Great Indian Drama ....

The fifteenth general elections are just round the corner and election related news and views are doing the rounds everywhere.Even people who claim to be apolitical otherwise are getting invariably sucked into the election mania. The Congress led UPA and the BJP led NDA are the two political fronts vying with each other for voters' affection ,but to queer the pitch has come the "Third Front" which as its name suggests is a third rate alternative and full of Prime Ministerial hopefuls.The voter is faced with a tough choice between the devil and the deep sea ,as both the UPA as well as the NDA have their weaknesses. The Congress is trying to Project Rahul Gandhi as future Prime Minister just because he has the right lineage,never mind the fact that he hardly has any experience in public life.The Congressmen are united only in their blind devotion to Gandhi family and sycophancy has been turned into an art-form.The BJP has a far better candidate in L.K.Advani in terms of experience but it seems like a divided house with Rajnath Singh and Arun Jaitley gunning for each others blood.The BJP which prided itself on being a 'party with a difference' has been reduced to a party with differences.It has been a steady downfall for the Lotus over the years and the loss of its erstwhile citadel Uttar Pradesh to BSP and SP has reduced its chances of cobbling up a majority. So where does all this leave the average Indian voter ? Which party or candidate does one vote for ? Due to this people end up choosing the seemingly lesser evil of voting for their caste or community member.One hopes that Indian electorate will be voting this time for political stability and good governance and not on narrow considerations of caste,creed and religion.

Whats Wrong With The Pink Campaign ...

By now everyone, and i mean everyone who has access to internet and/or electronic media would have come across this unique campaign to shame Mr.Muthalik and his henchmen by sending him "pink underwears".And Mr.Muthalik has decided that he will be sending sarees as return gift.A win-win situation for both sides one might think.But I feel that two wrongs don't make a right and somehow this campaign risks reducing what happened in Mangalore to a question of tradition versus modernity which it is not.It was all about individual's freedom of choice.If one wants to go to a pub ,irrespective of one's gender,one must have the freedom to do so .But surely we should not make a virtue out of pub-going.I myself go to pubs once in a while but i see no virtue/vice per se in that.In fact all this campaign is ideal fodder for news channels who have a lot to answer for making larger than life figures out of non-entities like Muthalik and Raj Thackeray.

Hum Sabka Mama ,Obama Obama !!!

I came across this amazingly hilarious slogan while reading a Hindi newspaper.The article was about political slogans and how they sometimes capture imagination of the people and pave the path to success in elections.This particular slogan about Obama being 'Mama of the World' does capture the reality as it is today.The world is reeling under the effect of recession ,both real and imagined.On top of it terrorism is raising its ugly head in all corners of the world and somehow people across the world are hopeful of a positive change under Obama's dynamic leadership.For all his oratorical skills and dynamic personality , he will have to walk the talk on important issues that confront the US and rest of the world. One sincerely hopes that Obama will see through the futile war in Iraq,exert pressure on Israel to settle Palestine issue justly and ensure that Pakistan's state sponsored terror infrastructure is dismantled. And revive the US economy that constitutes more than 20% of world's GDP.All this would have been a tough ask even in normal times, but as the saying goes 'cometh the hour,cometh the man' ,and maybe Obama can be a 'Mama' to the rest of the world .

The curious case of watching three movies ...

It started with 'Che Part One' ,a movie that tells the amazing story of the revolutionary Che Guevara and of his friend Fidel Castro. How the revolution was carried out in Cuba and the US supported dictator Batista was thrown out through an armed revolution under the banner of 26th of July Movement.Che was an Argentine by birth, but found his true calling in bringing the revolution in Cuba.He was a confidant of Fidel Castro and held the post of Industry Minister of Cuba.But such persons cannot be tied down for long and he left Cuba to organise leftist revolution in other parts of Latin America and was finally killed in Bolivia.When facing his executioner ,Che Guevara shouted, "I know you've come to kill me. Shoot, coward, you are only going to kill a man." Che Part One covers Guevara's revolutionary journey from the time he meets up with Castro in Mexico and comes to Cuba to carry the revolution and ends with his march to Havana.
The second movie i got to see was 'IGOR' ,an animation with a rather strange plot.The movie is about the Kingdom of Malaria (yes that is the name of the place) where being 'evil' is the in thing.The main character is an hunch backed character 'Igor' who dreams of being an evil scientist and his two friends.One of the friend is a rabbit with a suicidal streak.The rabbit keeps trying to kill himself but fails everytime and the other is a 'brain' without any trace of intelligence.The movie is watchable and has this sweet message that it is better to be a 'good nobody' than a 'evil somebody'.
The third movie (if anyone is still reading ) was The curious case of Benjamin Button.A good movie which is in the race of oscars and might win a few. The movie tells the story of Benjamin who is born old and grows young.We all after a certain age don't feel good about getting on in age ,but the film shows that growing old has its own good points.

Yellow Belt ...

I have been a fan of chinese martial arts movies since childhood.To be honest my elder brother has been quite a martial arts movie buff and used to bring lots of such movies.We used to watch movies in VCR in those days(CD/DVD culture is so much in that if you talk of VCR days you yourself run the risk of being considered as antique piece !)and the movies used to be lot of fun to watch. While in school, taekwando was gaining in popularity and most of the students who stayed in hostel(i was a day-scholar)had some sort of initiation into martial-arts ,formally or informally(ie.,learning by fighting).The grades start with yellow and as you move higher in hierarchy ,you get green and black belts.
Last starurday i got this opportunity to become a yellow belt ,in a totally unrelated realm of Six Sigma....a few words about six sigma and what is it ...Six Sigma is a powerful set of statistical and management tools and methodologies that can create dramatic increase in customer satisfaction, productivity and shareholder value. It is based on improving process targeting and reducing variation in a business process.
The Six Sigma approach has been used with great success in leading companies such as Motorola, GE, Honeywell, Johnson and Johnson, Allied Signal, Xerox etc. It was first started at Motorola, but received international acclaim when Jack Welch at GE began touting it as the approach that would save his company billions of dollars. It has...and the rest is history.
By the way i cleared the yellow belt certification with 17 fellow fighters/colleagues and now i look forward to becoming a greenbelt ...

Mangalore Outrage ...

So, we have yet another example of 'moral policing' where a mob ransacked a pub 'Amnesia' in Mangalore and assaulted women present there in full view of TV cameras. They were supposedly trying to protect the culture and tradition of our great country by humiliating and beating up the womenfolk for the unpardonable crime of being in a pub. But these people are not at all disturbed when female foeticide is carried out ,when girls are not allowed to study and at every stage of life women is made to suffer for being a women. But protesting against such issues would not get you the eyeballs or TRP ratings.I was totally shocked to read an eyewitness account in The Hindu where a person described how the media persons reached the place in advance and when the attack started he heard someone shout "Action".How low can journalism get ?

Judiciary : Tareekh Pe Tareekh

Indians as a matter of rule take pride in democracy,press freedom and an independent judiciary. We all know that democracy has been made largely dysfunctional for a common man.Media has been overtaken by commercial interest so much that now news does not sell but what sells is converted into news for obvious reasons.The third pillar - the judiciary - has a distorted view of itself and the ground realities. The number of cases pending with courts as of today is mind-boggling (over 3 million cases in 21 High Courts alone). Yes,the number of judges needs to be increased and courts may have to be run on double-shift as has been suggested by a former Chief Justice of India.The law enforcement agencies also need to be spruced up so that thee is not much delay on account of shoddy investigations and wherever required exemplary punishment should be given to govt.officials also if they do not provide reports/evidences to courts on time.But the judiciary also has to look inwards and introspect as to why trials go on and on even in open and shut cases.Why quantum of sentence is reduced for Ansal brothers (accused in Uphaar tragedy) and why does it take ages to pronounce a verdict? The 1993 Mumbai blast case has dragged on for so long and still it is not over.Kasab ,the butcher of Mumbai,is awaiting a 'fair trial' after killing so many people in cold blood.The long drawn out judicial process,the stays and repeated postponement of hearings by courts have sent the deterrent effect of law for a toss. In fact , law has ceased to exist for people with criminal intentions as they know that even if they commit a crime the long drawn out judicial process will ensure that justice will not be done in their average life span,if done at all.

Sunny Deol in Damini sums up the situation well ...have a look !