Energy rationing is fair

Fuel scarcity and power cuts have become a part of our lives. It affects our day to day schedule. We have to give up on many of the mindless luxuries that we indulged hitherto. We can no longer take a ride to the nearest chemist for buying obesity tablets. It is easy to argue that the Government should ensure adequate supply of fuel and power. Infact an actor turned politician in Tamil Nadu has told that you don’t require a power minister to tell that there is inadequate power supply. I know this person must have been playing to the gallery but then it is essential to remind ourselves of the famous Kennedy statement “Don’t ask what the country has done for you; ask what you have done for the country”.

Petrol companies are listed companies on the stock exchange and answerable to their shareholders. They can’t go on piling up losses in the face of high crude oil prices and not invoke the ire of investors. Similarly most of the electricity boards across the country have been restructured with loans from World Bank, etc. A commitment was made that energy subsidies would be eliminated but we have gone back on the same. Ensuring uninterrupted supply of power would mean buying from private parties at market rates and selling at subsidized rates. Finances of the most state energy boards are fragile, where will they go for funds?

Going back to the famous Kennedy statement, are we ready to do the following for the energy/fuel situation of the country:
Pay at market rates for these precious resources.
If we are unable to pay, accept gladly that rationing is a fair deal.
Try to look at alternatives wherever affordable i.e. those of us who can afford should go in for solar geysers/solar home lighting; walk distances less than 2 kilometers; use more public transport; try to implement the idea of car pooling wherever feasible.

The typical Indian mindset seems to suggest that Government is distinct from the citizens. Government derives it powers and limitations from its citizens especially when it comes to financial matters. We cannot infinitely be looking to the Government to dole out free lunches. Barrack Obama while accepting the Democratic nomination for Presidency spoke of “Individual Responsibility” and “Mutual Responsibility”. Terms which are totally inapplicable for India, it seems, given that we have a legion of petty minded leaders.

Pathetic state of a prominent road in Bangalore, India

This video clipping is taken at JC Road, Bangalore opposite Fun World. This video was taken on 28/08/2008 at around 9:15 am after the overnight showers. This video clipping was taken from a moving bus through a mobile by an amateur. Hence, kindly apologise the poor video quality. Coming to the video clipping the following points may be noted:-

a. JC Road is en-route to the Bangalore International Airport and any traffic obstruction here can affect the movement of traffic to BIA.

b. JC Road is not a low lying area and has a lot scope for the drainage to be improved. It is just that drainage has never been maintained properly.

The state of other roads in Bangalore may not be better given the apathy and indifference towards infrastructure by the authority assigned this responsibility viz., Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike. This is the picture across prominent cities in the country because there is no accountability for these civic bodies. We have to pay our taxes and suffer from bad roads, non-draining storm water drains and encroached footpaths. Wonders, when our cities will become a decent place to live. Kennedy made the famous statement “Don’t ask what the country has done; Ask what you have done for your country?” He meant that in a country where the rulers have accountability but ours is a country where the Citizen has not got his Fundamental Rights and the Government does not believe in discharging its duties, expecting accountability is a far fetched dream, I suppose.

How about Andhra Sea and TN Bay

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A stock tip

It was late 2003, when Indian stock markets were about to boom. Anybody with a limited knowledge of how stocks operate could easily pick a stock which can give you 25-30% return in a very short term. I was fairly proficient in picking stocks and had a lot of “FrIeNdS” who used to call me up frequently for stock tips. One of them was an esteemed colleague of mine who wanted a stock tip every day. I had enough of this guy and wanted to get rid of me. I decided to give him a dose of my dry humor and was waiting for his call.

It was a Monday morning, when this guy called me up and started with his usual “plastic pleasantries” and came to his point “Any good picks?, Balu”.

Me “Yeah, sure, sure, there is a great pick and it is a multinational”
He “What is the name of the company and what line of business they are in”
Me “Sort of they create needs for new infrastructure and security equipments in countries wherever they go. Their model of business also creates lot of business for the health industry”
He “How many countries they are in?”
Me “No exact idea but they are fast expanding but everybody is after them”
He “FIIs”
Me “No even the internal agencies errr.. I mean investors”
He “How is the business model?”
Me “Very good ya, wherever they implement their plans, they create a huge impact, the first major one was in 2001 in US” (I hope everyone has guessed what I am talking about). The name of the company is TTC”
He “What TTC?”
Me: (laughing out) Taliban Trading Corporation, invest karega kya?.

Very sheepishly he kept the phone down and till date has not called me back for more than 3 years. He also avoids my path when we come across in the corridor. Now that is what I call is a Good Riddance to Bad Rubbish.

Look who is talking Constitution

Nightlife in Bangalore is banned after 11:30 pm and so also are discotheques. The Police Commissioner contends that his reduced the crime rate in night times. The same is debatable but this blog is to focus on profusion of Constitution by a regional outfit in a discussion on this subject conducted recently by a popular English news channel. This regional outfit has done its share of good work to the state, the recent one being raiding a rave party on the outskirts of the city. They compelled the police to apprehend the concerned and kudos to the work done by this regional outfit. They have the own share of glitches with the law mostly done to drive home their point of regional supremacy. This is what the spokesperson of this regional outfit spoke on the channel:-
There is a need to respect the Constitution by one and all.
We should be law abiding citizens
Our assertion of rights should not hurt others.
We should have civic sense.
A women appearing/dancing in half naked dress is wrong (Wonder why they don’t haul up the local filmmakers who do a much worse depiction of woman in their films).

This is not about only this regional outfit but the entire range of them across the country. We all know what is the record of regional outfits on the above points? Most of their agenda border on secession.

An elderly gentleman on the show asked this question but the spokesperson just nodded his head. The moderator also for reasons best known to her did not quiz the spokesman on this point. Hopefully, the nod is an assurance that in future they will practice what they preach for others.

It is a peril being a pedestrian in Bangalore

Recently a villager was killed by a speeding vehicle which was en-route to Bangalore International Airport (BIA). Admittedly the villager may have jay-walked across the road and got hit. If you were a pedestrian in Bangalore, you would admit that jay-walking on Bangalore roads is the only option left for pedestrians. This may be true of other cities also.
I have been on the BIA road quite a few times and don’t find very many places for the pedestrian to cross across the road. Today it can be argued that most of it is an empty landscape and hardly a few people cross the road but what happens a few months down the line, when the entire road will be buzzing with mega construction activity. First of all, I am not comfortable with the logic that traffic on this road should move unhindered. Even accepting that logic, why was not this stretch of road planned with more pedestrian underpasses, skywalks, etc? If we decide to go in for underpasses tomorrow, are we going to dig up the well laid roads? What a mockery of commonsense would that be but when has commonsense been the forte of city planners in Bangalore? Here I would like to point about Old Madras Road on Bangalore, which hardly has any safe avenue for pedestrians to cross the road. A zebra crossing is present only at four or five places starting from RMZ Infinity (near Ulsoor Lake) leading upto KR Puram Railway Station and even those are not respected by speeding motorists. This stretch of road is almost 10 kms.

It is more difficult to be a pedestrian in Bangalore than a vehicle owner. A pedestrian’s life and limbs are always in peril in Bangalore, thanks to the insensitive motorists combined with the apathy of the law enforcing agencies. Somehow it is assumed that pedestrian is not a part of traffic when the truth is one can escape from being a vehicle owner but not being a pedestrian. Two wheelers plying on footpath and the traffic cops remaining a silent spectator is not uncommon in Bangalore. In most traffic signals in Bangalore, vehicles wait for the green signal on the zebra crossing and the traffic cops hardly mind it leave alone fining such mindless motorists. It is normal for motorists to ply even when the traffic signal is for the pedestrian to cross and the traffic cops don’t even blink an eyelid.
Footpath as defined in the dictionary is “a narrow path for walkers only or a raised space alongside a road, for pedestrians”. In Bangalore it is a space exclusively reserved for the shopkeepers, garage owners, gas agencies to transact their business. Many of the corporation authorities don’t even know it is an offence and those who know it is one make a quick buck from the shameless small businessman. The traffic police who promptly book any vehicle for being parked in a no-parking zone do not mind when the footpath is fully obstructed. The pedestrians are left with no option but to walk on the road. Once in a while, one of them will get by a vehicle and people will burn a few vehicles but that does inspire neither the corporation nor the traffic police from cracking hard on the offenders. After all allowing such transgressions is so beneficial for both the parties.
From past few months, I have been trying to clear the encroachments on footpath in the locality where I stay. I have sent half a dozen complaints to various authorities in Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (Bangalore City Corporation) but no action has been taken. Last Friday on August 22, 2008, I called up the Joint Commissioner (East) office to check up status of the complaint. His P.A. attended the complaint and after first denying my complaint has been received, he told that the same has been forwarded to the concerned engineer. The answer which he gave next defined the peril of being a pedestrian in Bangalore “Sir, if we try to clear the encroachments on the footpath, Shopkeepers will shout at us”. Need I say more?

All for a better status

The one thing that drives us all is “Status”. Despite all spiritual garbs we don, there are very few individuals today who don’t aspire to improve their status, on a day-to-day basis.

Status as defined by the concise Oxford dictionary is “relative social or professional standing; high rank or social standing”. The catch word for me in this definition is “relative” and that is what triggers the “rat race” for the “human race”. We want to be better off than our relatives, neighbors, colleagues and competitors. The word “Status” is a typical double bind. The urge for better status has caused the human race to progress and also given it untold misery. Inventions, discoveries, ideas and wars are all a result of the urge for better status.

The urge for better status has progressed mankind from “Stone Age” to “Silicon Age”. The dream of better status for his countrymen propelled Bapuji to lead the freedom struggle. At the same dream for better status in the eyes of Jinnah lead to a painful partition which has continued till date. The dreams of better status for his race lead Hitler to his Machiavellian designs. The dreams for enhanced status of the deprived society, lead Dr. BR Ambedkar to scripting our Constitution (he would have definitely decried the depths which reservations has reached today) The collective dream for better status made Japan a super power after the pounding it got during the Second World War. The dreams for a better status in the early 90’s lead to collapse of communism across the East block countries.

Individual performance is enhanced due to a need for better status. Management graduates from slums; Business corporations from sheds; Super athletes from utter poverty are all the results of the urge for a better status. Status by most of us (including me) is perceived as possession of maximum material things. To an extent it is the correct but not the entire picture. Our perception of status is best defined as “Buying things which you don’t require, with money you don’t have, to impress people you don’t like”. EMI is only an enfant terrible of the wedlock between “urge for status” and “consumerism”. This definition explains why our credit cards have perennial unpaid balance; houses are filled with things we don’t use; relationships are filled with invisible walls; society is riddled with crime and corruption. The “urge for status” forces us away from our families, friends, health, ethics and morals.

If the motivation for status can be streamlined, we could become world beaters and better both the society and ourselves. Otherwise we would be left a woes, worries and families on the brink of collapse. Such a situation is not desirable for the society. The million dollar question is how to streamline this desire and it is certainly not by desiring less. Answering this question, would require another blog.

Once you are dead

“Once you are dead nobody remembers you and when you fail/falter very few care for you, there is nothing more important than you”. Sounds a very harsh statement to make, but life has taught me this over and again. This blog is not for the spiritually inclined but those who want material success and happiness.

Except grossly breaking ethics and betraying one’s motherland, I think it is fair for us to pursue anything to be happy and successful. There is no place for sacrifices in this world unless you are a lamb. Even they have the animal right guys to fight for them but nobody is there to protect the sacrifice of human emotions that takes place day in and day out in our lives. We have to guard ourselves against being sacrificed because there is no point in crying over spilt milk. We have to learn not to fall into the trap of sweet talking selfish people.

I am not against using people. Get used but ensure that it is mutual. There is no free lunch in this world. In today’s world, you don’t get what you deserve but what you negotiate. There are a billion of people out there who want to use you in the name of friendship and later discard. The difficult task is to avoid the friendship of a billion people but the easier way out is being one among them. There is no harm in being a Roman when you are in Rome.

Learn to negotiate everywhere in the outside world for your own happiness. Otherwise, when their purpose is done with or if you fail in life, most of them will discard you like an used tissue paper. Encash your cheque when the account is still in operation not after it is closed. No amount of crying or ranting or going down on the knees in front of such individuals will fetch you any sympathy but stern words which question of your intentions for being good.

Never mind if you have to play politics in office place if it gets you the required success. Even if you don’t play politics with others there is no guarantee that nobody else will dish out the same stuff to you. You don’t get anything for being noble at office space except self pity. There are two ways of going up in a office place; one you take the long arduous route of working sincerely up the ladder (I am all for it) and another by pointing out others mistakes. Have a judicious mix of these attributes, of-course with a heavy mix of the first route. Never let go your colleague’s mistakes (official only) just because he or she pretends to be your good friend. Keep a note of them, you may require it in the future.

I know this blog would seem to be negative but I have learnt that everything is not fair in this world and we need to play devil in real life more often than not. Even the most noblest of the souls many a times suffer and die, why should we mere mortals worry? Just go ahead and find your material success and happiness.

Movies which are carved in my mind

Movies are the best form of entertainment in modern times. They take us into a world of make belief. Movies sometimes create a stir in the society la Rang De Basanti. Here is a list of the movies (Commercial Only) which inspired me, captivated my imagination and of course entertained me.

Movies which inspired me

a. Life is beautiful (English) – A wonderful film about the travails of Jews during World War II. If only everybody could lead their lives the way the main protagonist of the film does, stress would become a non-existent word. Even when he is being taken away to be executed by the Germans, he neither flinches nor makes it known to his young son. His positive attitude is to be seen to be believed.

b. Ramana (Tamil) – This film portrays the fight of a college professor against corruption in the society. How a professor organizes a bunch of his students to kidnap corrupt officials from across the state and finally execute the most corrupt one, forms the crux of the story? I liked the scene in which he traps a dishonest hospital into giving treatment for a dead body. One more highlight of the film is when he makes appeal to the general public not to disturb law and order on his execution.

c. Saving Private Ryan (English) – Two sons of a widow are killed in second world war and a third is fighting the war somewhere in enemy territory. The army sends a small contingent of soldiers to bring him back. The film is to be seen to be believed especially the last few minutes.

d. Lagan (Hindi) – Skills not courage is what matters preaches the film. How a group of villagers learn the game of cricket to escape taxes is the story and how well it has been told? The scene in which Aamir Khan argues for the inclusion of a lower caste person in the team inspired me the most.

e. Border (Hindi) and Muthina Hara (Kannada) – I think these are the best two films made in India about war. Border brought to life the sheer courage of Indian Soldiers up against a huge Pakistani contingent whereas Muthina Hara amplified the futility of war. I am just in love with the last song of Border, very painful but very true. Muthina Hara should be the best Kannada film made till date but did not achieve the required box office success as is the case with most good films.


Films which captured my imagination

1. Sholay (Hindi) – leave alone the action just raise a toast to the friendship of Jay and Veeru. I can touch my heart and say I was never a friend like Jay to anyone, not even 25%.

2. Broken Arrow (English) – Not much of a story line but the breath taking action and the cool anti-hero character portrayed by Travolta is worth its weight in gold.

3 Cliffhanger (English) – A fantastic film in which Slyvster Stallione, a reclusive mountain rescuer eliminates the villains by his skills and not by his brawn in extreme temperature and high altitude.

4. Anand (Hindi) – How to be happy when death stares in your eyes every now and then? How bad you feel when all your knowledge can’t be of use to save someone you love? A simple story but a saga of human emotions.

5. DDLJ (Hindi) – I am not even an admirer of Shah Rukh Khan but this was one film when you want him to get the girl such was his portrayal of the character. At the end of the film, I was left praying that somehow Kajol gets on to the train. One of the best romantic films (most importantly with a happy ending) made in Indian films. I hate romantic films with a tragic ending.

Die Hard series, Speed, Independence Day are some of the films which are worth a mention in the category of films that captured my imagination. U-turn an English Film about what disaster adultery and greed can prove to be was one film which captured my imagination.

Films which entertained me

a. Amar Akbar Anthony (Hindi) I have no counts of how many poor mimicry I would have done in my college of the scene in which Amitabh in a drunken state tries to applies tincher to his mirror image. The title track and “My name is Anthony Gonsalves” still rings in my ears.

b. Most Amitabh films (Pre Shahenshah days) entertained me. Possibly the list of films which entertained me are too many to list. After all, I am not one who lands up at a movie for the sake of it.

Heart can forgive but never trust again

“Heart can forgive but never trust again”, this was the message I got from a friend recently and they have got carved in my heart since then. I somehow don’t support this logic and usually counter such messages but this one has left me dumbfounded. One more saying which I definitely don’t believe in is “Human relationships are like glass, once broken can never be put together again”. How can you equate human relationships with a piece of glass? Human relationships are so complex. We get happy, loving, angry, emotional and at times romantic with people whom we trust the most. A glass is just a non-living thing which can be recycled many a times.

Why does Trust break? I can think of reasons like failure to keep commitments; Betrayal; Financial Fraud and most importantly behaving contrary to the image we have about a person. At times, we fail in commitments made to our loved ones, either due to busy schedules; fit of rage; their own negative vibes in enforcing the commitments made, etc. If somebody failed on the minor commitments made to me, I give that person a through verbal spanking or put him off for a few weeks or months and get back again if he/she repeatedly felt sorry about that act. Erasing the trust in a person for small reasons is not good for one’s health and soul. Trust is not an ice cream which gets melted if the refrigerator is kept open accidentally.

Betrayal is serious and does result in loss of trust. I do find it difficult to trust a person who acts contrary to the image he/she has created in my mind. When the reasons are serious enough to break the trust in other person, it is good to actually break it. However, it is necessary when we break trust in another person, we tell them the reasons. Every person has a right to correct himself in life. If we tell a person reasons for loss of trust, he/she can correct himself. It is very inhuman and cruel to leave a person in suspended animation.

As much is as breaking trust is bad, so is also reckless losing trust in others. Breaking trust for trivial reasons is not fair. Every human being is entitled to his own aberrations in a relationship but that does not mean they don’t regard us or betraying us. It is just that once they were stupidly human. Being mentally strong is not being unforgiving. Of all the attitudes, the attitude to forgive is the greatest. Usually, the receiver becomes petty in his own eyes. I think our lives would be so pleasant if we can consign to emotional dustbin sayings like “Heart can forgive but never trust again”. I am yet to reply to this friend’s message. Maybe the comments on this blog would help me to do so because I am not able to find a slick but meaningful reply to it.

50-60% OFF, grab even if it is scrap

These are the days of rising prices and everybody is looking to get maximum goods at available incomes. In this milieu, we have given a go-by to the word “quality”. The middle class mindset has become so tuned to cheap products is that even if it is scrap they grab. Price is the only logic that prevails. This attitude is amplified when buying crockery; plastic items; cosmetics; toys; electronic goods and imported chocolates.

There has to be some sort of price comparison between a standard product and a cheap product. It can never be possible that economy crockery set that is offered by a standard manufacturer at Rs.800 can be offered by the cheap products vendor at Rs.120. Such cheap products are definitely made up of some toxic scrap. Time and again we have heard about toxic scrap being smuggled from other countries and they being put to various uses in our country. There is something called “Food Grade Material” which is offered by most standard manufactures and necessarily we have to buy them if we care for the health of our families. Dangerous diseases such as cancer, liver infections and other related problems are bound to affect us if we consume, prepare and store food in “Toxic” and “Non-food grade” material. The same is the case with low quality cosmetics whose use may lead to several such complexions. Even some of the food materials sold by some of the popular bazaars are not worthy of human consumption. Most of them are beyond the date of consumption, stale and spoilt. These are sold off during huge discount sales and saving melas. Buying a slightly costly but reliable product may seem an unwise exercise in the short term but if it could save us huge medical bills, melodrama in households and avoidable physical disorders, the unwise exercise is worth undergoing. Discretion is the best part of valour when it comes to health and hygiene.

Disciplining celebrites in India

Recently, Michael Douglas and Catherine Zenta Jones have been fined US$ 3K in Italy for wrongly docking their yacht. It was not long ago the famous Athlete Marion Jones was punished for drug abuse. The list is long and it feels sad that not even one celebrity from India has made it to the punished list except maybe Harbhajan Singh for the infamous slapgate.

Somehow in our country a celebrity is free to kill, break laws; encroach lands; have unlicensed arms and yet get away with it. The 24x7 news channels build such a sympathy wave for these guys, that we are lead to believe that the particular celebrity who otherwise had lead the life of a saint, should not be punished for a single act of aberration. I pity for the guy, who in this great democracy, was fined for filling a PIL in the court that it was wrong to give customs duty exemption to Sachin Tendulkar for his Ferrari.

The act of holding dangerous weapons is justified for the simple reason that Sanjay Dutt is a man of golden heart; how he helps the unit boys and most importantly he has acted in “Lage Raho Munna Bhai” which is wrongly claimed for promoting Gandhism. Salman Khan’s act of mowing down pavement dwellers and killing chinkaras is justified on the grounds that he is a good boy gone wrong. Arrest of these `noble souls’ is represented as the police system trying to find cheap popularity for itself. Refusal of bail to these `men of honor’ is projected as the ineptness of the judicial system. Stories on how these `freedom fighters’ had to suffer by sleeping in the jail; eating the jail food and how they had to suffer without the usual luxuries of life are made to look like `sacrifices for the country’.

It is time that we realized in our great country that celebrities are like anybody else and not above the law. Celebrities should be an example for others but in our country becoming one means a passport to a life of unruliness and getting away with it. When they break the law, they should be subject to the same ignominy like any other normal criminal of this country. If the police get publicity because of arresting them, so be it that is not their fault. A celebrity is easier to track down than an ordinary criminal. So for a particular act of crime, when an ordinary person goes untracked but a celebrity is trapped, there is nothing wrong with it. It is only the price he/she has to pay for being a celebrity and still breaking the law. After all, Caesar’s Wife has to be above suspicion.

Hang those strikers

Today VHP and its allies conducted chaka bandhs and road rokos across the northern parts of the country in protest against the injustice meted out to Hindus in the Amarnath Land case. Now I dont want to dwell into the genuniness of the cause. The issue is one old man in Noida and a youth in Kanpur who were seriouslly ill and being rushed to hospital, died because their vehicles could not move forward due to the traffic jams created by these people. Who will bring back these people to their families? who will look after the family of the youth who died?

Every bandh has its own stories. It is a merely a poplularity dance for most political parties and common people have to suffer. What is achieved by burning buses and cars during bandhs? Why should my car be burnt because some sadhus did not get their land? What is acheived in damaging commercial establishments? What is acheived by irritating commuters during bandhs? Who are the senseless guys who give permission for a road roko during the peak hours of 9-11 am? Why is their no law against holding bandhs and inconvincing people? why are not spots identified in the city where these people can hold the protests without inconvincing people? Why are the courts dont pass strictures that no bandh should be held throught the city and those political parties who disobey its orders be banned? How long will people will keep quiet to such political goondas without remorse or regret for their actions?Why do people vote for parties who inconvince them so much?

The Government will never pass a law banning bandhs. It is time the courts stepped in and levied heavy fines of Rs.50 crores on every political party that holds a city wide bandh or protest. It should also ban such political parties/leaders from contesting elections. Meanwhile what action will be taken against those leaders who were responsible for the two deaths today? The court should identify the main leaders and hang them to death or put a fine of Rs.10 crores and deposit the amount in a bank to take care of the families. The leaders responsible for this incident should be deported from the country itself. Their kith and kin should be denied rights of education, passport and other facilities for next 10 years. Self serving idiots have to be told lessons in the most meanest way to make them understand the pain of others. I am sorry for some inappropriate language in this blog but when I came back from office and saw a bullitien containing these gory facts, I had to just blog it without waiting for the appropriate words to come across. Wish the Courts pass an historic judgement banning bandhs and imposing strict action on strikers on the Independence Day and liberate the country from these scums of the society.

Attached bathrooms, detached families

Attached bathrooms, detached families would be the ideal way to describe the emerging trend of family system in India.

Everybody wants to stay in their own shell and nobody has the patience to wait and tolerate one’s own family members. Privacy is more important and the good old intimacy is being done away with.

 Leave alone sharing bathrooms, we can’t view even television together. More and more houses have multiple television sets. Everybody is couched safely in their comfort zone and communication between family members is usually the mandatory pleasantries.

There is no need to write an obituary for the Joint Family system in India because it is long dead. The pity today is that even the nuclear families are not jointed.

It is not uncommon in certain households when grown-up children don’t come to the drawing room, when parents are at home. People have started living as individuals and not as a family. The freezers in our heart are more powerful than those in our fridges. We have lost the heart to excuse family member’s shortcomings however intimate the relationship maybe. We have powerful vacuum cleaners but they can’t clean the clogs in our relationships. Everybody wants to win with their egos but everybody is losing their lives

Today the hectic work schedules and school timings mean multiple keys to the same house. Going by the ever increasing extra marital affairs, it seems that even our hearts have started having multiple keys.

We have come up with the wonderful concept of open kitchens but usually the most worked device is the microwave ovens to fill the stomachs of couples who are working in different time zones. Family dining halls have become fashionable but hardly the family gets together to enjoy the environs. Our bed rooms may have air conditioners but our hearts are seething with anger. The bed room may have romantic colors but not the life lead in it. The beds have become broader it seems only for the couples to find their own corners in times of a dispute.

How happy are those homes which still fight over a bathroom?
How happy are those homes which have less to eat but a lot to share?
 How happy are those homes when people come to open doors and forgotten fights?
How happy are those homes somebody is there to feed the kid when he/she comes back from school?
How happy are those rooms where there are more people than bedrooms?
How happy are those rooms where still the fight goes on for a single remote?
 Let us do everything to share, care, fight, forget, eat and enjoy with our families. We let slip the wonderful joint family system, let the nuclear families not go the American way.
Let no kid die in her room, with parents not being able to hear her.
Let us pledge to uphold the great Indian Family.
Let us undo the great saying” Money is their god and how to make it is their religion”.

Scrap that term “quality time” our families need both quality and quantity time to ensure that it survives

An infrastructure mess in cox town, bangalroe

One of the best examples of infrastructure mess in India should be the Cox Town (Bangalore) over bridge. The only demand of the residents over there was a small over bridge over the railway gate which would ensure that traffic does not come to stand still when a train passes. As fate would have it our system does not like to do anything simple and sleek. Instead they went into for nearly a KM long flyover and the construction of the same is going on for years and possibly for a few more.
Reasons for delay is one part of the woe but the main woe is did Cox Town require such a swanky flyover? Why is that in our system any infrastructure solution is big? Why can’t we think small and effective? Does it pay for the powers to be of our system, if a project is big?
Ask anybody who has been to Cox town during the pre-flyover construction days, they will tell you that such a big bridge was a total waste. Cox town was a locality developed by the Britishers and Wheeler Road (where the bridge is being built) had wide roads to rival any locality in Bangalore even from the 80’s. The road was easily divided and there was no problem in the flow of the traffic. All that was required was a small flyover or underpass, at the railway interjections to avoid clustering of traffic. Subsequent to the construction of the mega-flyover, all the small businesses in the main road will get badly affected. The bridge is getting completed perennially. All that citizens can do is to take out frequent protest rallies
Cox town flyover is one of the many infrastructure messes of this country. We build mega flyovers and bridges where it is not required. The projects never get completed on time further inconvincing people. Can we never think small and sleek when it comes to infrastructure project? Why invest on projects which have no need in the first instance? It maybe glamorous to go in for big projects, but let these people remember two things, the project is being executed at the cost of the tax payer’s money and second the money can be used elsewhere more profitability even for building a flyover elsewhere.

The All mighty Internet

Internet has changed the way we live beyond recognition. Internet is a great boon for families with friends and relatives staying far away or abroad. No longer have you to depend on snail-mail or phones for enquiring welfare, there are the friendly to use emails and chat messengers. Family functions videos can be uploaded in sites which have such facilities. Transfer of money from abroad takes place at the snap of a finger.

Email has touched even the most obdurate Government Departments. I was surprised to find that I could get a response from the Indian Railways on a complaint about corruption in their Department. In the recently concluded Karnataka Assembly elections, I could get precise information about my name in the voter list. It is more reliable to scan and send a signed letter through email, than by fax or post. Many of the institutions conduct their exams online to avoid paper leaks and to give quick results. Exam results are available online to avoid anxiety for students and parents alike. Filling of tax returns online should be mandatory to avoid wastage of paper.

Access to information has become very easy with internet. I still remember the struggle I had to undertake for collecting information for a school/college assignment/essay/debate. Today all that you require to know is how to use a search engine. Students can download model question papers for exams. Tourist information, recipes, pictures, economic data, sporting statistics, movie gossips, etc is available at the click of a mouse. Booking an airline ticket, hotel rooms, movie ticket, paying utility bills can be done without moving an inch.

Trading of shares online is a great boon for the small investors. Gone are the days when you had to linger behind the sub-brokers for buying a share and waiting months for its transfer. E-shopping is yet to catch up in India mainly because of lack of trust on the customer’s part about the quality and also lack of variety in the products offered. E-shopping will never be safe because the hackers will be always ahead of the system. If we refrain from e-shopping on this account, we should also refrain from using our debit and credit cards. It was recently reported that in the US, hackers stole customer data from major shops through their laptops. Their modus operandi was simple, sit in a car with a laptop and trap all credit/debit card transactions and download vital data. They have used this data to defraud many innocent shoppers.

The best contribution of Internet is getting the world together. You can communicate your opinions to a wider number of people. You can post a video in Youtube on deforestation in your place and get global attention for it. Recently, I could clear an encroachment of public property because I told the concerned authorities that if they don’t clear the same, the images of the same will be posted in the internet with their names. Blogs are such a boon for professional and amateur writers alike. Articles/Poems without the required finesse can be shared, appreciated, criticized and understood thanks to the internet. I could associate with a NGO viz., Leadcap thanks to Orkut.

Internet is being misused like any other invention. Internet per se is not bad. Internet in future could give us alerts if our dear and near ones are in trouble. Internet should be enabled to prevent corruption and bring governance to our doorsteps. Internet should be able to educate the literate on civic sense and penalize them when they err. Shopping in internet should be made secure through genetic signatures. There are many a dreams for internet but it will find its own way. After all nobody guessed it to dominate our lives the way it did. The next generation Hotmail, Google or Blogspot may be germinating in some mind or system in the World Wide Web. Like the almighty, it is omni potent and omni present.

Avoid the lure of easy money

There is a proverb “The lamb always believes the butcher”. The same logic seems to apply to middle class wanting to earn that extra buck. They always end up with guys who swindle their money. Be it the chit funds, the MLM’s or the “stock market” investment schemes which promise 200 to 300% returns, these swindlers have a field day and most of them never get caught.

The unjustified and irrational greed of people who go and invest in such schemes is to be blamed. It is virtually impossible for the law enforcing agencies to keep a watch on every such scheme in a vast country like ours. The RBI frequently comes out with advertisements in various media warning people against such schemes. The police in some cases have traced the culprits and tried to recover the amount but given the long and winding process of law suits in our court, it takes ages and generations for one to recover the money.

People have to be intelligent enough to understand that when the best bank in the country itself cannot give more than X% of percent, how can an individual give X+10% or 20% returns? Either he is defrauding the people or he is investing in too very risky business, in which the chances of a failure are more than success.

MLM are one more form of defrauding money. I do agree that some of the MLMs are very good and help people to earn that extra amount of money. However, this is applicable only to MLMs which have a varied product base. Most of the MLMs just operate on the basis of you join and also join two on your left and two on your right (when we pull the shutters, you get a kick on the middle from all those you joined in our scheme). There is no product sold and money made. How do people expect such schemes to earn them money? I was part of an MLM. There was no problem with the MLM but there was an affiliated training program which sucked my interest out of carrying on the business. This training program required buying lots of cassettes, book and attending countless meetings. More than selling the product, emphasis was laid on getting newer people to the meetings and selling cassettes. The cassettes were priced at ridiculously high rates. Books were priced at higher rates than what you can get the original version for in reputed book shops. Unnecessary hype was created about those who addressed the audience in the meeting like “My children go to the same school as xxx cricketer in Australia”, etc, etc. Those who would want to do a MLM business would do well to avoid such shady training schemes.

Most investment analysts say that a return of 30-40% in the share markets is very good and if it is in the range of 70-80% in a year, such investments are considered multi-baggers. You can make 200-300% returns in the market if you stay invested over a period of 4 to 5 years but not in a matter of 5 or 6 months. Anybody who promises such returns needs to be reported to SEBI and investigated upon. Our people will instead handover the life savings to such cronies and later scream that the market is full of scams.

People have to get realistic. The lure of easy money is tempting for one and all but there is no such thing called easy money. Earn extra money the intelligent way not the greedy way. Have a check whether the returns promised are feasible. Find the credentials of the person who is promising the returns? A swanky rented office means nothing when they call it quits.

Most pathetic use of internet

Internet is a free place. I think after the invention of wheel, this is the most revolutionary invention of mankind. You can use it anyway you like. You can use it to communicate with friend, conduct business, voice your opinions, spread your faith, etc. The most disgusting use of internet should be using it to spread superstition.

Time and again I have come across wonderfully worded emails ending with if you don’t forward it to so many people within this much of time, you will be cursed with bad luck for this many years. One more email such and such a god will bring you bad luck if you don’t forward this email so many people. In addition it contains vivid details of what good happened to those who forwarded these mails and disasters that occurred to those who did not.

My theist friends may please excuse, God is unable to instantly punish those who commit physical crimes, how can he do that to those who commit cyber lapses? He is the almighty and known to tolerate the transgressions of his devotees several times. So by practice he is compelled not to punish anybody instantaneously. How can he punish anybody with bad luck for several years for not forwarding an email? It is fun for most and ignored. There many a weak minds who panic on reading such emails and act haphazardly.

Using Internet to spread superstition is its most pathetic use. Earlier households used to get chain letters on such subjects. It seems the pathetic minds have an equally obdurate second generation which is bent upon creating a fear in the minds of people. There are good possibilities such guys are spammers and have inserted a worm alongwith the mail to get access to various email ids. I don’t believe in such stuff and give the kitchen sink (covered in velvet) to those who dare to forward me such mails and at times I have found out the source and given him/her a piece of mind. God and customs are a matter of personal choice. There is no harm in anybody forwarding a God picture even to an atheist like me but don’t put out such coercive messages which ultimately demeans the God you are supposed to be glorifying. Most importantly don’t use cyber space to foster your irrational thoughts.

Is formal dressing a corporate fuss

I support formal dressing because it promotes certain amount of discipline and uniformity to the work place. Every office should have a dress code. I am from the Government service and at time feel disgusted with the way some of my colleagues dressing sense. Either some of them are in the perennial party mood (especially ladies) or some of them come in a clumsy way.

Having cleared my stand on formal dressing, I am equally disgusted with the parameters for formal dressing some of the companies have prescribed for their employees. Irrespective of the air conditioning inside the office, a three piece suit looks out of place in Indian weather conditions. I think a plain shirt (in acceptable colors) worn with a formal pant and black shoes does look as formal as a three piece suit worn with all the grandeur. I am yet to understand the practical reasons for wearing a tie. Somebody please educate me on the uses and need for a tie to be worn. Just imagine the plight of an employee with spondylitis required to wear a tie.

It looks as if formal dressing means aping the westerners. Yes, I do understand that we do business with them and have to look presentable in their eyes but that does not mean that we have to ape them. It is pitiable and disgusting to note that certain companies prescribe what constitutes a formal dress. It maybe argued that the employee has an option to quit a job which he is not comfortable but I am writing this blog in a free society and feel that an employee has a choice of dressing. Let the company define what does not constitute formal dress. I am not for attending a board meeting wearing a dhoti but at the same time don’t want offices to resemble schools. There is no dress code for me but I do ensure that I go to office in a dress which complements the organisation I represent and nature of job I do.

Thank God I Filed (TGIF) my tax returns

Thank God I Filed (TGIF) my tax returns before 31st July 2008. I am an ordinary salaried income tax payer who can never escape the clutches of the taxman. Even a hundred rupee increase in my salary is correctly accounted and appropriate deduction is made. I abhor paying a penalty because I did not fill a form that contained details of my income.

Out of curiosity, I tried to find out how many people in India file their returns and believe me or not, it is only 30 million who file their tax returns and 20 million of them are hapless salaried employees like me. The forms to file the tax returns are called SARAL and after nearly a decade of filing tax returns, I am wondering whether the meaning of SARAL as understood by me is correct or not.


I don’t want to delve too much into the divine intentions behind insisting on a tax return to be filed by a salaried employee except that you can further tax him for small capital gains and FD interest he/she earns. Salaried employees are the easily available flogging horses, so put in a penalty clause if they don’t file their returns by a certain date. It is such an innovative method to earn additional tax revenue.

I wonder what would happen if for a year or two, the tax department gives a “tax returns holiday” and goes beyond those who are at large and not paying taxes. It anguishing to note that even farmers who cultivate strawberries are exempt from income tax. Taxes should be collected from farmers who grow cash crops. I don’t think any of the small grocers pay income taxes nor do the vegetable mandiwalas neither the building contractors nor the small hoteliers nor the taxi owners. If at all they do pay, it would only be a token amount to keep away from the eyes of the taxman.

To say that there are only 3 crores people in India with a taxable income is the most absurd statistic. If that was true, how come the parallel economy is bigger than the national economy? How did the talks of bribery reach a crescendo during the current trust vote? Why is there so much benami property in the country? Why does not the IT Department instead of worrying about mundane tax returns concentrate its efforts on mapping each property in the country to its owner and demand for source of income to buy that property? Why does not the IT Department go to the streets and find out the real income tax offenders?

It is very easy to make the hapless salaried class pay through their nose and drain them till the last pie but that would never result in a transparent and efficient tax system. It is a shame that even after 60 years of Independence we are not able to do away with black money. The salaried person is pre-occupied with many issues on hand. Most of them have an extracting 9 to 6 job on his hand. He has to pay extra for the loans due to increasing interest rates because nobody will write off his loans or compensate his family if he commits suicide unable to bear the burden. He is sufficiently squeezed don’t wriggle him more. If you want an exact picture of the tax potential of this country, dear, taxman, get out of the comforts of your office and into the streets, you will find an Alibaba cave every nook and corner of this country. Not filling a tax return on time is not a crime neither on the financial or physical security of the nation.

Thank God I Filed (TGIF) my tax returns

Thank God I Filed (TGIF) my tax returns before 31st July 2008. I am an ordinary salaried income tax payer who can never escape the clutches of the taxman. Even a hundred rupee increase in my salary is correctly accounted and appropriate deduction is made. I abhor paying a penalty because I did not fill a form that contained details of my income.

Out of curiosity, I tried to find out how many people in India file their returns and believe me or not, it is only 30 million who file their tax returns and 20 million of them are hapless salaried employees like me. The forms to file the tax returns are called SARAL and after nearly a decade of filing tax returns, I am wondering whether the meaning of SARAL as understood by me is correct or not.


I don’t want to delve too much into the divine intentions behind insisting on a tax return to be filed by a salaried employee except that you can further tax him for small capital gains and FD interest he/she earns. Salaried employees are the easily available flogging horses, so put in a penalty clause if they don’t file their returns by a certain date. It is such an innovative method to earn additional tax revenue.

I wonder what would happen if for a year or two, the tax department gives a “tax returns holiday” and goes beyond those who are at large and not paying taxes. It anguishing to note that even farmers who cultivate strawberries are exempt from income tax. Taxes should be collected from farmers who grow cash crops. I don’t think any of the small grocers pay income taxes nor do the vegetable mandiwalas neither the building contractors nor the small hoteliers nor the taxi owners. If at all they do pay, it would only be a token amount to keep away from the eyes of the taxman.

To say that there are only 3 crores people in India with a taxable income is the most absurd statistic. If that was true, how come the parallel economy is bigger than the national economy? How did the talks of bribery reach a crescendo during the current trust vote? Why is there so much benami property in the country? Why does not the IT Department instead of worrying about mundane tax returns concentrate its efforts on mapping each property in the country to its owner and demand for source of income to buy that property? Why does not the IT Department go to the streets and find out the real income tax offenders?

It is very easy to make the hapless salaried class pay through their nose and drain them till the last pie but that would never result in a transparent and efficient tax system. It is a shame that even after 60 years of Independence we are not able to do away with black money. The salaried person is pre-occupied with many issues on hand. Most of them have an extracting 9 to 6 job on his hand. He has to pay extra for the loans due to increasing interest rates because nobody will write off his loans or compensate his family if he commits suicide unable to bear the burden. He is sufficiently squeezed don’t wriggle him more. If you want an exact picture of the tax potential of this country, dear, taxman, get out of the comforts of your office and into the streets, you will find an Alibaba cave every nook and corner of this country. Not filling a tax return on time is not a crime neither on the financial or physical security of the nation.

Indian Television in the 80s

One channel, no remote, limited hours of viewing, mostly black and white television sets, Government controlled content - for today's generation it would seem the most mundane form of entertainment but not for those who were television viewers in the 80's. Doordarshan was the only TV channel of the 80s and half an hour before the telecast this was the screen which greeted viewers

Beginning of the telecast meant this animation

I always feel that the programme content of the 80s though amateurish was far more intelligent than today's. Hardly, we used to get 6 or 7 hours of programming a day. The best thing about the telecast was it used to wind up at 10 pm. The most frequent program was "Sorry for the interruption". Despite, all the technological glitches the content was truly "rainbow stuff".

Serials were not gauche and unethical like now. The characters of "Chutki" and "Nane" from "Humlog" are still etched in the minds of viewers. The introductory and closing comments of Ashok Kumar in the same serial are mandatory content of most mimicry shows. The standards of comedy achieved by "Yeh Jo Hain Zindagi" are yet to be paralleled on Indian television. "Mr.Yogi" was a comedy of its own genre. Lajoji and Master Haveli Ram from "Buniyaad" are immortal. I don't find in today's television a single serial "Rajini" featuring Priya Tendulkar which represented common man's problem in an entertaining and educative format. The simplicity of narration and content in "Khata Sagar" endeared to every viewer's mind and soul. "Nukad" was a masterpiece and an all time great "Malgudi Days" brought to life its characters in the same way as described in the novel.

Even the mythological serials like Ramayan, Mahabharat, and Alif Laila were good in content. Foreign serials like "Old Fox" "Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" and "Oshin" were equally stupendous. The "Tele-match" special from Germany which used to be telecast during rain delays in cricket matches was entertainment in its own right.

Movie telecast thankfully was limited to three a week i.e. one each Hindi, local language and National Award Winner (any language). The content was highly censored and hence fit for family viewing. There used to be an air of expectation for Sunday evening films so was the wait for the twice a week Chitrahaar and Sunday mornings Rangoli.

Sports telecast were limited to important events like Olympics, Asian Games, Wimbledon and India featuring cricket matches. This is one aspect which today's television scores because the quality of India content those days was very pedestrian. During live telecast, there used to be frequent satellite outages and cricket match coverage in India used to be done with a single camera.

News was largely Government controlled and at times containing minutest details of the programme of the Prime Minister. People like Tejeshwar Singh, Gitanjali Iyer, Minu, Mita Chaudhary, Salma Sultana and others were masters of the language. One good thing about the news those days was it used to be once in a day and unlike today's nauseating 24 hour breaking news channels. News used to be details of events that have happened unlike today where the personal, political and business interest of the media group is presented as news. It was in late 80's that direct coverage of election counting was introduced and also the projections and I abhor the day.

The quality of social messages during those days was very good. Who does not remember the animated film "Hum Sab Ek Hain" in which the didi explains to his brother the importance of being united. The concept of "Mile Sure Mera Tumhara" was path breaking and still echoes in my ears. The one message I despised the most was promoting the use of "Iodine Salt". It was very badly conceptualized, shot and ran for ages. Advertisement and social messages had a great mix but that was possible because Television was state controlled.

Children programs were not far behind. "Giant Robot" and "Star Trek" were the introduction of sci-fi to me. "Spiderman" on Sundays at 5:30pm meant deserting of playing grounds for us. "Discovery of India" was a great way to understand Indian History apart from the mundane textbooks. Quiz Master by Siddharth Basu on Sunday nights enthralled and educated a whole nation.

Nostalgia apart, television in the 80s was entertaining, educating and enabling. Though it was of limited duration telecast the joy it bought was unlimited. It was not like television of today brash and bent upon higher TRPs. Those days will never be back again but one can recall with pride that Television of the 80s was never an Idiot Box.

Dont let human intelligence to be eclipsed

August 1, 2008 happens to be solar eclipse. Modern Science has found that Solar Eclipse occurs when the moon temporarily comes between the sun and the earth. It is a beautiful celestial event known for its diamond ring effect. However, some sections of the population which refuse to grow up will be governed by superstition and scoff at those who will try to explain that it is pure science and does not occur because Rahu and Ketu two demons of Indian Mythology swallow the sun. Very shortly an Indian satellite Chandrayaan-1 is going to be launched to the moon and going by the track record of ISRO it can only be a grand success. These people cause pain not only to themselves but also to many unwilling family members. In addition, they have a liberal dose of doomsday predictions for those who don’t believe in their irrational ideas.
Another popular reason for not eating on the day of eclipse is as the sun rays were covered by the moon, the atmosphere becomes polluted. Therefore, for the whole day -- about 12 hours of the day time -- people observe fast and do not eat any food in the polluted atmosphere. I find this reason hilariously stupid on two accounts. One I don’t know what type of vessels were available when this stipulation was made but today you have vessels made of thermal ware, flasks, surgical steel, microwave ware, porcelain, food grade plastic, etc, etc. Dear Superstition Samarats, just have a look and decide whether these rays would affect food as much they used to during great great …..grandfather’s time. Secondly, not eating in a polluted atmosphere, this might have been applicable ages ago when the atmosphere was clean and free. Today, if we have to stop eating in a polluted atmosphere, we better be ready to die starving.

Lets learn to move ahead in life. These superstitions have no logic and an insult to human intelligence. It is better that they are consigned to the recycle bin and deleted for ever. Who is joining me for a cup of tea and samosa at the peak of solar eclipse?

Balu is Taklu - its official

It was happening over the last one year, I could see it, I tried every trick in the book to reverse the process but now I have to acknowledge that I am going bald. I used all the hair oils available in the market, changed my hair do but every day when I got off my bed or finished a hair bath realized that it was a case of “hair today, gone tomorrow”. Recently I had a haircut and realized that it was no use hiding the secret at the top. Even if I hide it is too obvious for all to see.
My mom used to tell me when I was young to oil the hairs but I did not listen. In the last year, I have used more hair oil than I have done for the last 36 summers. I should have listened to the well meaning advises of many of my friends not to apply hair dye when the hairs started going grey. I did not heed to their advice not to take too much tension.
“Losing hair” in Tamil is treated as nothing lost but ask a man who has lost his hairs he will tell you what it means. Already your face, graying hairs show off your age, add to this hair loss, you are a confirmed “UNCLE”. Life is going to change drastically for me. There are many things which I can no longer indulge in mainly flirting. Very soon my visits to the barber shop will become as uncommon as sensible business being done by our elected representatives. I have to face the ridicule of all the friends whom I have taunted for going bald. Shopkeepers will stare at me if I go to buy a pocket comb.

On the flip side, I had a hair style which mostly resembled of a person who has just got up from his bed. My hairs used to never stand in one position for a long time. Very soon I will be saving time to taking breaks from my work and blogging to comb my hair. When I go bald, I can grow the French Beard which would give me that villain look which I have always been yearning for. The phrase “tearing my hair” will become inapplicable for me. I can get the wise look without being one. The ayurvedic doctor will lose his monthly sale of two hair oils and “special” shampoo and I can invest the saved money in shares. These days shares are cheaper than rice and hair oil, you see.

Whatever it is I am going bald, that is the way of life. I am not giving up yet; I have gone for a really short hair cut to look young. I don’t believe in that philosophical adage “grey gracefully and bald boldly”. Whoever reads and first responds to this blog, will get all the unused quantities of hair oil and dye, I have with me. If there is a song “Singh is king” why can’t I write “Balu is Taklu”

Air India has a waiting list passengers counter

Recently I had been to New Delhi on official work and had travelled by Kingfisher. The Departure terminal for Kingfisher and Air India are the same and I was shocked to see a counter for “Waiting List Passengers” on the Air India side. This is counter No.26 in New Delhi Domestic Airport (Terminal-1A). I don’t know about international flights but certainly domestic airlines don’t have a waiting list and certainly not Air India I suppose with the sort of service they provide. Domestic Airlines however good they maybe run, with a few seats unoccupied, such being the case, how can Air India Conceptualize a waiting list passengers counter? They seem to be lost in the time frame when they had the monopoly over the skies and air travelers had to contend with whatever they dished out. The arrogance of the person who feels the need for such a counter needs to be appreciated. It is such a comic relief while checking in, if you happen to notice

Being a blogger

Lack of work in hand, lots of free time, easy accessibility to internet or an urge to share your ideas with the world, What does it take to be a blogger? The first two reasons as manifestations of vexed minds meant to ridicule people whom they don’t like. Easy accessibility to internet is a contributing factor to blogging becoming a habit. However, the defining factor to be a blogger is an urge to share ones ideas with the world.
One need not be a born writer to blog. Like learning to ride a car or to swim, you can also learn to blog. Just have a pocket diary and make a single line note of all the ideas that may come to your mind throughout the day. At the end of the day, instead of spending your time in front of the television set, get in front of the system and key down your ideas. To begin with blog in quantity, quality will come by itself. Read the blogs of others, this will also give you ideas how to refine your blogging skill and also make new friends. Never be disappointed if your blog goes unnoticed, it happens to everybody and even to the best.

Other than an urge to share my ideas with the world at large, blogging was the safest way out for me to get away from the emotional dump I found myself in a couple of years ago. I could have taken to pleasurable vices of life but choose blogging. Today blogging is an obsession with me, but one which enriches me and not enslaves me. I am forced to think objectively and subjectively on issues which previously did not even come to my attention. I don’t restrict to one aspect of blogging but try my hands in all the spheres. Close to my heart are current affairs and society but that does not restrict me from dabbling in poetry, satire and creative writing no matter how unconvincing they are.

When you blog, write in the way which is most suited to your personality and thought process, never ape anybody’s style because you will never able to sustain it. Be inspired by other ideas and use of language but not by their style because no two persons are the same. I have a very unconventional way of expressing my thoughts in writing and I have never tried to fiddle with it. My attempts at poetry have been ridiculed as forced rhyming but that does not deter me because that is the only way I know to write poetry. If I have to borrow on a cricketing parallel, Shewag and Dravid should stick to their styles of batting and not copy each other.
Never believe you have conquered grammar. There is always scope for improvement. Keep the language straight and simple. Use of flowery words is going to turn away most readers. Anybody can blog and to a certain extent that makes it a double edged sword. You don’t have an editor who will do the job of refining the sentence or chopping out the superfluous. You are your own editor in a blog. If you want your blog to be successful, be your own merciless editor. Write on topics which are very close to your heart be it on economic policy, society, values, etc. Make some research on the topic you want to write especially if it involves major topics like global warming, bio-fuel, inflation, etc but don’t make it look like an exercise in cut and paste of others works. Add your own touch and ideas to it.

I have found that when you write on serious topics in life, the blog does not become popular. It is quite understandable; people are saddled with enough problems in real life and would not like to carry it to the net also. Express your views in a balanced method and most importantly on topics which interest a larger section of people. This does not mean that I am urging you to write candy floss stuff. Write in a manner which interests, entertains and inspires people. You can choose to write a blog on the grim realities of global warming quoting innumerable statistics and future projections or just write in simple words why you appreciate the contribution of Al Gore, ex-US Vice President towards global warming and how he has successfully demystified the entire issue.

Can blogging be profitable? Yes,Google Adsense does pay for ad clicks on your blog page but the conditions are so hazy that you would love to add the alphabet M before the word adsense. Blog to appreciate the numbers of views on your blog, the comments you have received and the debate it has generated on your blog site. Blog for the sheer joy of it, other rewards will come in the near future.

Indian cricketers never retire in stlye and with grace

In the past 4 years, cricket lovers across the world have been witness to the retirements of Steve Waugh, Warne, Mcgrath and Gilchrist. The entire stadium stood up to see off their heroes, the families were part of it and it was such a nostalgic event. All these cricketers announced their retirement when they got the whiff of their presence in the team being questioned. Warne, in fact went when people were asking why?

I have been following Indian cricket for the past two decades. Except Sunil Gavaskar no other Indian cricketer has had a graceful exit from the game. He did retire from test cricket in grand style with a classy 90 plus against Pakistan on an exploding Bangalore pitch. Even the great Kapil Dev had to be compelled to announce his retirement. The other legendary cricketers had to be dropped from the team and later they announced their retirement.

The famous five of Indian Cricket viz, Sachin, Kumble, Dravid, Saurav and VVS Lakshman are due for retirement in the near future. At some point of time they have to realize that they maybe blocking the way of many a talented youngsters. Somebody like Yuvraj and Kaif have waited ages to find a permanent place in the team. There may be a dip in the team’s performance once these legends call it a day but it will only be temporary. They have achieved enough in terms of fame and money. When the annals of cricket are written, these five legends will be in the top half of it. One can only hope these famous and celebrated cricketers do retire in a grand style and before the entire country starts asking when? Let the fans get a feel how it is to see a few legends retire.

Taps to go dry in Bangalore - tips to tide over the crisis

Taps are to go dry in Bangalore during the 3rd week of July 2008 due to shifting of the Cauvery water pipes. BWSSB has promised that the work would be completed in 4 days but knowing them we maybe in for a longer haul. Here are some practical and many absurd and ribald ways to tide over the water crisis in Bangalore:-
Be ready to shell out ridiculous amounts to the local tanker for getting un-potable water supply.
Use plantain leaves for having food and disposable glass for liquid consumption.
Bathe on alternate days. Use a lot of deos and talc to cover up your stink. A ribald method would be for spouses to shower together but then most of us have day jobs.
Washing cars and vehicles are a strict no. If you find anybody in the neighborhood doing so, stand with your family in front of the car and get a free splash.
Finish most of your liquid consumption in your office. Don’t forget to take home the mineral water bottles that you get at various meetings.
Stand on top of your house and scream at the top of your voice “God give me more water”. Unable to bear the shrill noise, your neighbors will fill your empty tanks.

Jokes apart, we are headed for serious water crisis world over in the near future. We are treating Global Warming less seriously than bread getting burnt in the toaster. India has one of the worst records for contamination of ground water. Added to this we are going for N-fuel reactors. Nobody knows what safety measures are going to be taken to prevent water contamination. People are informed only about how beneficial the N-deal but not on the safety measures. Who cares, all that matters is the word of one Prime Minister whose government is on its last legs. Just learn to tide over this and the coming scarcities of water in a lighter vein. We have leaders who are passionately committed to their egos rather than the impending crisis.

A reality show which promotes adultery

A reality show “Kabhi Yaar, Kabhi Pyaar” is being aired during prime time on Sony TV which covertly promotes adultery. It is a dance show wherein 7 on-screen (who act as spouses in serials) and off-screen (who are spouses in real life) couples have to prove their passion compatibility to win the grand prize. The dance movements are erotic to the core.

It may be a great idea to ensure maximum TRPs but what happens if one of the on-screen couple gets carried by emotion and commits adultery in real life? Adultery may be projected as comedy or heroism in our ethic bankrupt films but in real life it is not so. Adultery is an act no sensible human being can be proud of. People who commit adultery in the spur of a moment may repent it till they die. Families get broken and kids shattered because of adultery. Should a public medium like prime time television be used to promote adultery? Is the dose of mega serials promoting adultery not sufficient that a reality show should be based on such an immoral theme? As they say, despite all rumblings, the show will go on. Feel the good old eighties of a single DD Channel was ideal.

Bangalore citi taxis are no better than the autos

Citi taxies in Bangalore were introduced with much fanfare. It was promised that they would charge metered rates and never demand excess fare from the customer. To their credit, they also fulfilled their obligation to a greater extent in the beginning years and Bangalore citizens who could afford used to have a pleasurable trip. I too shared the same experience till very recently. Of late my experience with Citi Taxies has been very unpleasant. Here is a summary of the unpleasant experiences I have had with citi taxies in Bangalore, which makes me feel that they are as good as the city autos:-
A substantial number of them don’t have the digital meters.
They are expected to charge a minimum fare of Rs.50/- upto 4 kms but most of them insist on a minimum fare of Rs.150/- upto 10 kms.
The meter reading is never recorded when you board in and more often than not, you are forced to pay for extra 2 or 3 kilometers.
The waiting charges are Rs.40 per hour but they usually demand Rs.60/-.
Any journey which lasts for more than 2 hours is automatically pushed into the package bracket of Rs.500/- (40 kms and 4 hours). Citi taxies are not expected to operate package trips.

Nowadays I feel it is better to pay the extra amount to the local auto driver rather than go to the citi taxies who also charge extra over and above the approved rates. This is despite the fact that most of them run on gas. If you still want to engage a citi taxi in Bangalore, please double check the tariffs with the call centre keeping in mind the distance and duration of your travel. This could avoid a lot of arguments for you with the citi taxi drivers.

Salaried Middle Class are the perfect sitting ducks

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Sitting duck as defined by the Oxford dictionary is “a person or thing with no protection against attack”. If you have to go by this definition, the sitting ducks of India are “the salaried middle class”.

We are the largest segment of the population but no political party considers us a constituency. We are spread across the country, occupations and can never get together to fight for our rights. We are considered ungrateful by the political parties and nobody takes up our cause. Farmers have their “Sons of the Soil” leaders to fight for, we don’t have say, “Sons of the toil” leaders.

We pay tax for every pie earned but there are no welfare schemes for us. We don’t file our tax returns, we get penalized but no action is taken against the black money hoarders. We pay all the municipal taxes but when it rains the roads get inundated and water flows into our houses. We are blamed for polluting the atmosphere with our vehicles but nobody provides us a good mass transport system.

We lose our jobs nobody provides us a livelihood. We commit suicide due to financial burden; it finds a mention in the crime beat of local newspapers and never becomes national news; no government comes forward to write off our loans. We keep our families small but no Government ensures affordable education and healthcare for us. Thanks to organized retail, we begin to get vegetables and provisions at cheaper rates, the dogmatic Left protests that traders and farmers are getting a raw deal. Our frenzy ensures that the cricketers get crazy amounts as endorsement fees but when we criticize their non-performance, we are labeled as “arm-chair” critics.

The Salaried Indian Middle Class is sadly the perfect sitting duck which can be found anywhere in the world. But then we are too mired in making our ends meet that we don’t have time to come together and demand for a better living. Remove our contribution; the economy will be sinking in a quicksand.

Spoken English knowledge, does it matter

Spoken English coaching centers have sprung across the country. Spoken English Centers are akin to fairness creams, trying to make money out a societal inferiority complex. The question arises whether one really needs to speak English without any hindrance. I believe if you are an achiever in your chosen field, working knowledge of English (both written and oral) would be sufficient. Also there is no need for you to spend hell lot of money and effort in learning to speak English the way Englishmen speak. Have a look if you are in any of these categories you don’t require to speak fluent English:-

Politician – Lalooji does not speak very fluent English but he has transformed a sleeping giant like Indian Railways into a money spinner. Harvard guys wait for his appointment to know his management secrets.
Sportsman – Sehwag and Inzamam also suffer from the same handicap, but that does not make any difference when they hit the ball for a six. Flip side is when a bowler curses them in English, it falls on deaf ears.

Those were specific examples. Let us assume that you are a software engineer, as long as you can write efficient programs, it does not matter whether or not you posses fluency of English language. A mathematics or science teacher has to explain to his wards in simple terms how a particular result is arrived at and his English knowledge need not rival an English teacher’s. Nobody would mind taking advice from a stock broker who speaks broken English but frequently recommends a stock which gives an annual return of 30-40%.Same is the case with a surgeon, pilot, solider, civil engineer, grocer, etc.

The only people who definitely require a good knowledge of spoken and written English are secretaries, copy writers, clerks, English professors/teachers, BPO employees, News Readers and English journalist.

Thus, most of the jobs in the world can be executed efficiently as long you have the core skills and excellent English knowledge is only a cherry on the cake. There is no need for you to feel inferior, if you can’t speak fluent English. Most of the work in the outside world can be done through pre-printed forms. Just chill, knowing good English won’t make you owner of a company but possessing the right business acumen can.

Platonic relationships, making them work

Jaane Tu Jaane Na has brought platonic friendship into the limelight once again. The famous Hindi film dialogue goes “Ladka aur Ladki kabhi dosth nahin ho sakthe” (means A boy and a girl can never be friends). One thing is for sure Platonic friendship as projected in the film can never exist between a man and a woman unless and until both of them are insensitive objects. Platonic friendship does exist and can exist subject to certain conditions which experience has taught me:-
a. The contact between platonic friends has to be limited and in reasonable hours of the day. Innumerous SMSes and emails make it vulnerable to the applicability of law of diminishing marginal utility and bound to die down, get into romance or result in irreparable misunderstandings. Too much contacts lead to misunderstanding in families and suspicious spouses lead to sacrificing the friendship itself
b. Physical contact between Platonic friends should definitely be avoided. This either leads to romance if unmarried or in case of married people, to disastrous consequences for all the parties involved. Never try to convert a platonic friendship into romance especially if the other party does not like it.
c. Don’t get too personal with your platonic friend. It reveals your grey areas and the scope for getting intimate increases.
d. Never have platonic relationships with those you meet and interact on a day to day basis. Ego, jealous friends, gossiping colleagues are sure to dissolve it. Let your platonic friend be one you meet not more than 2 times a week. The novelty will be sustained for a longer term.
e. Never make promises in a platonic relationship. If you make one, better learn to keep it. There is no other thread in a platonic relationship than trust.
f. Disclose your grey areas in the initial stages of a platonic relationship. It is better if the relationship breaks-up at the initial stage itself. Break-up of a platonic relationship when it reaches the peak is more difficult to accept than a love affair break-up.
Platonic relationships are very easy to make but difficult to sustain in the long run. It is the most wonderful relationship in this world but everyday it is a tight rope walk.

Someday we will

Someday we will conquer death
Someday we will learn to live our lives before death!

Someday we will live on another planet
Someday we will realize that we failed to preserve our own planet!

Someday we will end the wars
Someday we will realize that it was our ego that caused all the wars!

Someday we will see the almighty.
Someday we will realize that he was there every time we did our duty!

Someday we will have honest rulers.
Someday we will realize that we tolerated their ruthlessness!

Someday my family and friends will accept me despite my flaws
Someday I will learn to keep my commitments!

Someday I will be rich
Someday I will realize that all things are not within my reach!

Some day I will write better poems.
Some day I will realize that emotions are all that counts!

Dhoni is not ready for Khel Ratna Award

Dhoni premature to receive Khel Ratna award


Dhoni is a good cricketer who has the potentials to make it really big. But I don’t believe he has achieved enough to be awarded the “Khel Ratna” award so early in the day. Captaining India to a T20 WC victory and a series victory in an ODI series in Australia does not qualify him to be awarded the Khel Ratna. Popular public hype would suggest that he is the most deserving candidate for the award but let the proprietary of the award not be breached by hype.
Khel Ratna awards are equivalent to Bharat Ratna as far as sports are concerned. Leave alone giving Dhoni the award, he should not even be recommended now. The only cricketer to have got this award is Sachin Tendulkar. Greats like Dravid, Kumble, Ganguly, and Lakshman have not even been recommended for this award. Their achievements are a part of legend and I won’t delve into it. I don’t think Dhoni has achieved even a fraction of what they have done. For that matter, he is yet to provide number of match winning performances like say a Yuvraj, Shewag or Harbhajan. Have a look at the list of award winners of the Rajiv Khel Ratna winners and it will strike you like tsunami that Dhoni has a long way to go. If Dhoni is to be given Khel Ratna for his captaincy, how can the Bengal Tiger Saurav Ganguly be left out? He was the one who started the renaissance of Indian Cricket after it was caught in the mire of match fixing

I am confident that Dhoni will one day win this award but right now he has a lot of distance to travel. Recommending him for a Khel Ratna at a moment when he is complaining of fatigue when playing for the nation but not IPL seems a parody. The BCCI loves to ride the wave, once they can be discrete. The Government can be wise enough to shoot down BCCI proposal. Don’t trivialize the importance of awards like Khel Ratna.

How I am going to manage inflation?

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Inflation is hitting the roof. It is going to hurt very badly a person like me who has got a stable but largely immobile salary. All these years I have got used to a pseudo luxury life courtesy the stable prices. I could easily borrow (thanks to the low interest rates) to satiate my unreasonable consumer demands. In the middle of this golden consumer run, I managed to convince a bank into giving me a home loan. Now with the increasing prices and interest rates, the proverbial “hand to mouth existence” may be a dream because I may have to chew only on fingers. To keep myself afloat I have decided to adopt these novel methods to beat the inflation.

Food is the most important item of expenditure. To cut down on this expenditure I am going to pay frequent visits to every known relative and remotely connected friend’s house. My late stay in office will increase on the other days to ensure that my dinner is booked to office. Some of my colleagues have already noticed this and made chiding remarks about me. The thick skinned that I am won’t be perturbed by these economy watchers. On Sundays and weekends, I am going to visit every marriage/birthday party and even obsequies ceremony that I have been sent a card for. I will walk in empty handed with the standard slogan “I neither accept nor give gifts”.

Having taken care of the food, I will train my guns on how to optimize the prime location in which my house is located. I am seriously thinking of approaching companies to paint their logos on the outside, inside walls of my house. I don’t mind even if some company insists on renaming my house “(company name) Balu Nilayam”. Window Panes of my house can also be used for display. As far as clothing is concerned, if any company comes forward to give me their promotional t-shirts and other material, I don’t mind wearing them and standing on top of my house during prime time on the weekends.

As far as cosmetics, shaving aids etc.., is concerned, I am going to change over to the cheap local brands and write countless number of blogs on virtues of using such products. Travel would be managed by hitching rides from rank strangers or emotional blackmailing friends and relatives to drive me where I want. I am going to shop with friends and relatives not for the joy of it because at the moment of making the payment, I will pretend I have not brought my wallet and convince them into paying for me. As expected, credit cuts love and I don’t intend to cut the love they have on me by repaying, I am going to treat it as gift. To be reasonable, I am going to find a new person every time I want to shop.
I know all the above methods suggested are pretty shameless. But I am staying in a country where we have a Government that does not believing in controlling inflation but worried about implementing a N-deal. The technology has worked nowhere in the world. We have a so called Peoples Champion in the name of Left Parties who instead of finding methods to work with the Government to reduce the prices has withdrawn support on an issue that they did not originally oppose.

When the political parties can become shameless, why me remain upright? “Be a Roman when you are in Rome”. Nothing is more important than me.

Reality shows are not alien to our culture

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There is a huge hue and cry about the impact that reality shows are having on our society. Turn back the pages, realty shows have been a part of our culture from days immemorial.

Remember how Ram won Sita. In fact fixing of realty shows is also a part of our culture. Remember how Ram intervened in the contest between Vali and Sughreev. Participant taunting is also not new to our culture, remember how Karna was insulted for reasons of birth by Dronacharya. Arjun winning Draupadi was also a part of a reality show. Pandavas losing Draupadi again was a part of the realty show or for that matter the condition that the last year has to be spent in disguise was similar to “Big Brother”. Also you could recall the great contest between Lord Subramanya and Ganesh for the divine fruit and how Lord Ganesh won it the smart way.

Our legend is full of stories on prince’s displaying their talents in a public contest to win over the princess or rescuing her from a magician after crossing various hurdles. So let’s not dub the realty shows as Western and pretend that its pitfalls as alien to our culture. The fact is that realty shows a great platform for ordinary people to display their talents. Some extraordinary talent has emerged due to the realty shows. There might be stray cases of fixing but that does not mean an absurd talent has won. There is a certain amount of drama built into it to make it viewable. The comments of the judges are a part of this drama. Participation in a reality show is not a compulsion. Chicken hearted are free not to participate and those who have the stomach can continue to win accolades.