer Khan acknowledges the 'best chest' award by Mumbai girls? How can Yuvraj be so confident of having the 'best ass'? (are we talking of India here? :O)
Why wasn't Ganguly ashamed of ripping off his shirt on Lord's balcony where anything less than a coat is 'indecent'?
Why doesn't Dhoni treat Sachin, the god, special? Why such a 'senior' person covers the boundary in death overs? Did anyone ever even think of anything like that before in Indian cricket?
How come the captain of the Indian cricket is cool under pressure? Where's all the burden of billions of Indians' expectations?
This bloody team beats other teams in their backyards, they're not afraid of traveling, they're not afraid of Murali's, Warne's, Akhtar's!

Mumbai crowd harasses Andrew Symonds till he gets away, Indian cricket pressurizes 'white' nations to play according to their conditions, 'whiter & richer' cricket countries form a union against India & still fail to affect: Isn't that unusual for India?
What happened all of a sudden?

If people still think this is limited to just cricket: look around again, see Indians around you if possible.
Every youngster today relates to this Indian cricket team, we have come far & beyond!
Bollywood & cricket have inspired India a lot, but this is the time when India has affected Cricket!
Look at this team: they're not guys from Mumbai or Delhi, they're from a small UP village or a Maharashtra small town or from a very poor Muslim family in Gujarat town. They have not had their childhood dedicated to cricket.

On the same veins, look at Indian youngsters - they're no more like their parents. Many of them are not even dependent by the time they turn 21. In the country that taught 'save-when-you-earn', they buy things they want when they want. Where pubs/discs are a no-no, the new India makes plans for parties every weekend. In a country where holidays meant visiting a religious place with family, they go holidaying with friends. - is only money & spending capacity (or technology) responsible for all this?

Not really.
India's truly going places and this may just be that time of metamorphosis. Look at the attitude shift, Indians are no more ashamed of their color or even their habits.
And just like the cricket team, this is not just the outlook - but there's talent to back it up too.
Ofcourse, there are problems just like Indian team's losses. However, what strikes you the most is how India handles these losses/failures these days?

Isn't Dhoni someone who truly represents the new India? The India my generation belongs to?

India to have next Silicon Valley: Yes

2009-12-11T16:24:00.000-05:00

There isn’t much when it comes to difference between business scene anywhere in the world today. It has not remained special that we live in a totally globalized village called the world.

Whatever India has done, achieved is fantastic & India is definitely one nation that can keep it up – recent statements by Manmohan Singh, the Indian prime minister have re-iterated the beliefs that India has always been & will always pursue balanced growth.

India probably has the best talent set in the world & with Silicon Valley facing the heat due to economic slowdown, reverse brain drain could lead to more local talent in India.

India’s poor infrastructure & poor healthcare facilities actually add incentives to business growth – it opens up that many opportunities for businesses to penetrate Indian markets across segments. Lacking on basic amenities front also makes India an easy market ‘customers don’t expect the highest quality’

Though we have always had cultural barriers & produced out-of-the-shell, conventional IIT/IIM scholars, the radical shift in Gennext India’s thinking is significant. India’s set for a big attitude change. On the same lines, it is in fact great that ‘face of India’ is very young, there has been a constant shift of leadership powers from typical ‘old is gold’ category to ‘young & blunt’ psyche.

Nice to see so many young Indian CEOs & business leaders who are flexible in thought process & much quicker to adapt to changes – something that’s very critical in technology world. Though cultural trend shifting could take many years, it’s nice to see signals that India is on the brink.

Indians do crib a lot: may be they care more. It is necessary that criticism is directed to good channels & utilized. Even on that count, culture is taking a sharp turn in India.

Surging economy is another factor that’s driving investments in India – which has probably the most optimistic market today. Low-costs of entering, low-cost talent available in abundance could really gel well with friendly business environment to create next Silicon Valley in India.

Some of the related articles I would like you to read:

http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/10/17/beware-the-reverse-brain-drain-to-india-and-china/

http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/feb2009/tc20090228_990934.htm

India to have next Silicon Velley: No

2009-12-11T15:02:00.000-05:00

India, the IT superpower, the outsourcing destination, the talent mine or whatever else you may perceive HAS come a long way!

From being a nation of snakes and Sadhus (priests), we’re now known for our brains & confident outlook. Soon as I (or my looks) tell people that I am from India, I see respect & an assumption that I must be into software (which actually is not wrong).

The change was brought about when Bangalore happened to India, much read, much written so am not gonna talk on that anymore.

As usual, I will stick to my policy of not bombarding readers with data.

Of course the following thought process + analysis stems from the recognition that India has arrived on the world stage & achieved BIG time. Is India really there? Is Bangalore anywhere close to Silicon Valley? Definite NO. Still feel India has got the last mile yet to travel & seems as if that’s gonna be the most critical part of India growing.

The perennial Indian problems: dilapidated infrastructure, poor transport, heavy pollution levels have plagued Indian IT cities equally. Bangalore suffers from pollution, bad traffic & poor waste management. Pune has issues with transport, roads. Pune also suffers due to non-availability of an international airport (which is already at least 15 years late). Less talk the better about Mumbai. Hyderabad & NCR have performed much better on these counts however these cities struggle on security due to communal tensions and high crime rates.

Now, these problems can be overcome by political positive will which needs to be aroused by people & businessmen.
Towards more subtle & may be more critical issues in building a business hub:

1. India scores low on ‘risk-taking’. Many factors like traditional brain-drain, political apathy towards research & business, culture that discourages failures – have contributed to Indian talents riding safer boats, always!

Cannot remember exactly who said it recently, I came across an article lambasting Indian culture for not being able to encourage failures: I agree with the thought & strongly feel that overall culture, the ecosystem that we’re brought up in determines the risk-taking capabilities of a person which is one of THE most crucial factors in business (majorly during starting up)

2. Something that plays a major dampener in India’s growth is the behavior of the talent pool: many people sitting in India are trying to solve problems faced by the US. Globalization is very welcome but there must be a stream of people focusing on India’s local problems too.

Aren’t we missing out on ideas and business opportunities that lie in our own backyards?
Indian IT is far far away from the rural India & it’s an irony these guys expect the government to come to them. The e-growth is not reaching the lowest levels yet. Reaching rural India doesn’t mean philanthropy or charity: treat it like business, pure business.

For an example: Microsoft (and other Silicon Valley giants like HP, IBM, Intel) enabled American small towns to utilize teachnolgy for growth, these firms not only strengthened the technology base of common American citizen they also ripped off huge benefits out of it. ‘Make people use what you make.

If they can’t, teach them how to use what you make – even better’ India IT is still to realize the importance of ‘creating’ a customer base. Indian software giants are falling behind & they are still concentrating on existing (and saturated) US markets. Probably one of the reasons why Infosys, Wipro, TCS can’t be what Intel, Cisco, HP are.

3. Another amazing difference you can notice between cultures: Indians complain a lot more. It is a trend in India – to complain & crib about governments. It seems Indian society has not reached a level of maturity. Experts complain, celebrities complain, businessmen complain.

You’d see a much better attitude in Silicon Valley where everyone upbeat and brimming with confidence – a characteristic exuberance that makes Silicon Valley what it is Today.
The negative cribbing leads to people getting away from India’s causes, it hampers health & harmony of the society. As it turns out, Bangalore is far away from drawing a line between criticism & cribbing. (I had talked about this in one of my last posts as well - http://therigidandnimblepartofit.blogspot.com/2009/10/normal-0-false-false-false-en-us-x-none.html)

4. One more factor that could well spoil India’s party is social disparity across the country. In my opinion, India has the highest delta in the world between the rich & the poor – which results in consistent communal unrest every now and then – also, this kind of imbalance is responsible for producing many upstarts & pseudo-intellectuals. Recently seen an example of this divide - http://therigidandnimblepartofit.blogspot.com/2009/12/as-amazed-as-i-am-right-now-not-sure.html#links

5. As if to congregate these factors, India’s blessed with an immature and biased media that relies on igniting the emotions to earn every Rupee they can (I have followed Indian media quite consistently but haven’t been much impressed: http://therigidandnimblepartofit.blogspot.com/2009/10/media-religion.html)

6. Also of paramount importance while setting up a global industry is to have a good ecosystem of business that contains good technical schools, research labs - fronts India under perform on. Very little percentage of India's budget is directed towards the R&D, something that needs to be stepped up in order to control brain-drain (if it at all exists in this not-so-optimistic job market) & to encourage reverse brain-drain (something China's doing to great effect). R&D in India is as good as nothing - it hardly gets any support - it hardly contributes anything!

Wish India to travel the last mile!

2 States

2009-12-10T21:37:00.000-05:00

As amazed as I am right now, not sure about what? Another state in the making or the reactions that I have read/heard?

Telangana has gone beyond as an issue only for people of that region, I view it having much deeper consequences than it seems.
However, people blindly condemning is not acceptable (at any time, I'd say).

For starters, Telangana is probably the oldest movement for a separate state in India; much different than Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand & Uttarakhand.
The new states I just mentioned did not hold such strong demands, creation of those states was more political than people-felt.

On progress & development, J'khand, U'khand & C'garh have done much better than their respective parent states Bihar, UP & MP. Why can't the always-poor Telangana do the same?
Smaller states are always easier to administer!
On language & culture, if there can be more than one state speaking Hindi,Bengali,Marathi (counting Konkani spoken in Goa as a Marathi dialect) why can't there be more than one state speaking Telugu?

Now, the way that was used to influence this decision was fasting & non-co-operation: two of the means used by Gandhi for India's independence. I agree comparison with Gandhi may be wrong but the section that supports Telangana would definitely hail this as one similar. Looking at Indian netizens' tirade against KCR & a separate Telangana, isn't it double-standard to blame fellow Indians for such uprising? Don't we Indians fail to understand other Indians many a times?

That poses another question to me: if we can get so easily affected by whatever media publishes (considering major part of the media blamed Telangana), do we have the right to speak against jobless youths who vandalize public properties?
Who really understands plight of Telangana that always been hit by Naxalism, the region that has always seen prosperity from far away.

Another subtle fact worth noticing is that Hyderabad is too rich for Andhra Pradesh. For an overall poor state & less literate state (FYI - Andhra Pradesh is the only non-Hindi major state that has literacy below India's average), Hyderabad grew too much.
Andhra Pradesh's grounds could never match itself with Cyberabad's skies!
Difference between Hyderabad & small towns of Andhra has always been too much to be retained on the same level. Andhra doesn't even have another tier-2 or tier-3 city. Such mismatch would always lead to social restlessness. This is why we need balanced growth.
This is why we need common social vision.

If this makes you think I support Telangana, it's not so.
There are implications too:

1. This could become a trend & people could start blackmailing the central government with protests + hunger + strikes + bandhs
I expect a lot (and a lot more) maturity on handling this division, it could be delayed or scarce chances it could be canceled as well.
But, this is the testing time for the UPA government, need to set an example!

2. BJP's 'divide the states & rule' policy should not be propelled. BJP (or any party) will definitely try to gain political mileage from such issues. Great that BJP doesn't have significant presence in Telangana or Andhra!
The 'cause' of Telangana should not be misinterpreted as a political move ...

And on the final note, I would like to applaud the Congress government for taking the decision BEFORE much damage happened.
For those who don't know, there was a clear intelligence warning that Naxalites may used Telangana students to create unrest in the entire state which may have resulted in a serious damage to peace of the region and further law & order problems.

Wish Telangana all the peace they ever deserved!

The media religion

2009-10-13T22:54:00.000-04:00

Had a chance to go through some of the news coverage websites & TV channels lately, most of them focusing on Maharashtra assembly elections.
It's not surprising that Raj Thackeray was the biggest villain for almost all of the Indian 'national' media, most of them stayed focused on the Thackerays & hardly anything was noticed against a poor performing Congress government.
The Congress party has once again utilized the media very smartly to their advantage, which in fact, is quite a good political quality.

However, what I saw in the media under 'Reactions against Raj' was appalling & disappointing to say the least.
Some people called him Jinnah, some called Maharashtra a new Pakistan (WTF, WT big F)! Many of the online readers comfortably used the F*** word against him, there was no dearth of online abuse for MNS & no level of decency while using this 'freedom of expression'.
Even more shocking is that none of the 'national' media houses bothered to stop this cheap level of anger-venting.

And not for just supporting what I like, but honestly, all the MNS fans (at least in my view) have maintained that decency and honored the 'right' expressions, which is heartening to see.

Has Indian media divided us? Aren't they biased?

I say again & again that Raj Thackeray has been misinterpreted. He's the only politician I have ever listened to or read who has the balls to talk against SLUMS.
I dare any of India's national parties talk against hazards and threats from Slums, can you guys come forward and speak?
Anyway, let me not further get into MNS, their agenda & Mumbai-Maharashtra's problem.

Indian media comfortably influences the literate of India, it has made pseudo-intellectuals borne everywhere.
Most of Indian internet users are literate, since India's not so much used to the internet yet.
Look what 'most educated' people talk? Doesn't that sound as a 'verbal abuse'?

Consistently failing to play any constructive role over the time, Indian media has developed itself into a hypocrite phenomenon.

Is Indian media a new religion in India?
Why blame extremists, look at Indian Media ... they have made the most educated group go crazy!

Literate (let me just use the term 'India literates' henceforth) people follow blindly what's presented to them through this media (you can't blame them ... sorry, you can't blame us ... for that).

We're driven by media conclusions so much that we don't wanna verify anything for ourselves.

We very well know the rule: once a Madness/Religion is followed by many, it multiplies rapidly.

Isn't this the same media that projected Narendra Modi as modern day Jinnah few years ago? (who, IMO, is now the best Chief minister in India)

Isn't this the same media that caused a major embarrassment to India, reporting false against China? (and later, not disclose it). It went on to be labeled India's fear.

I came across some videos claiming tampering with Varun Gandhi's remarks too (not very sure on that, though)

These guys are the first to report 'famous' side of the story and suppress the other.
Same happened to MNS protests, same happened to doctors & pilots on strike, students from AIIMS-Delhi protesting against reservations.

I wonder why don't we ever listen to what our Congress government is up to? (not that am against or for them)
Or a recent one, projecting the India-born Nobel prize laureate so much that he was irritated by Indians.

On the issue of staying fair and notwithstanding other aspects of media, let's just hope we become a better media, rather than an emotional & igniting one.

When India talks business

2009-10-04T12:03:00.000-04:00

Constant unyielding comparisons:

I happen to attend few of the startup events (in person or over the web) recently. Most of them were related to doing business in India or just say business in India. India, one of the biggest markets, probably one of the few of the balanced ones in terms of the range of products and services, stands as one of the largest growing economy of the world. Many other nations and investors would be interested in India. As in any typical Indian business event, I saw lots of promise and pretty active hope with beaming confidence of the investors as well as the entrepreneurs.

Getting inspired is very common and sometimes natural in India. We look at others’ examples for learning; which in some carefully limited sense, is good and preferred. However, I at every time during any discussion on business, could not help listen to the US (and sometimes, European or Chinese) examples more than India-centered conversation. Do we compare too much?

Comparison plays a very important part of lifestyle in India which was sadly seen on business stage as well. Do we have to follow the US or China or some other nation on development?

Lack of emphasis on our strengths:

Dependant and comparative attitude has already driven us away from our strengths. Despite having huge cultivated land for agriculture, we could not bring science and technology at the core inside of the agro business. It is not very surprising that farming, agriculture, fruit and flower cultivation techniques, water and land related innovations have emanated from US and European nations (notably, Switzerland, Netherlands and Israel from Asia). Have we forgotten our strengths all together? Despite an amazingly big market for vegetables/dairy/farm products in India, we rarely see green startups.

Agree to high extent that we have been blessed with some of the best Tech brains too, Indians are probably one of the most competently techie personalities. What concerns me is that despite a section in our nation being so strong, technology penetration into ordinary households is poor. The tech creamy layer has failed (Or just say, is not inspired enough) to spread it around India. Secondly, gradient of difference between people ‘attracted’ to tech startups and green startups is alarmingly steep west. On the top of my mind, it seems that this scenario has led India to an imbalance: despite high foreign currency investments, technology advancements and the IT, India’s still way behind the world in infrastructure (poor communication, poor networks and pathetic handling of emergency), pollution control, damage control due to natural hazards or calamities, and resisting the global warming.

Personal point in case: when I talked to investors and VCs about these issues needing to be addressed, few of them turned away blaming it all on Indian government while few just surrendered admitting their failures or impatience to deal with the Indian government.

Media negative propagation, not using media well:

Can media pressurize the government positively? Has the business community failed to focus on pressing (but equally potential) issues and spreading it across? Is the Indian media biased or just lagging behind the era? Has the term ‘constructive medium’ of communication vanished and Media’s now defined as ‘something that reports what happens around’?

Ignoring whichever the reason and whatever that has happened so far, India to become a strong nation needs its Business community and Media to focus constructively on long (or very long) term internal buildup [and not just look at short-term financial and strategic gains]

Not using the Indian Diaspora well:

Before I start on this, I must appreciate all startup incubators to make conscious efforts towards getting the ‘Rich and Investing’ Indian Diaspora around the world attracted to new business setups.

India is nation that commendably utilizes the outside currency earned by its citizens for growth. Reportedly, India has the highest incoming remittances which must be appreciated by even the most ardent critiques of the nation.

However, these incoming funds (except the notable exceptions of FIIs and FDIs and some VCs) are not majorly directed towards India’s growth in a balanced direction; SMBs which form India’s core of business. To attract investors, we must give them Value and nothing else.

Government restrictions:

The Indian government also plays a spoilsport and is most responsible for too many restrictions in every sector related to business. Weak internal security is blamed on technology, speedy growth of Telecom and Internet is always checked with numerous restrictions. India is still not a business friendly nation. What’s worse is that there has been no explicit attempt made to move forward in the direction. Any proposal to start a business is met with thousands of paper licenses which take almost an era.

Indian government, it seems, likes India to remain a nation of Snakes and Sadhus (with weak and poor villages). Not just the internal security (actually, sheer lack of it) but India’s ignorant attitude towards healthcare, education and layered social structure make it difficult for core development issues to be concentrated upon. Every election in India is still ruled by issues on castes and religions.

It is however astounding to see Mumbai as one of the major financial centers of the world and as one of the most optimistic markets at this time. Can’t help but imagine only if the government was a little more supportive!

There’s need to attract outsiders (not related to India) to come and invest and do business in India; many pillars of this structure; majorly infrastructure, security and the society need to change.

Healthy way forward

2009-08-11T04:09:00.000-04:00

Reading about Swine Flu and H1N1 every day has made me ponder on diseases and then communicable diseases. Cannot help but feel the reason that India performs poorly against Communicable diseases has most to do with its society and the social culture. India ranks amongst one of the worst in the world when it comes to checking the spread of communicable diseases. Staying in Pune, the swine flu capital of the nation has made me take all sorts of precautions and heed to what not every day.

Not caring about others comes very naturally to us. Unless someone is your relative or friend, there is no responsibility towards that person. Even the great Indian culture does not teach anything about strangers too (there could be some random texts which are always forgotten).

Waste management:

The clumsiness, untidiness, waste on roads, social areas, public places is a perfect example. All we wanna do is keep our (narrow) surroundings safe and that is it. And don’t be mistaken, it is never an honest mistake.

Poor record against communicable diseases:

People regularly go out and teach their children to go out even while sick. Cough and cold are just not considered disease enough. You could see as much as around 10-15% of crowd at social places sick. This has apparently become one of the major reasons India has one of the worst health facilities in the world.

Rumors:

Then, we love to spread rumors, every day, every moment. There’s a severe lack of social responsibility all around. Information floats on a needless basis. We never care if any of what we talk or spread spreads myths or panic.

After all, we use our government as a scapegoat and run away ourselves. It is time we identify the pillars of social->healthcare->hygiene pyramids and start acting responsibly ourselves. We need a major upliftment in our societal (and cultural, too) psyche.

Are we even ready to change?

The Pune Panic

2009-08-09T01:58:00.000-04:00

· Hitting the panic button

With second probable swine flu death occurring in Mumbai, Maharashtra, even I did feel a sense of scare about swine flu. Staying in Pune (the swine flu capital) these days is much about receiving phone calls from home, friends, relatives inquiring about health, asking to take ‘due’ precautions.

There’s definite sense of panic in the pleasant Pune air; people rush to testing centers at the drop of hat, some suffering from headaches directly ask the docs if they are suffering from swine flu. Number of masked people has gone up around the city (P.S. I read this somewhere; I haven’t really stepped out much unless really required). You can’t criticize them though. No harm in taking precautions.

But really, who is/are responsible for this panic? Government, hospitals, media, entirely?

· Private & Public hospitals handling (in Pune and quite the same, around India)

Government has put a stubborn face not providing private hospitals with Tami flu medicines which could cure the Swine Flu. That has, in the most negative way, caused the private hospitals to turn down almost every sort of patient showing even the mildest forms of Flu symptoms (sometimes, not even, those).

Is it totally government’s fault? Aren’t private hospitals irresponsible themselves? Haven’t they done enough to lose the credibility not to be trusted to serve the real needy in such times?

Government hospitals have their own woes. In India, they are supposed to be only for the poor. With severe shortage of staff and space, some of the Hospitals in Pune have failed miserably to counter the spreading epidemic.

· Lack of Dissemination of information

Some doc just said in a TV show on CNN IBN (the Pune debate) that he still gets calls from people asking what are the symptoms of swine flu? I got an information pamphlet from a nearby hospital just today (till now, there have been 160 cases on Swine flu in Pune with a death).

There has been decent amount of awareness in upscale and middle class suburbs. However, a lot has been desired in slums and industrial workers’ colonies yet.

Someone said that Pune Municipal Corporation needs to follow Pune police pattern of regularly sending SMSes/emails to alert or spread awareness among citizens: this, IMO, is a compliment to Maharashtra’s home department that gets bashed every now and then, after every terror attack.

· Healthcare facilities and infrastructure

Despite several planning from India and Maharashtra governments, healthcare remains a highly vulnerable sector. There has never been a focus on ‘total and all round’ development. India, due to its lack of intent and efforts alongwith political apathy has emerged as a high danger destination for almost all kinds of diseases.

There has never been an active promotion of cleanliness and greenery in India (although on a respectable note, I find a few tiny groups supporting the cause).

Probably no one’s aware that there’s a more serious epidemic of cerebral malaria running through Bihar right now, which has already claimed 10 lives amongst 1500 cases found so far.

Thankfully, swine flu hasn’t yet spread much in villages and rural parts of the nation. It is imperative the epidemic be controlled.

· Solution: The Mexico pattern?

Mexico kept itself totally shut for a few days and overcame the flu. Can Maharashtra (and or even, Delhi) ever take such step? Can an Indian state ever be so bold, protective and strong?

If not, what are other ways of restricting swine flu now and such diseases in future?

As in my earlier writes, I again question India’s political willpower (earlier it was about tackling the terror). We, Maharashtra, need to show the way. We have highest number of foreign visitors alongwith highest number of foreign visits. If we cannot protect ourselves against terror and epidemics, how can we attract foreign visits and businesses in future?

There needs to be another ’93 where Maharashtra displayed exemplary handling of riot control and post-earthquake rehabilitation.

Delhi needs to come up with something similar in order to keep the interest alive in 2010 C’wealth games. It has constantly suffered from epidemics.

· Link for helpline/information

Swine Flu Helpline

The showcase event at Proto

2009-07-25T05:36:00.000-04:00

Attending Proto event for the first time was more fun and learning than I had thought.

Here are some of the things I observed:

1. Indian startups are still not ready for a unified nurturing event like Proto. Many of the founders could not promote or just say, present what they had done and what they meant to achieve. That brought me to a thought of adding finishing to presentations at such platforms.

However, cost could be one of the factors too, as startups are financially more restrained.

It could be argued that a businessman need not be the best person to present or highlight one's own business but then there was a case of a startup bringing client to speak on the stage while one of them had got their marketing manager. You need not invest money to promote yourself smartly.

2. Personalities still sell the business in India: People introduced themselves before their ideas. Many of them took pride in letting people know their backgrounds.

3. Competition needs to be identified on priority when starting a business. You need not have a brand new idea.
If you cannot find a competitor then you're either selling something nobody wants to buy or you just have been too ignorant to see the competition.

4. Ganesh Natarajan spoke about Ecosystem. Acknowledging someone's superiority does not mean taking a step back or anything like that. Academic institutions, Larger organizations, technology and intelligence partners are to be utilized; better you utilize, better gets business.

5. Many of the people I met at the event wanted an entrepreneur to be abundant on knowledge, passion and self belief fronts. Contrary to general beliefs, you need not have a full fledged business model or sophisticated estimates ready. These days, There are groups and successful startups to help you out with that.

6. Smart use of media for startup promotion: am still not very good with this yet. There are ordinary cases where Media publicizes you for free, an entrepreneur can actually utilize this big way.

Ganesha Speaks

2009-07-25T00:51:00.000-04:00

Ganesh Natarajan on startups --

-> Keeping the circumference: don't be lured into doing too much too fast too broad.

-> Not to get carried away with immediate perks/ attractions from around.

-> Help building blocks: Educational institutes, Government (even the Indian one), Industry Ecosystem (an example of large IT companies supporting the startups)

-> NASSCOM 's role in encouraging the startups: Pune identified as one of the hubs for tech startups, NASSCOM has helped around 1400 startups all over the country (whoops, I didn't know that).

Ganesh took special care of promoting the significance of Commerce Ecosystem (not only IT).
Silicon valley could not be built without Stanford - True

More to follow ...

IP in India

2009-07-25T00:45:00.000-04:00

Intellectual properties in India:

1. Right to own and advertise self intellectual property. However, nothing comes free. If you’re good, be ready to be copied. Patents, copy rights are only some of the means to protect the IP as it is.

2. It is not always necessary to go to court every time there’s a dispute.

3. Talk of Indian trends: sticking to something unpragmatic.

Budget wishlist <2009>

2009-07-06T00:44:00.000-04:00

1. Substantial increase in tax exemption limits. Not being selfish, I am The common man. We need some respite from recession and the downturn, buying capacity (from common goods to houses and properties) of aam aadmi must be supported.

2. Improved focus on reducing the fiscal deficit. Better public would say this should desirably not be done through heavier taxes; Aggressive disinvestment so seems a better option at this juncture. I have heard about 5-10% disinvestment plans in Natural gas and Oil industries. I just learnt that India pays almost a third of its revenues to interest on various loans and borrowing.

3. Immediate prop up to infrastructure, no matter what. If required let through a reasonable bail-out package to heavy metal, mining and dependent industries. This includes transport as well.

4. Education and Healthcare (likes in past so many budgets) still remain priority, sadly. Health hazards are coupled with environment imbalance. Insurance needs to be made mandatory to working classes. Self reliance (with some private help) in these sectors seems inevitable right now.

5. As in above cases, there has to be a vision shown which is backed up by intent, India so badly needs it. India needs to be careful in allotting any sort of packages to one particular industry. We also need to review our defense expenditure for once. Good that the Congress is not under pressure for pro-people budget right away, but the government needs to focus on 6 million job losses that have happened and many more that are about to.

Fingers crossed.

India, a superpower in making. No way !

2009-07-04T03:48:00.000-04:00

Lack of water and power has affected the nation big time which has depicted some intense dependency on monsoons. Frequent load-shedding and simmering heat have aggravated north India’s woes this year. In Maharashtra, scarcity of monsoon rains in areas except Mumbai has had the cities reeling under pressure. Major cities like Bangalore, Chennai, Delhi, and Hyderabad are without current for a few hours every day. Is it that India cannot provide drinking water unless it gets rains every year? Don’t we have the appropriate infrastructure for water supply or is it that we have been flooding people with too much of water all this while (irresponsible usage)? However, for power issues, it is definitely the lack of high capacity power generation stations and efficient transmission. Whatever the reason, these are definitely not the indicators that India is on its way of becoming a superpower. A superpower thinks ahead of the time, it plans in advance, it prepares itself for most of critical situations; India stands nowhere close. Basic amenities and infrastructure are a must for India to become a superpower.

India has decriminalized sex between two people of same gender, years after most other non-Muslim developing nations. Indians still think Hijras and Homosexuals are same. Look at the irony: in a secular and democratic nation called India, religious leaders from Hindu, Muslim, Sikh, Christian sects have got a significant say in case of legalizing same sex relationships. The great Indian culture has never talked about gay sex (except a few statues in Khajuraho or some Mogul time literature) and we, an independent India, kept (in fact in our minds still keep) following 150-year old British law without ever questioning it. Many thanks to those gay organizations and groups for making our minds broader! I wish India realizes it could well become AIDS’ victim in next decade and we need to handle sexual trends and acknowledge Sex as one of the basic needs of every living animal. India, stop being over proud of your culture, every nation is culturally as rich as you are, get off that burden for once and grow up. A superpower needs to be a strong and liberal society first.

Another frame that could damage India’s claims of being on road for superpower is the way Public companies are being managed. With aviation minister admitting to AI’s total failure, India republic has completed a full circle in its PSU’s awful running. My sympathy goes to AI’s employees. Air India has been a story of a Bad organization (offering freebies to every possible and miniscule politician) with worse management (replete with babus under political pressure) looking down the barrel. It is high time we increase private share in AI or even Indian Railways. AI’s monopoly over several airports needs to be ripped off. Failure of PSUs coupled with lack of revenue generation schemes and reluctance to bring in professional corporate management while getting rid of red tapes have combined to make India lag behind rest of the growing world. I wonder if India has really opened its doors!

As a nation, are we always covering up? Isn’t this time we start thinking and planning ahead of time? Structure, ideas and implementation are different things, when are we going to realize that ideas/plans are fine enough and now we need more care on implementing them?

Hope the structural changes in the pipeline are brought out to fore and India’s leadership (with no left in it, thankfully) shows more intent and active intent at that.

Migration : White

2009-05-13T03:55:00.001-04:00

Migration (permanent and temporary) is also important as it drives globalization !

We have been a cosmopolitan society for ever and we must stay so !

Not only from within India, Maharashtra should encourage migration from other countries too. For the purpose, we should attract people for business, tourism, education and medication (Maharashtra does possess aforementioned facilities but they need to be improved big time).

Prostitution and homosexual marriages should also be legalized in Maharashtra, this will greatly help tourism in the state. There should be decent amount of five-star hotels and airports with wordl-class facilities. However, ‘excellent infrastructure’ is a given here.

I am very sure, Maharashtra people will welcome people from all round the globe, as always.

Migration : Black

2009-05-13T03:49:00.000-04:00

Time has come for ALL of us (in the world) to question Migration (for earning a living)! [Obama has come up with stricter immigration policies and even the EU is contemplating the same.]
Also, we need to have a Global attitude where migration would be considered fairly insignificant.

E.g. If someone migrates from say Hong Kong to the US for some business purpose it may not warrant any address to the issue. But if someone from Cuba / Haiti is migrating to the US just because they cannot make living in their current places then we need to question Cuba/Haiti governments (on why migration has become mandatory to even live decently).

Same here ..... Even if we don't question migration from Bangalore to Pune or Bangalore to Mumbai, We must question Lalus, Mayawatis, Mulayams, Paswans on where and how the budget allocation (more than 55% of budget allocation goes directly to Hindi speaking states which still have not improved after 60 years of independence) for their states is utilized, is it at all managed ?

Once the prosperous belt of India has turned gloomy no end .... why aren't we concerned about them and OUR part of land in UP, Bihar, MP, Rajasthan ?
Why do people from these areas remain affected all their lives and keep suffering ? Why do they HAVE TO migrate so far away in Mumbai or Maharashtra ?
Don't they deserve industries and good infrastructure ?

Rather, what I have seen was horrible ..... these very own MPs (or their biggest culprits) of Bihar came out and said "we will move millions of people to Maharashtra and see who stops us !"

Whoa !
That makes my fears even darker ...

What do I think about Raj Thackeray ?

2009-04-28T03:00:00.000-04:00

1. I respect his fabulous persona; Dynamic, Wonderful and Extremely Talented (love his cartoons)

2. Misunderstood (unintentionally) and Maligned (politically and deliberately) by media and so-called 'progressive' people who have been fooled around with supposedly 'balanced' concepts of secularism and equality.

Anti-rich, anti-Marathi, anti-Maharashtra DOES NOT mean equality.

3. In my knowledge, he was / is never against any particular community. His outrage has been against Atrocities (yes, you read it right ... I call it 'atrocity' when your house is surrounded by slums, when you have to undergo load-shedding while slums heavily indulge in power thefts, when you are robbed or looted by those slum-dwellers and they're never caught, when a deserving candidate from Maharashtra does not get to sit for Railway exam in his own state) ... against Maharashtrians !

4. MNS has highest number of ambulances running in my area at least (I am the witness). They have never distinguished between people while providing such services. Kudos to Raj Thackeray for that !

5. As far as I see, he has never done things for political mileage. None of his major outrages was soon followed by an election.

Gonna write more about Raj ... am in process of further research !

Regards,
Yogesh Ramesh Sharma

2009-04-17T09:01:00.001-04:00

As we go for elections 2009, there’s no dearth of issues in any part of the nation.

Maharashtra will be voting to stop farmers’ suicides, less price for Maharashtra’s favorite crops of sugar and cotton, power woes, uncontrolled migration and resulting ever increasing slums. The neighbor Karnataka suffering from attacks against Women, Christians will be fighting against imbalanced growth and increasing poverty also. Gujarat, still in phase of recovery from communal divisions, is facing a crisis of sorts with mediocre rehabilitation record for displaced due to various reasons like industrialization or the infamous Sardar Sarovar and the increasing divide between the rich and the poor. Tourism capital Goa has had its share of security woes with Marathi-Konkani locals’ widening angst against tourists and outsiders that has resulted in no co-operation.

Rajasthan, which managed to defeat one the most progressive chief ministers it ever had in assembly elections last year, has its own set of issues which include reducing female proportion, very poor HDI (human development index) and inward growth of deserts from west. State of Madhya Pradesh, with its two biggest problems being child deaths due to malnutrition and large number of unlicensed arms, has been deprived of power after creation of Chhattisgarh which in turn is suffering from Naxalites and withdrawal of some of energy projects. Same with Orissa, plagued by Naxalites and crazy Hindu movements, the state has suffered badly and lack of efforts to reduce poverty and beggary has resulted in higher count of sudden deaths across the Utkal.

Moving to the east, Bangala Bhoomi cannot still recover from the embarrassment of Nano ouster. The never-improving and poor centric Left rule has hampered Bengal’s dreams. Lack of decent education and scarcity of jobs have lead to Criminalization in northern part of the state. Moreover, almost all the eastern, north-eastern states, UP and Bihar share the plight of illegal insurgency from Bangladesh and Nepal. Arunachal Pradesh and Sikkim, containing the yet unresolved border with China, have grown enormous amount of jobless youths in past few years.

The southern state of Kerala, despite of being better placed on account of literacy and sex ratio, has problems a plenty. Emigration seems to be the key concern area for Kerala with educated young population continuing to move out to Gulf nations, Chennai, Mumbai and Bangalore for jobs and career opportunities. The land of Tamil is probably bearing the consequences of lopsided development policies could suffer more due to tensions between lawyers and politicians. The neighbor on fire, Sri Lanka, could spell dooms for Tamilians with undesired infiltration. Andhra, the only non-Hindi state below the national average for literacy and Human development, has got its share of woes with huge number of beggars, Naxal problems and Telangana movement.

Then we move on to the northern part of the nation: Punjab and Haryana, the only well-to-do regions in the north, are still not visible on the global map, relying mostly on local industries. These anti-women states are still very much ruled by the religion and its fanatical followers. The national capital has to still undergo pains of crimes every minute and the scars it has inflicted are long lasting affecting Delhi’s quotient for global attraction. Shortage of English users could prove detrimental to Delhi’s dreams of successfully hosting CWG-2010.

Not much need be listed for UP and Bihar, which lag behind in every aspect of development and prosperity. These states have a lot to be fulfilled despite being two of the richest in terms of natural resources. Gorakhpur open border continues to be a headache for India while crime, poor education, lack of industries and lackluster infrastructure (where its difficult to even breathe) have hindered growth of these states. Jharkhand, despite its mineral richness has failed to put up good show. Uttarakhand with all freebies and tax rebates to industries is starting to lose its green look. Despite a decent presence of industries, Uttarakhand is not earning much and may well face bankruptcy issues affecting government servants.

The beautiful J&K has got bloodier by the day, the state is shattered after Amarnath land controversy and scrapping of Kashmir railway connection. Terrorism still crops its head up every now and then. As a result, we have jobless youths in Jammu and Angry youths in Kashmir after atrocities by Indian armed forces.

Election Enigma

2009-04-15T09:10:00.000-04:00

Stage set for 15^th general elections in India : Pune along with almost half of Maharashtra will be voting on 23^rd April. As in any election, there’s no dearth of issues. Lets have a look at my compilation (Priorities are subject to vary) :-

1. Infrastructure

- This includes physical structures like Roads, Water, Electricity, Transport (Road and Air) [Favorite pie for all politicians]

- Developing a hassle-free setup for industries : Maharashtra is no. 1 in terms of red tape in business i.e. you need average 28 licenses to start a normal business in Maharashtra which is the biggest number in the nation.

Has it ensured safety ?

Have we successfully managed to stop job cuts ?

There’s still no provision for betterment of unorganized sectors like SSI,

House keepers, Security professionals, Prostitutes

- Tourism facilities development : Maharashtra lacks good tourism facilities. Though some of the pilgrimage, tourist destinations are well developed, there’s lot be desired in supplying better Tourism experiences (something like Mauritius or Thailand).

- Migration needs to be controlled big time; we’re running out of resources and space. No further slums can be accommodated in Mumbai, Pune, Nagpur and industrial cities of Nashik, Aurangabad and Kolhapur.

- Electricity shortage has become a huge problem. Despite highest power capacity in India (17000 MW which 40% more than second ranked Tamilnadu), Maharashtra still faces acute shortage. We have also been affected by issues like heavy dependency on conventional energy resources, projects of power generation from non-conventional energy resources have taken very long to setup.

- Further development should be greener !

2. Measures to nurture and promote Marathi culture on International stage

- No active steps taken for getting Marathi in the league of Classical languages

- Setting up schools for Marathi in universities around the world is an activity still carried out by State universities and cultural organizations. We need to scale up this issue to national responsibility with a separate entity operating for it.

- Tourism development can be closely related to cultural engagement

- This is an intellectual state, we love literature : Why no big funds for the great Marathi Saahitya ? (Most of the urban areas are witnessing these issues raised)

- Its time we view and project our culture as something to be savored for our future generations

3. Easy duties for residents

- Online availability of land records is a plus, now we need a better and a faster system even for old records (I learn from the sources that this is in progress)

- Maharashtra, the fruit hub of the nation needs to be equipped with better facilities at district level to preserve and export. Same shall apply to grocery, cotton and sugarcane. (this long running demand has not been entirely fulfilled yet but election promises are being made)

- Better transport facilities including Metro and Sky bus projects. There still seems dearth of action on fly-cheap promise. No plan yet to utilize and interconnect more than 15 airports (8 of them domestic operational).

- Fuel and Power seems to be the biggest glitch of Marathi middle class, need to be resolved at the earliest. [Thankfully these are on the list of most of the political parties]

- Stay in Maharashtra must be made pleasing for everyone !

Watch out this space : more to come soon on Macro level !

Unity in differences !

2009-02-13T00:11:00.000-05:00

Tails up for a fight

It’s very difficult to settle down in a society where you think you’re radically different from others, you can no more relate to that society, that culture, that set of values. Similar, I think, is the plight of the Indian youth which resides in metros. Many of us have matured well before the average Indian age for ‘Indian maturity’, we relate to something that’s not generally accepted in our country. It is a severe deviation from streamlined India.

Realistically, Gandhi-Nehru are not our heroes, we don’t vie for government jobs, we don’t crave for Bollywood and its ‘running-around-the-trees’ movies, we are no more concerned about when our marriage is going to take place (or whether it’s going to happen at all), we don’t fight for gender equality coz we think it’s a given in our society, ‘Money’ is not the ultimate aim, we want we have everything available online and more importantly, we don’t think ‘Doing business with rest of the world is like slavery’. [P.S. – the traits are just to define the metro Indian youth categorically. More or less if not entirely, we are like this, most cases in-between]

However, there’s still a sizeable section of Indian youth that departs from this, in fact the majority differs from the above mentioned stratum.

1. Girls in pubs, girls in short clothes are attacked, molested time and again; moreover they are fed with some ‘useful and essential’ moral lectures

2. Politicians who rule us do not feel the need for an online social campaign, they can afford to ignore us

3. Most powerful medium yet in the country, Television, does not run even 10% of its time for something of our liking

4. Slum youths (belonging to some specifically poor and backward areas) attack us, our properties and get away with it very easily

5. Governments are generally sleepy towards us, with marginal budget allocation and major focus on keeping the majority in ‘backward classes’

Is this fair really? Why don’t we ever take out the anguish? Why don’t we ever express? Why don’t we vote?

The divide is ever increasing and severely widening; this could lead to clash of interests in the future alongwith continuation of imbalanced growth and extremity issues.

Is it our mistake that we are born in a well-off family, ‘Upper caste’ in a social hierarchy? We are suppressed when we fight against reservation.

Why we are not allowed to speak against people from slums? People from certain areas come to our places and build dirty and insecure slums around our habitats, yet we are made to share our cities with them (this is after paying loads of taxes which predominantly get directed to ‘development’ of ‘hamaare raajya’).

Mangalore pub attack is a recent shock. What is Shri Rama sene, who has given them the right to decide what should girls do and what should they drink or not drink?

Look no further, it’s you and me …… BJP is ruling Karnataka, ‘we’ have voted for them and that’s how they are in a position to take decisions on our behalf. Yediyurappa has not done enough against the hooligans and thus, they continue to haunt ‘us’. Now, next on the list is Bangalore pubs and V-day celebrations – as per SRS chief.

Even more shocking is the support SRS has garnered, many of the Indians are in favor of what SRS did, not expressing though. Majority of those who oppose the activity may go wordless if asked “What if your sister or wife would want to drink liquor or visit some pub?” You got it right, what’s around us is nurtured by our fellow Indians who ‘differ’ from us. India in a deeper conflict and further imbalance!

In mid-90’s, it was Maharashtra up against some fundamentalist forces, with stern protests against Michael Jackson performing in Mumbai [which was incidentally organized by Shiv Sena], Bryan Adams concert in Pune, Miss India contest and V-day celebrations. You may well relate this to Today’s Karnataka. Karnataka is at the same juncture where we were a decade ago. By Maharashtra’s experience, Karnataka should take strict actions against these hooligans with no-tolerance policy. This tendency needs to be killed and crushed.

That brings a lot of new queries or probable solutions to my mind: Should we have different governments for metros? Should we resort to some strict measures atleast now? Should we still not accept India divided north-south, Hindu-Muslim, Rich-Poor? How can we ensure everyone gets fullest possible legitimate liberty? And finally, should we really have such democracy?

Wonder who defined uniformity?

Who let the dogs out ?

2009-02-11T00:15:00.000-05:00

And here we are, talking about dogs and cats. All of us have more or less accepted stray animals as parts of our life. Now, it’s time to give it a serious thought, something that is related to lives of people. Recent hearing on stray dogs at Bombay High Court has come as a shocker for people who are concerned for people. Statement can be interpreted something like this: a dog has life, just like we humans. It also has an equally strong right to stay and move around in social habitat.

One more thing: No court in Indian judicial hierarchy has rights to create or manufacture a law. Court’s and thus judges’ job in India is strictly limited to only interpreting the law, exactly as written, for the citizens of India republic.

And what’s at stake? Human life!

Stray dogs have been involved and been responsible for accidents on roads; groups of stray dogs wander around slums and cause nuisances to ‘humans’ residing at such places. Not only to the people who stay in slums but can be detrimental to people driving as well. The number of accidents due to stray animals on roads has increased significantly and then ofcourse, not to forget number of diseases those come along. For long can we afford to let go human lives just like that? Why are we being suppressed by notion of ‘great accommodating culture’ and idiosyncratic ‘right to exist for everyone’?

Why don’t we have a law that can help ensure safety for our first priority: human life? Why can’t judges interpret laws which are sidelined for the sake of judicial wins?

We are on a mission to get brains for animal rights activists, until then stay cautious!

Sawai Gandharva - 08

2008-12-21T04:05:00.000-05:00

14/12 : Raj’s birthday; since he wasn’t in the city, I decided to celebrate the day visiting Sawai Gandharva – 2008, India’s premier classical Music Extravaganza held in Pune every year.

And what a celebration that was !

Magical performances, Excellent support band, Discerning and equally colorful audience, Comfortable seating, Typically fabulous Pune weather alongwith Puneri delicacies (served hot and crisp) made my day !

Stalwarts like Pt Jasraj, Shrinivas Joshi, Dr Prabha Atre, Pt Shivkumar Sharma, Pt Ronu Majumdar, Aruna Sairam played to jam-packed galleries and over-flowing aisles at Ramanbaug.

It was heartening to see all age groups coming over to watch the biggest classical music concert of the nation. You could see guys with camcorders, women wearing silk saaris – gajras(garlands specially made for women’s hairs), girls sporting their beautiful shawls ….. Fervor all over ! The crowd numbered more than 25 thousand and I felt as if there was no one around when an artiste was performing; such astute silence. On the other hand, whenever a performance finished, there were more than 50,000 hands busy applauding it. Music touches everyone and climax of Sawai Gandharva just highlighted it yet again.

Whether it was a raag, a taan or a harqat, chants of Marathi Bhajans or crescendo of flute, mridangam one thing was evident; it was something that soothes your heart, something that delights you every time you listen, and something that’s only one of its kinds. And then, its not difficult to guess why classical music artistes like to perform at Sawai Gandharva and especially in Pune. It wasn’t a game of cricket, it wasn’t a rock concert ….. and we witnessed an enormous crowd. Mind you, it wasn’t a wild crowd, people were peacefully helping themselves everywhere, no push and shove at all, elders and kids were escorted carefully ….. Truly a family fiesta !

Many thanks to Maharashtra police for tight security arrangements and organizers for managing to come up with such wonderful ambience. Next year, I expect even bigger crowd and little better arrangements and hospitality.

All and all, the day will go down as one of the best and the most pleasant gathering in my memory, Marathi classical saga at its best.

Let me make a wish that the tradition goes on forever and we get to listen to such Beautiful and mesmerising songs and Bhajans .....

लाभले आम्हास भाग्य बोलतो मराठी

जाहले खरेच धन्य ऐकतो मराठी

How 'Sexy' you are !

2008-12-13T03:57:00.000-05:00

7/12 : I ran in Pune international marathon, the charity race’s theme was race against AIDS. The issue of AIDS and lack of sexual awareness kept me thinking for a major part of the last week. India has a terrible enemy AIDS.

The biggest victim of HIV stands helpless in the world today; the culture misinterpretation stands as one of the major causes for this; I have to say very sadly. This is India, king of closed-door mentality.

We don’t believe in open discussion on sex; sex is a taboo in our country. Vast Majority of the country still regards sexual activities as sins (less educated class) or mistakes (average socio-economic class) or a ‘dirty’ necessity (well-off youngsters). People here still don’t accept it as a critical necessity for life, as mutual pleasure for partners, as a very natural biological process. Parents don’t tell their children about puberty/youth/sexual growth and children start misinterpreting their sexual behaviors according to their sources of information. Adolescents are vehemently under-confident; puberty is not taken in a healthy way. We think Menstruation is grimy and Masturbation is mistake committed by the young.

India has never handled sex medically, it has always been something aberrant. We’re in a nation where a gentle kiss is still considered to be a ‘sexual activity’, people shy away from touching or holding their partners in public. Homosexuality here, is a matter of humor only. Our government thinks homosexuality is a prime cause for spreading of HIV in the country (huhh … stupid lack of medical research). Live-ins, homosexuals, one-night-stands have still not been taken well. Is there any other of the fastest-developing countries that’s more ill-informed about sexual existence ?

Now, still majority of India thinks they have the best and safest (?) sexual practices in the world. We rigidly label Westerners unfaithful, people here still don’t know that marriage systems in the USA, Europe are quite successful and long-lasting too. We often joke around their family systems while comfortably forgetting that we’ve equally bad practices carried out in India (urban as well as rural) too.

We have extra-marital affairs, pre-marital stands, incest (sex with a person of blood relation) relationships, domestic violence and rapes, child molestation, prevalent sexual harassment of women (sometimes men too) at workplaces/social places. Just like the rest of the world, India too has 18-20% of the population as homosexuals ….. People not only from army/navy or fashion photography but from rural backgrounds and normal households also. We still do not know the difference between gays, transsexuals and eunuchs (hijras).

States like Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan belong to India only …. Thousands of girl fetuses are killed every month in these states. We still have child marriages, rituals like Sati and Devdasi in India. Girl child is never preferred, girls are suppressed, they are neglected and abused in urban areas equally. Females are always least important in India, sex ratio is declining very fast. Number of women suffering from AIDS due to transmission from their male partners is astonishingly high in India. We need to understand importance of women in overall healthy development of the country. We may be an economically developing country but we are definitely not developing socially.

I will tell you an incident : my grandma had rescued a wounded parrot from a park nearby her home, she took it home and fed it for some months. After recovery and some time, it was freed and to my astonishment, it just could not take off from the ground (I was around 6 years old then), it just fluttered its wings unusually and later was grabbed by a cat. When I asked my grandma about it, I still remember her words, she said “use aazad udane ki aadat nahin thi” (it wasn’t used to flying freely in open air) ….. that’s what I feel about India’s posh class. They are educated, they are well-off but they do not have the sense of utilizing that freedom. Talking about sexual freedom, India’s high class is one of the poorest categories. Relations with more than one partner, practicing sexual pleasures with glamorous prostitutes, strip shows does not mean sexual empowerment. There’s a very fine line between elegance and sleaze and we, generally tend to blunder !

India need to wake up to the fact that we have been badly gripped by HIV. Above examples, according to me, show worst affected general categories in India. We need to identify the enemy HIV correctly. AIDS is spreading fast across all categories. Sex should be taught and thought in a healthier way, we need to be informed and stay informed medically.

Prostitution must be regarded as a ‘profession’ and prostitutes need be educated about their health and usage of contraceptives. We also need to recognize and socially bring up prostitutes’ children, enough of negligence. The ‘so-called’ culture which does not preserve the dignity and pride of women needs to cleansed big time. Rituals like Sati and donating the girl child to the god (devdasi) need to be scrapped socially. British time Rules and laws against homosexuality (male and female both) must be reconsidered with the help of medical experts and research sans any inhibitions. In fact, Gay tourism can benefit the country long way. Very few countries in the world allow gay marriages, if India makes such marriages legal, lots of gays all over the world will travel to India for the purpose (Canada, despite being very expensive, attracts a huge tourist population for gay marriages are legal there).

There has been a slight improvement in India republic in the past few years with India making stringent laws against domestic violence and marital rapes (some activists are fighting for such laws against women too). Kudos to Maharashtra, front-running in awareness, holding live-ins legal and granting rights equal to marital ones to female participants in live-in.

The government has put a foot ahead, are we socially ready ? Are WE liberal and sensible enough to talk sex ?

Awakening

2008-12-04T05:12:00.000-05:00

Week after the blasts, after hundreds of coverage and analysis shows, thousands of blogs I could not help but agree with all of those. Almost everyone/everything had a point of view towards the blasts. Indeed, a time of grief and mourning ...

Few are disappointed they have lost their acquaintances / family friends

Some are shattered by dilapidated Taj structure

Some want Manmohan Singh to step down at any cost

Few went to silly extents of challenging Raj Thackeray to fight the terrorists with a gun in his hand

All colors of a single protest, just that personal concerns tend to overshadow our protests, regularly !

I …..

I don’t belong any one of the above categories

I am not Hindu / Muslim / Jew / Christian

I am not a regular at Taj / Oberoi

I do not travel by local trains

I stay in Pune and visit Mumbai once every around two months

I have been to the Gateway of India 3-4 times in my life

None of my friends/relatives staying suffered directly from these blasts

Still an attack on Mumbai is an attack on my home, in all the ways ….

Yet, I can’t help but confess that I was devastated mentally on 11/26, I feel numb and helpless just like many around me do

I don’t have a good leader around, someone who can protect me from terror attacks …. The politicians are too busy carving out election agendas out of terror attacks

I don’t have a coordinated security / well-equipped police to protect me …. they are themselves helpless

I don’t have a mature media to speak out through ….. they’re busy trying strategies for better TRPs or revealing out Indian forces’ ‘internal’ plots in open

And then, I don’t have sensible people around me ….. they are too busy with their work and personal growths or too busy to undergo security checks or to caste their votes or raise voices against terror / government

I felt embarrassing when my nation’s stock market was closed for an entire day

I felt insulted we had to lose billion of rupees and dollars due to attack on our own country

I felt dejected when best of Indian security forces could not fight 10 odd militants

It was personal when people (oops, another mistake …. They’re not people, they’re politicians) like Narendra Modi, K Achutanandan, R R Patil, Abbas Naqvi passed on their utterly silly comments

Well, I am not going to take things lying down ….. happily, this time, its not ‘I’ but ‘We’ …. There’s an awakening around ….. Congrats Mumbai !

We won’t let even outside areas for planning and commissioning terror on our soil, beware Pakistan

We won’t let anyone insult our martyrs

We will put all the make-up, lip-sticks and come out to protest, lets see who stops us

It will be OUR decision, if at all, not to vote for existing government, others need not advise us

If someone thinks these incidents are not very big, we’ll show them what price they have to pay for it

We are not going to be soft targets anymore and will start changing from ourselves, undergoing security checks and we’ll be casting our votes regularly

We will start practicing caution in crowded as well as lonely surroundings

We will be careful towards abandoned goods around us

We’ll carry our identity cards everywhere we go and fully cooperate in facilitating the security process

Keep looking on, we are moving forward !

Mumbai is ready to fight

Maharashtra is ready to fight

India is ready to fight

When I visit Mumbai next (very soon at that) I wanna go and visit Taj …. Oops sorry, I wanna visit ‘The Taj’, I wanna board train from CST next time …. I will walk Colaba streets for sure …. Let’s see who can stop me

Sorrows of a 'Growing' Nation

2008-10-31T09:48:00.000-04:00

Indeed a problem -

The Lion has a very peculiar trait : male lion kills his female’s cubs which do not belong to him so that he does not end up wasting time and energy on protecting those cubs. Maharashtra’s security force has protected us for so many years ably, but it is no longer good enough, may be the time has come for home department, facing acute shortage of manpower, to adopt the lion’s strategy. Maharashtra’s 90 Million population is already too much for them [for that matter, it is too much considering the resources and infrastructure available …. But who thinks about that ?]

Poor cops, they kill down a man with a gun in his hand to protect a large number of people out there, as it stands now, the encounter is set to through ministerial investigation. Instead of giving then a pat on their back, Politicians are venting out their ‘regional’ anger on Mumbai Police and Maharashtra home minister.

That brings me to the point of the young Thackeray : the guy has caused some turbulence in Maharashtra to be in the limelight for the past few months. Some time or the other Raj has brought to the fore some issues which are absolutely valid and some, in fact, are necessary to be brought out. Sadly (or may be) the priority is confused and action heavily misdirected (definitely). Cause of limiting Migration is something I support but the methods used by one of the political parties is wrong and inhuman.

All need to be informed about Maharashtra over some critical faces which depict the state :-

1. Literacy rate in Maharashtra is 78% (much better than all major Hindi speaking states), interestingly, this rate is even more higher when it comes to people with their Mother tongue as Marathi.

Literacy rate in Hindi-speaking population is much lower, 55% in UP and 47% in Bihar contribute big time.

2. Maharashtra is best in India in terms of Foreign and industrial investment. Hardly any foreign investment in any of the northern states on India.

3. Most number of Internet users, highest percentage of post-graduates and doctorates in the total population, biggest emigration ratio for specialized services abroad.

4. The single most ‘Cosmo’ state; it’s very easy for any person speaking any language following any culture or with any faith to relocate to Maharashtra.

5. The Maharashtrian population is considered to be the most liberal society with best female security and best woman empowerment practices.

Now, The problems (with descending order of severity) for Maharashtra :-

1. Infrastructure woes; unprecedented shortage of power and water alongwith with dilapidated urban structures all over the state

2. Increased crime rate; most of people currently being prosecuted for spreading / causing terror belong to Hindi speaking regions

3. Loss of jobs for un-skilled / less-skilled locals; let’s say if a Maharashtrian labor demands Rs 300 wage per day for a certain work, a outside labor does the same work for Rs 150 only. (the outsiders generally do not bring their families along and hence the average number of dependants is much less, to add to that, they can stay ‘anywhere’ and ‘in any condition’) {now, this is priority no. 1 for Raj}

4. Demographic imbalance / skewed sex ratio; the unskilled migration is heavily constituted by males (more than 90%). Maharashtra’s sex ratio today stands at just over 920.

5. Locals agitation and anger; being brought up in Hindi-Marathi Family, I have also seen north India very closely and I can safely conclude that Hindi-speaking people are utterly disrespectful, arrogant towards other cultures, this can be attributed to poor education standards and low average literate generations.

A few questions :

The most developed nation USA has got the most diverse population; Maharashtra could follow the suite in Indian context.

è USA has very strong and strict security ring, it has suffered only one terror attack (of course we cannot count the number of terror attacks but still a single state Maharashtra has suffered more than the entire nation of the US). Person is made to go through numerous checks before he could enter USA while poor, unskilled people (who may have criminal intents) and even Bangladeshis, Pakistanis (without visas) are making it to Maharashtra very easily.

è And mind you, Barak Obama is planning to levy taxes on outsourcing to safeguard American interests and most probably discourage Asians to enter the US from now on.

We may lose cheap labor

è Security should, no, MUST be given highest priority. Next on the list should be Infrastructure. Rather than protecting and pampering the businesses and their interests, time has come to look towards overall development and thorough progress.

è Let’s be happy to lose this cheap labor as it finally brings imbalanced progress, lack of water, load shedding, roads with potholes, dirty public places and the queen of it all, slums.

Moving on with the culprits -

And yes, Let me congratulate the biggest winners: 1. Politicians 2. Media

The politicians in Bihar managed to confer gallantry upon a guy with a gun in his hand and criminal intents in his mind. After Reservation bill, Amarnath land transfer, attacks on churches and Nano ouster from Bengal, this was a major win for the great Indian politicians. Let me re-iterate, even the MNS was not at its action-best when it acted violently against the innocent poor people. However, I agree the problem has worsened and MNS hit the nail bang on target though a little too late.

Media had its moments too; referring to criminals by their community names is a sin in journalism. In India, print and e-media irresponsibly refer to criminals as ‘Hindus attacking churches’, ‘Muslim youth protesting against Police’, ‘Marathis kill another north Indian guy’, reason enough to annoy people from those communities. After 1990, in the liberated e-world, modern media is perhaps the worst thing to have happened to India. The faster media have been misused for games of TRPs; attract money while safely ignoring long-term public interest. Television media has been so strong in sending (many times wrong) messages that politicians have used them to market and promote their personas, parties and agendas.

Why no one questioned Bihari leaders to why they failed to provide jobs in Bihar itself ?

Why every person born in UP or Bihar has to rely on Migration for jobs ?

Why is percentage of people in agriculture / agro-enabled businesses decreasing in states blessed with rivers like Ganges, Yamuna, Narmada, Indus, Sutlej ? (of course, the land under cultivation is on decline in Maharashtra, TN and K’taka too, the effects are less severe coz of less dependency on agri-businesses)

When Issue of demographic imbalance can affect Amarnath Region, why is it given less importance in Maharashtra ?

Some criminal gets killed righteously by the police or someone gets killed in fight over seats in a train, why do media have to blame MNS without any proof ? and how does the very honorable Railway minister of India dares to comment : “every train to and from Maharashtra will cease to serve the state” ? Mind you, Railway does not belong to ‘you’ or ‘your’ state, Mr Yadav.

Why is that every other city in UP/Bihar is connected to Mumbai through railways while there are comparatively very few trains from Mumbai to Chennai/Bangalore/Kerala/Tirupathi ?

Of course, MNS’ stance is not at all good, but why don’t we concentrate on the hazards of migration ? why are we ignoring that Mumbai is one of the Least secure, Dirtiest, Polluted financial capitals in the world ?

Who knows Mumbai ?

Mumbai belongs to India first then Maharashtra. When people call Mumbai cosmopolitan, why do they does not have to know that MUMBAI IS THE ONLY PLACE AND MAHARASHTRA IS THE ONLY STATE IN INDIA for which we witnessed a blood-bath in independent and republic India.

Just to remind, 60 people lost lives in protests for Mumbai to be included in Maharashtra. Thousands came on the streets to save Mumbai from becoming a union territory like Delhi. Which other state/city can boast of a similar example ? Maharashtra is connected to Mumbai through hearts and not only geography. It is the Maharashtrian face of Mumbai which has made it such a liberal city to stay in.

Migration blues : Blasts in Assam

Politicians/ruling party has allowed more than a million Bangladeshi migrants to caste vote in Assam, Tripura and other North-east states, which has turned a nightmare. Prima facie evidences say that these migrants alongwith their Pakistani accomplice have carried out blasts so easily in Assam.

Vote-bank politics desires many more Hindi-speaking people in Maharashtra, helping politicians from UP/Bihar to enter the state and may be rule it in future.

Myths pointing to declining culture in Maharashtra :

1. People knowing Marathi speak in Hindi with each other

è I feel sorry for such misinterpretation. It is their courtesy that they converse in Hindi so that the crowd (Maharashtra’s Cosmo crowd) around them understands their conversation and actively participate.

2. No one cares for Marathi, a regional language

è Marathi language and culture has never ever been confined to boundaries and regions. Marathis are still the most intellectual community in India, most number of daily newspaper readers alongwith greatest and largest collections of literature in the language.

è Marathi saahitya sammelan will be hosted in San Francisco, USA this year. This is to mark the celebration of more than 1000 Marathi saahitya communities outside India.

è Marathi people’s generosity has been misunderstood to be their weakness, which is not so. You were, are and will be happily able to stay in Maharashtra without knowing Marathi.

One culture of humanity and love :

We have never forced anyone to speak in Marathi, Maharashtra has always loved its guests and people coming for jobs/money. We have never referred to people as ‘outsiders’ ….. We always say ‘navin aalet’ (they are new to our place)

MNS does not represent Maharashtra !

But we want jobs for our Marathi brothers, we want peace for all of us. We want facilities for everyone. We are burdened with ever increasing migration and population.

Stop and start changing :

1. Jobs to locals a must ! Offer those jobs to outsiders only if they have been rejected.

2. Can we have something similar to passport ? So we can check person’s intentions when he/she enters the state. No-risk policy.

3. Let’s tell industrialists/builders : “If you want cheap labor, go to cheap places and recruit from there and bring them here on your responsibility only”.

4. Ask employers to provide for their employees’ stay and food till they are in ‘migrating’ stage.

5. Let’s put a full stop on Mumbai/Pune/Nagpur and other big cities in our state. Enough of population, enough of problems !

6. We need to take measures to stop migration towards Metros overall. Let’s try to build good facilities and structures in villages only and encourage youths to stay native.

7. Let’s stop trusting such media blindly, let’s put a control on our emotions. Protests/Agitations should be controlled and well-directed.

8. Someone’s killing/encounter in such conditions needs to be investigated deeply. People take advantage of political/regional/communal situations to promote their selfish causes.

9. Politics and media can take rest till then !

Deep down in Indian hearts :

Our nation has always pampered ‘the poor’, ‘the affected’, ‘the backwards’ …… Sadly, criteria and methods used to classify them have been age-old.

Supposedly poor people/regions/states can boast of their poverty or backwardness (ignoring causes they themselves are responsible for). Rich entities cannot claim so.

Being well-off and rich is a crime here; you can’t say you’re a Brahmin, you can’t boast of your successes/achievements.

Do we overtly care for the ‘poor’ ? Have we been able to improve their condition using these techniques ?

We claim that we are still a poor nation, that makes successful people in our country feel separated but we don’t care for them.

We won’t care when migrants from UP/Bihar (even people from Bangladesh and Pakistan are so similar that you cannot recognize or differentiate) play gang-wars, cause bomb-blasts and kill down thousands of people in Mumbai/Maharashtra. Maharashtra is always on terror-hit list. Our security has to be always vigilant and on their feet, even in smaller towns like Malegaon/Jalna/Latur.

And when there’s talk of controlling this insurgency (yeah, that’s the right word) from outside, people start blame games.

Maharashtra loses its people in mishaps/riots every day and you call the police partial and over-reacting when they gun down a youth spreading terror in Mumbai’s BEST bus with gun in his hand.

A person can say proudly if he’s a beggar, belongs to lower caste, is poor (irrespective of his own commissions) but rich successful people cant be happy with their achievements (even if he happens to have earned it)

The problem, the issue, the pain-pin has been politically used and misused too.

In our Great nation, it’s a problem to be well-off. Your richness is misunderstood generally to be your naïve superiority over the affected and your being educated is considered your plain luck, your talent, your intellect is a gift to you and nothing else.

That’s just not fair with the better and successful citizens !

Wait before you criticize the society and the culture, there’s another face to it …… even the educated/talented/well-off people out here want to stay quite and inert. They wanna discuss US elections while enjoying holiday on poll-day. They feel Visa to Massachusetts is more important than miscreants entering Mumbai. They always curse the government while driving their luxurious cars on Indian roads. They think it would diminish their pride if they fight over local issues. They have inverters at their homes, load-shedding does not affect them. They have ACs at home and workplaces, depreciating number of trees are too humble to bother them. They buy mineral water, water supply problems appear tiny to them. They visit Government hospitals or schools only at the time of some felicitation or inauguration, pathetic management at such public places is something to be heard in the news and to find an option to switch the channel on TV or turn the page in the newspaper, only poor are meant to caste their votes coz they have so much time to stand in a queue (in fact they have the guts to stand behind a labor or a beggar or a poor person). Yeah, we are not America, we are ashamed of our face, we feel insulted if we have to stand in a queue behind someone, we are ignorant of native problems. We are still a less confident nation, not proud of our existence (of course except those two golden days in a year).

We love the poor so much that we wanna see them poor for their lifetime, we wanna let the under-developed part of the country as it is, our metros are dirtiest in the world and our most developed state is the most insecure too.

That’s India, a nation of beggars and snakes !

Celebrating Ganeshotsav

2008-09-03T11:59:00.000-04:00

‘Ganpati Bappa Morya’ – the one chant you shall hear out of every corner in Maharashtra these days of the year! As we celebrate the biggest public festival of India, there’s this great happy feeling all over the state of Maharashtra …. Maharashtra which loves festivals and their magnanimous celebrations! [For people outside India, Maharashtra is a western state in India with Mumbai as the capital city]

From school-going children to their busy parents, from young pulse to the nostalgic generations ….. Every one participates in the celebration of happiness and humanity. The gala of Ganpati, who’s the deity of arts and beauty, brings the best out of artistes all through the celebration which lasts a good part of ten days.

As usual the threat of extremists looms large over the festival. Maharashtra, as the most liberal, rich and industrialized state, sits at the center spot of the terrorists. India’s weak response to earlier attacks, shameful lack of political will, consistently misguided and misguiding media alongwith extra accommodating policies as an overtly ‘proudly democratic’ nation have made India as a single combined softest and biggest victim of terrorism.

The political party which has ruled the nation for longest duration focuses majorly on vote bank politics. Hard stances are a strict no-no for Indian republic which has always been concerned about Minorities in the short run. That has made the nation weak and fragile. Compounding the worries is the increasing deficit in police-civilian ratio.

That Maharashtra has its own law against organized crime alongwith better expertise in handling the terrorism has made it a little better for its residents. We trust the able,never-sleeping security department of ours. Let’s keep the joyous mood alive and beating !

‘Ganpati Bappa Morya’

Bei Jing Huan Ying Ni (Welcome To Beijing)

2008-08-26T11:44:00.000-04:00

8/8/8 – the day when the dragon opened its wings and welcomed the world!

The spectacular opening ceremony took away the breath of the entire world at what was a fabulous showcasing of Chinese culture. The magnanimous stage and even more graceful performers rocked the evening in front of a crowd comprising guests from more than 200 countries.

If that was not enough, China followed the grand opening by powerhouse performances by its athletes, sweeping the medals across all categories. For a nation who won its first ever Olympic medal in as late as 1984, topping the medals tally after mere 5 games is no mean an achievement! But who else other than China would have managed this mega accomplishment!

Not to forget an absolute peaceful organization, China went all the way to ensure the safest possible playing host to the games. Nothing’s perfect ….. a Beijing citizen would agree to that ! It’s Beijing which has suffered the most to make the games a success that it was. Beijing has suffered near non-human restrictions while the games were on. Next on the list are travelers from all over the world who were denied visas to China for more reasons than one to ensure more security. Last but not the least, the athletes suffering from the pollution and the omnipresent thick fog in Beijing. Did someone talk about global warming effects?

Even such critical issues failed to take the glory away from China. If the opening ceremony was fabulous, the closing ceremony put an icing on the cake. The panorama of Chinese culture enthralled the audience world over. Let’s not commit the mistake of comparing China with India for these two countries are more different than similar.

The world got to know China better. The nation which has long been behind the curtains has come upfront and how !

China has arrived !

When he takes to the water

2008-08-20T05:39:00.000-04:00

Take your seat, hold your breath, disconnect yourself from the entire world, only to have a snapshot of those ‘golden’ moments …. Yes, you guessed it right ….. Moments of watching the legend swim!

Take a bow, Michael Phelps, The greatest ever Olympian who might even beat the water while swimming. Winning 8 gold’s is no joke after all …. Phelps it was who made it look ridiculously easy. It takes hell lot of efforts to make the performance look effortless. The guy from Baltimore has toiled all those endless clocks to beat them eventually.

The legendary performance makes not only America but the entire world proud of him! His next destination, the London games might become yet another stage for this humble superstar to shine and take the sports to another level.

Let’s wait for 2012 to watch that golden splash of water again!

Happy growing, India

2008-08-15T02:33:00.000-04:00

How do you identify the independence day approaching ?

1. You see children selling the tricolor on the signals

2. You undergo tardy ‘full-proof’ security checks at almost all public places in India, airports being the most ‘looked after’ places

3. You witness ‘independence day special’ on television, be it a news channel item, talent show or even a sitcom

4. You receive smses, read in newspapers about i-day special sales going on in the mall nearest to you

5. Entire roads, city skylines filled with tricolor commemorating political party-specific patriotism

6. People around you discussing, planning their holidays, scheduling sickness

Six of the most common scenes, perhaps and six is the number of decades we have completed as a free and independent nation !

India, the emblem of progress, the yet much undiscovered prowess, the habitat of energy turns 61 this midnight. As a nation, we are very young, better nascent. The growth and the potential developed have reached the height, with such wide and varied presence that may not be spanned with 2.4 billion Indian eyes. We are dealing with the most powerful nations in the world, we have made them think and introspect with our riches and reaches.

Young nation of young people is today, on the brink of another evolution, we are metamorphosing:

1. We are pragmatic when we deal with the nuclear deal, no non-sense principles

2. We don’t think we are third world, we very much belong to the first world, we now use cold war in the history books only

3. We are no more ashamed of our color or culture

4. We are global and perhaps, the most diversified nation and guess what, we are now flaunting our speckled face

5. The world is following us against terrorism

6. We are the greatest reservoir and supplier of talent to the world

There may be a few grey areas, but if someone can improve, it’s got to be India !

For that, I and you, shall make a few resolutions today:

1. I will make it a point to cast my vote every time, in any of the public body elections

2. I will work towards true women and youth empowerment through education, beginning from my home

3. I will not just watch or plan, I will act or execute the plan

4. I will be a more caring member of the society in cleanliness, discipline

5. I will be using the energy, any sort of it made available to me, frugally

Last but not the least, I will keep faith in my constitution, my government and the court

Let us all join together as a single identity and spread this singleness all over … Vande Mataram

Blasts : A routine in India

2008-08-02T02:23:00.000-04:00

Blasts in Bangalore and Ahmedabad ! We are bleeding, we are suffering !

Twice in as many days and all the states / metros in India were under surveillance, security put on high alert. We have been unfortunate to face this echelon of brutality and extremity of cowardice coming out through inhuman attacks on hospitals.

The things that annoy the most, are the predictability of patterns of these incidents as well as their smooth execution following well-thought out planning. Blasts happen, people die, ministers condemn, Police / Intelligence trace the suspects – come out with possible motives behind blasts and possible reasons behind intelligence faux pas (which is simply lethargy in reacting to alerts, caution) and acronyms like HUJI, SIMI or whatever, neighboring areas’ security gets beefed up, one week passes on while we add a page to the history books which nobody is going to afterwards ….. by the way, there are a few variables in this storyline – names of ‘Casualties’, names of ‘injured’, names of cities ….. Who cares ?

All of you who are now deriding the government/security, lamenting the lack of political will and fragile security measures – tell me honestly, Haven’t you been one of those involved in complaining about long security check queues at the airports/railway stations or even at your own offices/colleges ? Don’t you ever get irritated when security persons ask you to display your identities ? Aren’t you one of those who talk at length about custom check that takes multiple hours at the JFK while lambasting the ‘lazy and tardy’ security process at Chhatrapati Shivaji international airport ? Don’t you ever pass through cantonments or toll-booths without paying the toll ? Don’t you ever take advantage of your relatives/friends at the helm of security ?

Now, sample this – many of the waarkaris (devotees) to Pandharpur had to stand in queues for more than 24 hours, many of them had undergone security checks that lasted for nothing less than half an hour ….. all of this, after some 15 days walk barefoot and to put cherry on the cake, I would not be exaggerating if I say that all these activities were carried out with a smile, with a gratitude …. Wow, devotion is great !

Spare me for waywardness of my thoughts but I would take another focus liberty out here (I really hope it’s not diversion by any means). I have started asking myself a few questions ….. Are we degree holders really educated ? [Disclaimer : this conclusion has been drawn over possession of widespread knowledge that citizens of India staying in metros are more ‘educated’ compared to their small-town counterparts]. Do Indian degrees (I am not much aware of educational standards outside India, though I know you must consider yourself lucky to have an Indian degree) impart the education and culture they are supposed to ? We metro residents, being the most educated society in this country, are supposed to be most aware of the lot that understands we don’t have a technologically superior system in place, we don’t have good ground level laws out here for we are still a young nation. We are soft targets. Can we hereon ask ourselves and our children to care for the society and be more tolerant ?

Coming back to the original discussion, there are a few positives that have come from these blasts which show that we are learning, we are growing, albeit a bit slow ! I would like you all to know them :- 1. This fight has been unanimously identified as our fight, India’s fight against the terror 2. As usual, there has been a flow of sympathy and help towards the affected. It is heartening to see people, even the most disgruntled ones providing helping hands to the victims, volunteering in hospitals 3. People have taken initiatives and come out to lend resources towards rehabilitation of those affected (all this, without much help from governments) …. I really wonder when shall these people outnumber those who regard Independence day or Poll day as a mere holiday .....

In Celebration

2008-06-27T01:04:00.000-04:00

26^th June, one of the most important days of my life !

My brother’s, my best buddy’s Birthday today ! Join me in wishing him a fabulous life ahead …. :-)

Expressing the pleasure …. Isn’t that very difficult ? Specially for a guy ? …. We men behave so secretively that even the closest person doesn’t understand what has happened to us. We are supposedly the stronger species, but we seem so weak when it comes to expressing …… we just can’t.

It’s good not to fake anything, but we can’t even say what we feel …. Shame !

Being a man in India is all the more difficult; you are not allowed to cry, you are not supposed to discuss what do you feel ….. your dads don’t tell you how much they love you, your mothers take pride in telling to neighbors bravery tales of you not crying even after series of injuries, your grandparents like your ‘war’ skills, your uncles advise you to give back bad treatment.

But then, why only India ? We keep hearing about men, who supposedly have stronger hearts, suffer more from heart diseases, men taking to addictions to forget their problems. Almost all over the world, male fraternity remains the same, rather, they love staying the same rigid phenomenon.

Emotions are not tied to any gender, they are god’s gift to humans, all of us, they are very natural. I object strongly, to be termed ‘metrosexuals’ for behaving so naturally ?

Look at women : ohh, they are so natural, they are so free ….. they can cry, they can say thanks, they can express love, why can’t we be the same ? At least in some possibly better ways …..

It’s so good and comfortable to just ‘speak it out’ ….. I feel so comfortable after scribbling all this.

I hate emotions; they make me fall in love with them, every time.

After all, it’s a Man’s world …. Let’s not be chauvinists, let’s not be the traditional ‘macho’ guys …. It’s never a crime putting forth what’s on mind, what’s in the heart …… let’s say ‘I care’ to those we care for, let’s say ‘I love you’ to those we love, let’s share, let’s cry our hearts out for all those reasons we have hidden from all others for all our lives