Sunday, June 28, 2009

Saturday, June 13, 2009

thoughts this weekend

1. India stuttered infront of some real competition, I cant take any more jitters
2. Sensex continues to boom, time to invest some more
3. Signs of Throat infection, need to take care
4. Bought a book on Calvin and Hobbes..pricey @ 620 bucks something that could be read up in just 2 hours...need to check if getting a set from abroad works cheapers
5. Reading Bill Bryson's Niether here nor there (Thanks M for the reco), falling in love with Europe's charm without even being there once. Gotta save enuf money for such a trip
6. Kailash Parbat is coming to chennai and opening next week. Must visit with the NITIE junta here
7. How I seem to make more sense when I use numbering even for the most mundane of thoughts
8. Goan cousin hitched with a Punju gal, am gonna have distant Punjabi relatives, people expecting me to learn Bhangra!
9. meebo access in office, now on gtalk all the time
10. Obama wants to spoil the childhood of American children by making them study hard

Saturday, June 6, 2009

Political commentry

This post might be a little late. The hype and hoopla around the elections is well past. But I have been pondering if we got the best result. I did not vote this time. I am registered in Thane and didn't take the effort of a getting registered in Chennai. So I am not sure how the more "awakened" (Jaago re campaign ;) ) junta will think about this post.

I don't think I would have voted for Congress. I do nurse a grudge against them for implementing the OBC reservations in higher education institutes. I find it grossly unfair and against meritocracy and nothing but a political gimmick which might have long standing repercussions in the years to come. On second thoughts I have realised India has got a strong Prime Minister.

People seem to perceive Manmohan as a soft PM. But in the last 5 years, it seems to me that they have been more hard lined than BJP was. Be it the above mentioned OBC reservations or the nuclear deal or the guts to tell Karat and his Politburo to buzz off.

BJP finally got its chance in 1999-2003 after waiting in the wings for many years. They did well but messed up a few things. They like to be seen as a hardline party when wooing voters, but when it came to governance, they couldn't find the magical middle path. The Ram temple issue , the uniform civil code, the unfortunate Kandahar hijack, the spiralling onion prices, the divestment of PSUs, Godhra and so forth...they always seemed to be swinging in opposite directions.

The Varun Gandhi issue where they wouldn't publicly admonish him gave an impression to me that if they won then their second innings with new captain (Advani) also wouldn't be much different. I just hope that BJP collects itself, starts building again from the grassroots and begins resolving real problems. It will be a sad thing if they go back to the recluse of "Ram Bhoomi" and "Hindutva" campaigns. The Congress needs to be kept on its toes and who better than Loh Purush and his young turks.

On a lighter note, the incessant election coverage on TV and newspapers finally affected the brains of one of our close NITIE batch mates. So much so that he grandly announced to me that we wants to be the Primer Minister of India. He made this comment NOT at a election rally or, when he was campaigning for his party but in the couch comforts of his living room :). Thankfully all that is past and now he is back to normal, worrying about cracking his CFA Level 1.
Also I and Arup Angle think that Prakash and Brinda Karat's story has something common with Hazaaron Khwaishen Aisi. Looking at Brinda's snaps I am sure she was a charming lady in her youth, Prakash was a dapper youth with ideals, rich and sophisticated chick falls for emerging leader of tomorrow and the rest is history ..hehe..atleast in my imagination...