NaMo, are 100 smart cities a smart promise?

I love Monday Morning Meetings for more than one reason. You have grudgingly mourned the end of a weekend and have managed to bring your languid body to the office with great trouble and voila! Before the hectic week begins, you have a ten-minute joy ride to paradise where everyone, from the boss to the peers, talks about their exotic weekends – given the limitations of living in a city as dense as Mumbai. You relive every microsecond all over again like a power capsule that leaves you refreshed and energized.

Today’s meeting was going to be slightly different. On Friday, the week had ended with BJP’s victory, touted as a landslide-win against the Congress. And the weekend had seen conversations among joggers in parks all over the country waiting with bated breaths while pondering which direction the change would pioneer in.

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Slingshotting the Goliaths of Indian Politics

We have all read that overly exaggerated biblical tale in which a young man named David kills a giant named Goliath using but a slingshot. 

(pic credit: Marcantonio Raimondi [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons)

What we are witnessing these days in Indian Politics after the historic Delhi elections results forces one to think, ‘Are we witnessing the David-Goliath story of our times’?

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The Alternate Universe

We cannot afford countless number of deaths in the jails of the two countries justifying “they” killed “our” men, so “we” kill “theirs”. Until, the nationalism of “my” country (which lies deep down in a 60 feet bore well, where Prince, the kid you might remember, had fallen some years ago, wait, do you?) surpasses humanism, let alone the talks about “their” nationalism.

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Global Desis: Stitching our cultural past with modern lifestyles

               
Sitting casually in the balcony on a holiday morning, my weary eye leaves the newspaper and the depressing headlines that have been exploding on us 24x7 of late and wanders. Having shifted to a hostel, my time at home presently clocks to just about a fraction of what it was earlier. Add to that the fact that the family moved cities. I notice new things around me!

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On courts and castration: Need for speed, rapists unleashed

The rancorous rape that happened has certainly stirred up the mass of India.I can sense the emerging odium in the society against whatever is wrong and movements to improve it.

But again a part of me feels insecure- till when? I presume, that by the day after tomorrow, you know- the 'end of the world', all social networking sites, media, talks will plummet to talks of no significance- we survived, i told you it would never happen, let's party. Only a faction will remain that will remember the never ending horror the rape capital has been facing.

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A Cocktail of Orthodox Ideologies!

Mix a Parwati bhabhi, a Pallavi and a nagging mother in law as good as Savita bahu with a topping of son Mihir Viraani and you would shake a perfect Cocktail! Raising a toast, I wonder what the director would have called it, had the scriptwriter added an immortal Baa to the worthless drama! A Mock Tale? No seriously, I was taken back to the Ekta era of never ending soap operas, scene after scene, as the film refused to progress at all! The only good thing about the film is Dimple Kapadia  who continues to take your breath away with her flawless acting.

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Is UPSC ‘killing’ talents? Or corrupting them? Think about it.

Legend has it, becoming an IAS or IPS officer is the ultimate gift a talented young person can give to his/her family. You might not want to agree, but the truth remains that many of us have been at one point of time in life, ‘inspired’ ( or were tried to be inspired) by our fathers and uncles and grandfathers to study hard to be an IAS/ IPS officer.
Legend also has it that there is no power and status compared to an IAS/IPS in the administrative circle. Even the politicians can only transfer you, but they can’t fire you. You roam in ‘laal batti’ cars, and make decisions that matter, and you know that you are among the very few capable and deserving of making such decisions.

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The return of the white elephant.

I googled “700 crore”. That’s it. Just to get an estimate of the true value and what positive can be done about it.
Here are some search results:
· Assets worth 700 crore found in Kerala temple
· 700 crore HUDCO loan assistance to Bangalore Metro
· DLF to raise 700 crore via 400 plots sale in Gurgaon.
I don’t know if I’m the only one who thinks it is – in plain and simple words- really stupid to spend such an amount of money on a park.

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India. Needs Change.

I don’t know if I should let my heart free and lash out in a sentimental diatribe against those responsible for the state of affairs in our country, or if I should urge you soberly with figures. They say statistics have a way of making a calamity into just another piece of data. How about some data then?

There are an estimated 800 million people in our country living in poverty, struggling to see another sunrise. More than five out of every hundred babies born don’t make it past childbirth; they are victims of our floundering healthcare system. Illiteracy, disease and monetary damages are commonplace in our rustic brethren. As for our losses in corruption, I won’t even quote any figure here, for the very real fear of understating the numbers involved. But then, complaining won’t magically change anything, will it?

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Indians, Humans and Cannibals

3 moderate to high intensity bomb blasts rocked Mumbai today. We heard the boom kilometers away. India is on high-alert. Death toll continues to increase every second hour. Mumbai is in a chaos. Home Ministry is now on alert, once again. Media is reporting from ever nook and corner of the blast affected areas. People have lost their dear ones. Some are injured, some are scared. So far, no terrorist organization has taken the responsibility of the blasts. Indian political dais is burning in the fire of a dirty blame game. Loss, distance and pain are together pertaining to an intense agitation. There has to be an answer.

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