A confused Ms. Ghose?

I was blocked by Sagarika Ghose on Twitter 3 years back, when I dared to (politely) ask her some scathing questions on her interpretation of a news on Modi. And ever since haven't bothered to comment on her views. Of course I have cheered every once and then, when Sudhir Kumar had cheered for #SagarikaForPM. But when I saw this I couldn't resist responding. 

Ms. Ghose also compares Narendra Modi's silence to her questions on Twitter with Arvind Kejriwal's responses to them. This link will provide you the list of questions asked to Arvind Kejriwal and the responses to them (also the response/or the lack of it from Ms. Ghose to Kejriwal's lame responses). 

I am reproducing her questions to Modi here verbatim, and will provide known views of Modi, as responses, for most of these questions. all of which are already available in public domain. All of these views of Modi are easily accessible by a simple google search, but the narcissist in Ms. Ghose wants Narendra Modi to answer her personally.

Ques 1. Modiji, what is your stand on caste quotas?

Well, if Ms. Ghose is interested she can view NaMo's views on Caste based Quotas by having a look at this video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1bHzEez7Q0I

Further more the same video is also available in Firstpost (a group concern of IBN Network). This clearly shows that either Ms Ghose is not well informed or she is hardly willing to listen.

Ques 3: Modiji will you rollback FSB and MNREGA? If not how will u control spending?

Narendra Modi speaking on FSB http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zIRLNci0FA

Narendra Modi writing to PM on FSB. http://www.scribd.com/doc/159867712/Narendra-Modi-s-letter-to-the-Prime-Minister

Ques 4: Modiji will you rollback retailFDI since your party opposes it?

As early as in Sept 2012, Modi had posted his view on FDI retail in his blog http://www.narendramodi.in/cm-strongly-opposes-fdi-in-retail/ . I am pretty sure Ms. Ghose wouldn't have bothered to read it, but I've provided the link anyway, so that Ms. Ghose's bhakts can view them.

Ques 5: Modiji, how will you reform the aviation sector?

Modi has always maintained that ""government has no business to do business". So there will be no question of further Govt takeovers.


Ques 7: Modiji, how will you reach out to US biz interests, given your image in US

This is a NO-BRAINER really!! Why should an elected representative of Indian Citizens reach out to US Business? He/She must be more concerned about INDIAN biz interests. Firstly the image of Modi in the US is quite good, its just a section of an influential group with the US Senate who are blocking a more favorable policy towards him. This too will change once he is elected as the PM of India. And if Vibrant Gujarat Summit is anything to go by, its quite clear that Narendra Modi will place the interest of the Country over petty politics and will always decide on whats best for India. Afterall, its "India First*!!

Ques 8:Modiji will you push nuclear power in big way,yr stand on current Nuke Liabilitylaw?

http://www.narendramodi.in/gujarat-empowers-the-power-sector/ This video on his website talks of how Gujarat reformed the power sector. Its logical to believe that he will plan to replicate the same when he becomes the PM. He is neither against/nor for a specific type of energy production. He will try to maximize production in the best ways possible. 

Ques 9:U say secularism is India First, your vision of place of minorities in a democracy?

Another NO-BRAINER!!! When Modi has explicitly said that he considers Secularism is *India First*. Why does Ms. Ghose expect him to have a minority specific policy? His policies are for the entire Nation (which includes all citizens of India)!

Ques 10:Modiji, will u raise taxes to control deficit?If so,which taxes are u planning to raise?

As early as last week, Narendra Modi gave indications that he plans to reform taxes once BJP comes to power. You can read more about this here.

<quote> "The present taxation system is a burden on common man. It leads to bureaucratic control. The need of the hour is to look into it afresh and bring reforms. Our party is already working on it....My party leaders and experts have recently met and considered the issue for over three hours. Some problems may appear in the first sight but we will have a look at it and find new solutions," </quote>

I am aware that I have left out three questions, for which I couldn't find explicit responses that can be attributed as Narendra Modi's views on the topic, but if Ms. Ghose is patient enough, she can read NaMo/BJP's views on other major issues as soon as BJP's vision document for 2014 is released.

PS: If fellow Internet Hindus find a better articulated view of Narendra Modi on the above questions, please do let me know, I will update the blog with them.

A new beginning

When the Sun rises on the first working day of the year 2014, the cycle stands adjacent Guindy railway station will be one bicycle less. The Guindy race course road which connects the railway station to KVS IIT RO will no longer endure the creaky sound of an old bicycle tire. The road which was institutionalized with these sounds for the past 20 years as regular clockwork, will first be surprised with the break in routine and then slowly will await longingly for those sounds. Why so dramatic, you ask? Well, the reason being there are very fond memories associated with that bicycle and its rider. You cannot visualize this cycle without the man, or the man without his cycle!

Why this change in routine, you ask? 31st December 2013 happened to be the last working day of Mr. Ramakrishna Babu. He retired from service from KV Sangathan after many years of dedicated service. This blog isn't about his sincerity and dedication to work, which needless to say was excellent, this is about my personal memories of my dear "Babutha".

I am the proud founder of the word "Babutha",  being first to call him by that name (Babu Chithappa == Babutha), and the name became so popular in our family that even my older cousins/relatives started to address him by the same name. Babutha was kind enough to fit a baby seat on his cycle (especially for me) and he was even thoughtful enough to fix a small baby bell in front of it, to keep me engaged! I don't know how many times have I traveled with him on that cycle of his right from my early childhood, through a kinder garden, and during my Class I in KV CLRI. Words won't be enough to describe those wonderful rides we shared on the bicycle. I've taken numerous bi-cycle rides ever since, but nothing has been as enjoyable as those.

Having moved over to Urapakkam in the early 90s, Babutha had to commute 35KMs to the office every day. He did this by cycling to UPM station and then taking the 8:05 Fast to Guindy Railway Station and then cycling again from the station to his office. He has managed to do this tirelessly for the past 22 years, even when the roads were immersed with "waist-deep" water. He could have very easily taken the easy route and moved over to somewhere closer to Office, or not visit the office on such days. But he has never taken the easier option. The distance to commute was never a reason for him to skip any functions of relatives and friends in the city and elsewhere.

Sample this, a minefield (Sabina Park 2006, India vs West Indies), with a battery of good pace bowlers, you don't know which way the ball will turn or if there will be any bounce at all, Rahul Dravid's immense concentration and struggle to play each ball safely, doing this ball after ball, day after day and never complaining one bit. Now picture Babutha going about his daily duties tirelessly for the past 20 years, never complaining even one bit. I can't find much difference between the two!! As coincidence would have it, both Rahul Dravid and Babutha will share their birthdays on Jan 11th, 2014!!

Congratulations Babutha for having a wonderful career and service, and now when you embark on a new phase of your life, I wish you all the happiness. You truly need a well-deserved rest and you can continue to gain pleasure in finer things of life!!

Pristine Pacific

Pacific, O Pacific, Where art thou?
Are you really as blue as we are told?

Finding you must be high priority,

Even though it might take some an eternity!

Pacific, O Pacific, Where art thou?
Do you really lack memory until now?
Things important to remembered, are easy to forget,
while those that ought to be (forgotten), are difficult to instead.

Pacific, O Pacific, Where art thou?
Is your heart really as large as a sacred cow?
Can you accommodate only Andy and Red,
Or your doors are open for all, as Conrad said.

Pacific, O Pacific, Where art thou?
How does one reach you right now?

Is the journey very hard to plough?
or you make it easy with your pristine glow?

An attempt at poetry

So this one time,
When the day had past its prime,
With no reason or rime,
I had an urge to whine!

Decided to try my hand in poetry
though my skills were rudimentary,
Metaphor wasn’t my cup of tea,
nor was I good either at simile.

Wanted to write about love,
But I couldn’t think beyond the dove,
so switched to writing on pain,
but, there too, I found no gain.

To write something philosophical,
was the next process methodical,
failure now seemed periodical,
situation now turned comical.

Harder and harder did I try ,
Alas, the subject of the poem never did arrive!
To survive and quit with grace,
I poetrified the sequence of events and saved face!

Mars, here we come!

What is it with rocket launches? why do they always give me goose pimples??
 
Well the most obvious answer is because I have always been fascinated by space and rockets (Now you will ask well, who isn't??). Space, Universe, Gravity etc has always been my favourite physics concepts since childhood. Can't remember when, but I think I was fascinated by space travel sometime in Class IV or so watching the launch of some INSAT satellite on DD 1. I was one of those crazy guys to faithfully watch Captain Vyom series on DD as well (the Indianized version of Star-trek). God knows how many times have I hunted for used up Diwali Rockets and tried to resend them up by using un-used gun powder from bijli bombs :-))

The not so common answer is that, I fell in love and continue to love a book called The Rocket Boys / October Sky by Homer Hickam Jr long back. In fact the very word Zincoshine (which happens to be the name of this blog of mine) is flicked from the novel, which was the fuel that Homer Hickam and his fellow Rocket boys used to achieve maximum altitude with their rockets. Not long after I came across Carl Sagan and his book "The Contact", all of these furthered my interest in space exploration. Infact at one point of time, I was even gullible/foolish enough to think that I had it in me to be an Aeronautical Engineer. But this blog isn't another rant of my remarkable failures, or a book review of *not so widely known book*, or my fascinations of space exploration.

This blog is about ISRO and its grand achievement today. ISRO you've made us all proud. You've managed something which is not fathomable to an average Indian living in Chennai, your budget of Mangalyaan (59million USD) makes it approximately Rs 15/KM for space travel (Much cheaper than Call-taxi rates in Chennai!!).

Jokes apart, Mangalyaan launch has really given us Indians some hope in these dark times, and I bet it will bring a billion smiles next year, when the satellite enters Mars orbit (We surely will have an early Diwali)!!

For now please enjoy this
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7DcSDOkDvyQ&feature=share&t=32m7s

Rajnath v2.0

Some quick thoughts on the denial of second term to Gadkari and the installation of Rajnath v2.0 as the President of BJP

• Rajnath v2.0 might not be a great choice, but he is always a better choice than Nitin Gadkari.
• Now the declaration of NaMo as the prime ministerial candidate becomes all the more plausible.
• BJP supporters on Social media must be congratulated for keeping constant pressure on D4 of the BJP and stopping them from nominating Gadkari for a second term.
• NaMo must take efforts to set things right in Karnataka.

more to follow later.

When wards excel

Believe me, your joy will have no bounds when you watch your ward(s)
excel in fields that you, were never good at! This is exactly what I
felt during this course of this race!

Leads from the start

Extends his lead

Finishes miles before the rest

The case of two terrorists

Ajmal Kasab one of the terrorists caught during 26/11 attack on Mumbai was hanged this morning at 7:30 am IST. The execution was carried out after nearly 4 years of the attack on Mumbai. Earlier this week Kasab's mercy petition was rejected by President Pranab. Immediately after the news of Kasab's hanging came through news channels started to praise President Pranab of showing resolve. News channels also reported Mr. Salman Khurshid saying that the Govt of India has sent a strong message to terrorists by hanging the terrorist.

Keeping the adjectives aside. I really can't understand the stance of news channels when they say that President Pranab showed bravery. What is the bravery is rejecting a mercy petition? An act of bravery was shown by the people who caught Kasab and also by the numerous armed forces who fought the terrorists during the 26/11 attack. Just rejecting a mercy petition is no act of bravery!! There was no other choice, the public perception on the delay of the justice to the victims of 26/11 was quite strong and the hanging of Kasab should have happened quite soon.

On 13th December 2001, 5 gunmen infiltrated the heart of Indian democracy (The Parliament). The attack led to the death of a dozen people, including one civilian. In the investigations that followed Afzal Guru was found guilty was sentenced to death. It is nearly 11 years since the attack on the Indian Parliament, but Afzal Guru is yet to be hanged. Be it the earlier President or the incumbent one, none have taken a decision on rejecting his mercy petition.

In my opinion, the only reason for the difference in the treatment of these two terrorists are that one is an Indian while the other is a Pakistani. The hanging of a Pakistani terrorist wouldn't upset the vote-bank, while the hanging of the Indian terrorist would seriously affect the vote-bank. Thus, the Country cannot expect Afzal Guru to be hanged anytime soon. The only message UPA has sent out on hanging Kasab is that only those who do not have political support will be hanged!!

2G auction and media spin

The just concluded 2G auction for 22 licenses fetched the Govt of India INR 9250 Crores. The Govt and the ever obliging media are potraying this as a damp squib auction. Few of the *Usual Suspects* in the media have already started to use this information to state that the CAG's 2G's presumptive loss of 1.76 lakh crores as incorrect and thereby the 2G scam never actually happened!

Firstly everyone has to get their facts right. Mr. A Raja sold 122 licenses of 2G for INR 9150 Crores and this auction was only for 22 licenses of the total 122. If the auctioning of just 22 licenses could have fetched nearly 100 crores more than what Mr. A Raja sold the licenses for, how could this auction be stated as damp squib?

One thing is pretty clear, all those journalists calling this auction as damp squib are absolutely mediocre as they do not have any understanding of the field which they are reporting or they can be very well be assumed to be Govt stooges/Govt propagandists.

If only there wasn't the Internet, everyone would have believed what was being spoken on the "National" media. Thank god for that (Now Rahul Gandhi would want us to thank Congress for this because as per his speech earlier this month, Computers were brought to India by the Congress Govt!)

Arnab Goswami ko gussa kyon aata hai?

On 6th November 2012, a letter written by Ram Jethmalani to Lal Krishna Advani found its way into TimesNow studios. This was apparently leaked by someone within Jethmalani's or Advani's office. TimesNow whole day started to air details of this letter and also an exclusive interview which they managed to secure with Ram Jethmalani.

The contents of the letter were related to Ram Jethmalani and the alleged disagreements of Jaswant Singh, Yashwant Sinha and Shatrugan Sinha on the continuation of Nitin Gadkari as the President of BJP. It must be noted that Mahesh Jethmalani (son of Ram Jethmalani) had earlier resigned from a party post in protest against the continuation of Nitin Gadkari as the President of the party.

Over the past month, TimesNow has been very active in alleging numerous wrong doings on the part of Nitin Gadkari. There have been numerous reports that Purti Group of which Nitin Gadkari is a share holder has numerous companies registered with shoddy addresses (this is the only clear allegation which I could understand). There  have been other allegations from IAC activist Arvind Kejriwal on land grabbing. These charges however were proved to be too weak and shoddy by the CONgress leaning "National" media.

For his point, Nitin Gadkari has said that he is ready for any probe by any organization into his allegations. And most BJP leaders decided to support him and wanted him to continue in office as the President of the party.

If you would ask me I would say, that was a really foolish of them. After all the same party had forced Yeddurappa to quit during the Lokyukta allegations, knowing fully well that the Lokayukta Hegde's investigation was shoddy and there were a lot of shortcomings of his reports when he hadn't found SM Krishna or the JD(S) CM guilty for any of the coal allocations during their tenure. Secondly, BJP being the party with difference, their leaders are expected to behave better, so Nitin Gadkari should have quit and stayed aside until the investigation was over. But that this is only my opinion.

Now to consider the other side of the spectrum.  It is still not clear what is the alleged wrong doing of Nitin Gadkari? If it is a case of only shoddy addresses, what are various investigating agencies of the Government doing till date? Why haven't any of these companies found anything against Gadkari or his companies over the past 1 month. Surely this would have been the nail on the coffin? There could be two possibilities to this question. Either that there is nothing that the Government agencies can find against Nitin Gadkari, or the Govt(UPA) would like Nitin Gadkari to remain in office as this will take focus away from the corruption allegations against the first family and CONgress party. With an obliging "National" media both of these are very easily possible answers!

BJP grapevine has it that, this actually is a faction war to take control of the BJP Presidency. One faction led which I believe has the blessing of Advani and the other faction (who would like NaMo to be PM candidate). And looks like for now a temporary truce has been agreed. Things will change after the Gujarat polls. The agreement is that even if Nitin Gadkari does resign now, it will not reflect well on the BJP as a CONgress leaning media, will provide a complete new twist to the decision and turn the wave in favour of CONgress party.

The same things happened after BSY resigned and the party is now in tatters in Karnataka. It must also be noted that all cases against BSY fell like nine pins when the matters reached the Karnataka courts. But the perception that came out of that fiasco was not really good for the BJP. Given that BJP/RSS decided to back BJP in the first place, they must continue to do so until there is something serious proved against him or till the end of his Presidency term, which ends later this year. BJP must deal with their President on their own terms and not based on the agenda set by the media!

Now this brings me back to Arnab Goswami. For the past 2 hrs he has been showing his viewers how little air time he provides for non-congress speakers on the debates. He has been leading from the  front in a shouting and interruption competition in which his performance is Sergei Bubka-ish!

But what I really don't get is this? Who is Mr Nitin Gadkari? What public post does he hold? If he remains the President of BJP, how will the common man be affected? Why is Arnab Goswami so angry with Nitin Gadkari continuing office? Why hasn't Arnab Goswami shown the same anger against the more serious allegation of corruption against the sitting ministers, Presidents and Secretaries of Congress Party who still continue to hold some public post. Why doesn't he ask such probing questions to CONgress leaders on his debate? How did he manage to welcome back AMS with a smiling face? Will he care to answer?

Kargil War and FDI in retail

"We supported BJP led NDA during the Kargil War, but the BJP does not support FDI in retail" screamed Rahul Gandhi in the Congress organised ?Mega? rally at Ramlila maidan today.

Now that statement is really something! Why you ask? Well because even if Joseph Goebbels was alive today, he wouldn't have been successful in helping the Congress convert this statement of "Yuvraj" into a political propaganda!

Whether or not Congress supported NDA during the Kargil war is debatable. They have consistently refused to celebrate Kargil Vijay Diwas since they came into power in 2004 and you can read here on their activities during the Kargil War.

During World War II, Britain was run by a coalition Government headed by Winston Churchill (a Conservative) and his deputy was Clement Atlee (from Labour - The principal opponent party). Supporting the Country was/is the only the only choice any patriotic party will have during a war.

What I really don't get in Rahul Gandhi's statement is that did Congress really have another choice during the Kargil war? Is he suggesting that supporting Pakistan was an option? To call this statement of Rahul as absurd would be an understatement. Even school kids would have a better understanding or correlation than Congress's *Yuvaraj*.

What is more disgusting is that an erudite like Shashi Tharoor fawning over Rahul Gandhi's speech and oratory skills today (But then he stopped being an erudite when he joined the Congress party back in 2009)! Has Mr. Tharoor even considered that he was completing his PHd when Rahul was running down around in his nappies. Or this is his balancing act to remain as an MoS?

"National" English channels say that Congress is on a comeback mode! Really? the only comeback I can see in Congress is the shameless re-introduction of all people who were forced to resign for some issue or other in the past 2 years. be it Mr. Tharoor or Dr AM Singhvi, Congress has shamelessly brought them back.

Also I am really impressed with the battery of great orators that Congress brought out today to showcase their *reforms* agenda! Seriously guys, you guys started the rally with Rahul Gandhi's speech followed by Sonia Gandhi reading out from a paper and then followed it up with MMS the robot?? Manish Tewari would have done a better job single-handedly!!

And finally as every day goes by, the shameless "National" English channels can't hold their horses for Rahul Gandhi to become the PM of India(even though Rahul Gandhi's contributions to both Congress and the Nation has been "a Kapil Sibal"), while I am growing in confidence to a statement someone made on Niticentral. "Rahul Gandhi is actually an avatar of Vishnu who has been born to ensure the destruction of dynasty in India!"

Taj and Wonder

At the outset, I would like to declare that I am a Hindu by birth and an agnost by choice and before anyone accuses my blog to have communal overtones, let me declare that this has got to nothing to do with the religion of the builder in question.

Wikipedia describes Taj Mahal as "The Taj Mahal is widely recognized as "the jewel of Muslim art in India and one of the universally admired masterpieces of the world's heritage".

For years the NCERT history texbooks have shoved this information down our throats that the Taj is a wonder and probably the finest examples of Mughal architecture in India. I've heard almost everyone who visited the site to say that the Taj is massive and it is brilliant!

In the early 90s it was customary for every middle class family member in South India who had visited Delhi to have a taken a picture with the Taj Mahal in the background and decorate (sic) their wardrobes with this photo!

I never had a chance to visit Taj Mahal before, The last time I visited Delhi, I didnt have time to detour to Agra. So this time when we were visiting Rajasthan on a holiday, we ensured to have enough time to visit the Taj. The security check was really thorough, we were asked why we were carrying a thermos flask (even after seeing that we were with a Toddler!). The security thought our powdered milk was not safe enough to be carried into the Taj and threw it! He even threw away one of my Son's favourite plastic key chain! I will also like to point that at this time I was really frustrated and had second thoughts on visiting the place. After nearly 1 hour of security checks we were finally ready to see Taj.

At this point I was expecting to be bowled over by the beauty, but to say I was disappointed will be an understatement! With due respect to all those who asked me to visit the Taj, I have to say, I can't understand what is wonderful in the Taj Mahal?

Like numerous other Indians, I had on numerous occassions voted for Taj as a World Wonder. That was a more patriotic and not objective decision. As I had not seen the Taj earlier. I just wanted an Indian heritage site to be among the Wonders of the World. If asked to vote again. I will definitely not do so!

Some claim that the Taj is a wonder because, it is massive! Really?? Well there are more massive heritage buildings than the Taj. Size alone cannot be a determinant of beauty! But if this is a criterion for measurement. We can all agree, that there are numerous more massive buildings than the Taj.

Numerous forts in Rajasthan come to mind. The Amber Palace, the Mehrangarh Fort etc are more massive and have impressive architectures. The Jaisalmer's Sonar Qila is built on Sanstone and has excellent carvings done on them. You would have thought the carving was done on wood!

While others claim that The Taj is an excellent marble heritage building. In my humble opinion those who claim the Taj to be an excellent architecture on
marble have either not seen Dilwara Jain Temples of Mount Abu, Rajasthan or do not understand architecture! Photography is prohibited in Dilwara Temple and hence I cannot show you any photographs to prove this, but then a photograph wont do justice in depicting the wonder of the temple! Also the Dilwara temples were built nearly 500 years before the Taj Mahal!

You don't need to take my word for it. But a visit to the Dilwara temple will leave you breathless. You will wish to have more eyes to view the wonders or else you will want to walk upside down to view the intimate carvings that are done on marble in the temple.

Attached is a photograph of Dilwara temple (taken from a postcard).

 Needless to say, these photographs cannot help you in seeing my point of view. But do visit the places and decide for yourselves.

Furthermore I think that the like most lessons in our NCERT history textbooks are biased, there is bias in the promotion of sites for tourism as well. The Indian Govt must objectively consider Dilwara temple as a major tourist spot of promote it!

So the next time some asks me to vote for The Taj as a wonder, I will ask them to first visit Dilwara Temple and the decide.

Scaling the Wall

No, this is not a blog on "How to scale a Wall"! Scaling a wall is for that matter is a very old sport, this was one of the favorite sports of yours truly and his friends a long time ago in Bangalore! The wall, I am referring to here, is no ordinary one. I am referring of *The Wall*. No, not the Great Wall of China! I mean the Great Wall of India - Rahul Dravid!

Speculations are rife that Rahul Dravid will be announcing his retirement from test cricket tomorrow. Given that he has already retired from ODIs and T20s, this really means that we will no longer be seeing *The Wall* on National duty after tomorrow!! This blog isn't fan's paean to a celebrated hero! Better hands and pens have done that/will continue to do that in the next few days. What I cite here is my experiences of being an admirer of a very remarkable cricketer and person!

Coming back to the topic, What do I mean by scaling the wall? To scale *The Wall* in cricket? Well, that is a no-brainer! Better cricketers have tried that and failed. Failed miserably! And I am not even a professional cricketer. My only claim to fame in the world of cricket was to be the most economical bowler in a sub-regional cricket match where I represented my school team as a second change bowler (Achieving an economy rate of 4 something, when every other bowler had an economy rate above 7.0 is really an achievement!). And that performance did not really don't inspire anyone. My captain Ramprasad did not allow me to even have a bowl in the same tournament the next year(There Ram, I said it!!). I even had the notorious distinction of being the Chetan Sharma of the School Cricket team. I threw away a match against our junior team, but allowing the batsman to score a 4 in the last ball of the match (Damn you Manish Biswas!!!). So obviously, there was no chance of that!

What does one do, when one cannot beat someone, you join them! In the essence, you try to ape them! This is exactly what I did. I had always been a Sachin fan, ever since I started watching Cricket, that is until I saw Dravid! Rahul Dravid debuted for India in ODI in 1996/97 in a match against SL at Singapore. At that point of time, I hadn't even heard of him (No I did not see Dravid scoring 95 against England at Lords!). In fact, I was pretty angry with the team selection, because I was disappointed that Vikram Rathore had not been given a chance. Dravid didn't score much in that match (I think he scored 3 and was incorrectly given out when the ball had brushed his pads). The first time I *noticed* Dravid was in the Titan cup match when he and Azhar put on a decent partnership and helped in India beat Australia in the semi-finals. That inning was to become my sneak-peak to this wonderful journey of 16 years as a Rahul Dravid fan! Every street cricketer tries to ape their favorite cricketer in someway or the other. One tries to play with a very heavy bat, another tries the two-eyed stance (Many regretted that decision after the match-fixing scandal!) and there were others like me who tried aping the shots! First, it was the flick, which I had to change to the *exaggerated on-drive* of Rahul Dravid (Not that I was very successful, I ended up making a fool of myself quite often!). And as expected failed very miserably at that too! I was fortunate enough to meet him personally once! In 1998, just before the World Cup, Dravid was out of the ODI team and played a lot of club cricket in Chennai. Guru Nanak college hosted numerous club cricket games that season. In one game (Butchi Babu) tournament, we had both Dravid (for Vijay CC) and Raju (for some other team) playing at the GNC grounds. More than half of our class were at the ground bunking classes to watch him. That really was a wonderful experience, watching him bat at MY college, something that others can't witness! After the match, a lot of guys went to get his autograph. I ran too. Dravid was really polite and did not refuse anyone. He patiently signed for everyone one of them! One fellow even asked him his Chennai address, Dravid was polite and kind enough to entertain him as well. It was on that day, I saw the person behind the player! It was then that I decided that I shall at least try aping him as a person!

I won't delve into Dravid's career history, that is for everyone to see. But will highlight one strange connection that I had with him. Everytime time I was going through a very difficult stage/situation in my life, Dravid had a purple patch in his career! And every time the tide changed in my life, the form of Dravid dipped. This one time in Feb/Mar 2001, I had just cleared the SCJP with flying colors and it was probably the best phases of my life, while as expected Dravid wasn't doing well with the bat! The Australian juggernaut had steamrolled India in the first test and the Indian team had gotten themselves all-out with a very low score in Calcutta! Given that, I was going through a purple patch, I decided to stop watching the match and bunked college to go for a movie! My! How much did I regret that decision!! That was probably one of his best innings and I missed it! That was probably the only time when both Dravid and I were experiencing a purple patch at the same time! If only such situations co-existed more often! Thankfully, I was fortunate enough to watch his Headingley innings and the other gems of the 2002 tour of England and 2003 tour of Australia!

To cut a long story short, this unique relation between Dravid and me continued for long and I must admit I have failed miserably even at aping him as a person! After all even the GOD of cricket has said, *There can never be another Dravid*; Sachin meant the Dravid the player. He wouldn't be far-off had he said there will never be another Dravid (Dravid the person)! It is now that I realize that there are walls that none can scale and there are walls that none can mend! Dravid's retirement is not just a loss for Indian Cricket, it is a loss for every purist of the game! All said and done, I must say, I am privilidged to have lived in an era, where Cricketers were also role models! That is something the current generation certainly wont be able to witness!

Thank you Dravid for all those wonderful memories! You have never got the due you deserved! All those nay-sayers will understand your worth only when on a juicy pitch India lose a wicket early!!

What next for Dravid: Given the fact that he is immensely respected in England, Scotland and New zealand, don't be surprised if he ends up being a coach of the English, Scotland or New zealand!

PS: I wanted to write more, but then came across this wonderful tribute to Dravid by Sidvee. He captured everything that I wanted to say!

Open letter to Velachery MLA MK Ashok

Dear MK Ashok,

Firstly congratualations (belated) on your victory in the Velachery constituency in the assembly elections held early this year. The victory of your party in the elections gave hope to many in TN. Many of us were happy that we can finally witness good and responsible governance, which was clearly missing in the previous regime.

Although I am happy with many of the schemes that your Govt has introduced after coming to power, I will like to express my disappointment with something that has come to my notice off late. You might be aware that TN is struggling under severe power shortage for quite sometime now. In Chennai we have been subjected to daily power outages for 1 hr since May this year. Suburban areas witness nearly 3 hrs of power outages everyday . And recently I came across a news that said that this power outage is likely to continue till June 2012! You might also be aware that the recent strikes across Telengana is further affecting power supplies to TN. Under these circumstances, you will agree that it is criminal to waste electricity.

Our Honourable CM was very vocal (rightly so) about finding innovative solutions to TN's power woes as soon as she took charge of her office. She wanted to invest on Solar and other renewable means of energry to reduce the power problems of the state. Given these facts, I was flabbergasted yesterday to see the amount of electricity being wasted in Velachery! Your party workers had installed numerous tubelights and serial bulbs along with numerous hoardings of your leader on the Velachery bye-pass road. I believe your party workers wanted to welcome your leader to Velachery (or was she passing through the bye-pass road). I could count nearly 100 tube lights installed across the 1 KM stretch and these were glowing for nearly 12 hrs last night.

Assuming a single tube light consumes 60W of power, that would mean e(60W * 100 tubelights) * 12 hrs] = 72000 W of power was wasted just on tube lights. I haven't calculated the electricity consumption of the serial bulbs on the various cut-outs and hoardings that were also on display on the road. I don't know if your party workers paid TNEB for this electricity usage. Even if they did, don't you think we could have saved this power and put it to better use?

Mind you, I am not against party workers welcoming their leader, but shouldn't a party which promises better governance be more responsible with respect to their use of resources which are already scarce?

Given the spiralling costs, the increase in LPG prices and other petroleum products, many households are starting to become over reliant on Induction stoves and Ovens, the consumption of electricity has increased. And there are others who cannot afford Induction stoves and Ovens but they still do need the electricity.

As a member of the ruling party and as an MLA of the Velachery constituency you could have ensured that this wastage of power could have been avoided. If we as a state want to realise the dream of making TN the no 1 state in the country, we need to be more responsible and judicious in the way we use power/electricity.

Please can your ensure that such wastages are avoided in future.

Yours Sincerely

A concerned Velachery resident.

How long can one wait?

Its been an year almost, but I still haven't heard the thing that I am expect to hear. Day-in and day-out, I continue to slog and do everything right, but don't get to hear what I desperately want to hear. What is causing the delay? Why does everything seem stationary??

When will I get my chance? How does one overcome this impatience or desparation?

Is anyone listening? Will I hear it this next minute........Oooh God, Please help me!!

Can we choose our own pay hike?

As someone pointed on Twitter in early June, the UPA Govt did the unthinkable, or rather the Govt did what was the dream of every student, "to publish their own report card". If the ministers of the Govt set such standards, can the MPs be far behind? Around a week back, the MPs signed their own hefty (300%) pay hike!!! God how we wish we could decide our own pay hike, but then if we do have such a power would we really be as greedy as our MPs?


The Yadavs who weren't satisfied with what they looted in Bihar & UP wanted a hike in the salaries of MPs. The reason, they felt MPs were earning lesser than the bureaucrats. But who are to question that the average wealth of the MPs are Rs. 5.04 crores. What justifies the hike, when most of the MPs have just 60% attendance in the Loksabha? How come the attendance of the house was the highest when the MPs were discussing the MP salary hike, but the same enthusiasm was not shown by the MPs while discussing serious issues like price rise debate or the direct tax code (which by the way has been postponed to 2012!!).
If only democracy and the Govt functions as the corporate world does we could have expected the following:

• MPs would be elected on probation for 6 months after an election. Their pay structure must be 50% fixed pay and the remaining 50% would be variable. Out of this variable pay 50% would be paid out based on the performance of the MP, 25% based on the performance and responsibility of the MP's political party and the remaining 25% will be paid out based on the growth rate of India.
• The elected MPs objectives will be at the begining of the term based TOR (Terms Of Reference). These objectives have to be both qualitative and quantitative. With suitable weightage added to each objective.
• There will be a half yearly appraisal of the MP's performance where in the MP has to approach his/her constituency and get the feedback of the people who elected him/her.
• The MPs have to sit for an annual appraisal every financial year, where in he/she have to approach the consituency again for the feedback.
• Each MP will be appraised and given a particular performance rating of 1 to 5 (Where in 1-Consistently exceeds expectation;2-Exceeds expectations occassionaly;3-Sticks to the expectation;4-Falls short of expectation;5-Non performer).
• This rating will have to follow a bell curve i.e only 5% of MPs can be appraised as rating 1, 10% can be appraised at rating 2, 65% must be appraised at rating 3; 10% must be appraised at rating 4 and 5% will appraised at rating 5%.
• MPs with rating 1 will be eligible for 100% of their variable component; rating 2 will be eligible for 90% of their variable component; rating 3 eligible for 75%; rating 4 and 5 are not eligible for the variable component at all.
• MPs with rating 5 will need to have a Personal Constituency Development plan in place against which their performance will be monitored every month, if the MP falls short of expectation again; the MP will lose his post and by-election has to be conducted in that constituency.

I don't mean to say that the corporate appraisal method is ideal way to determine the pay hike, obviously there are loopholes in that process as well, but then it is definitely better than the way the MPs decide to sign their own hike. The "aam admi" gets the price rise, while the MPs are fested with pay hikes. But then the method I sighted occurs only in utopia, or rather utopian democracy. What we see in India today is Democrazy!!

Overcoming Reader's block

You might have heard of writer's block. Its a condition where in the write loses the ability to produce new work. There could be various reasons for this, the wikipedia link gives a very good brief on the condition.

However I am here talking about reader's block, which is something I've been suffering for quite sometime now. Which is a condition that I am sure many of you would have guessed correctly by now, is the inability to read any new work of fiction. I also do know the reason for it, my love for the Harry Potter series!! Yes guys, I am not joking! One the risks of reading the HP series is that you get so addicted to the books that you just cannot come out of it and think of reading anything new. I was introduced to the HP series very late (2004!), although I had heard of the series before I had not really got down to reading it, I was busy completing my collection of Frederick Forsyth novels. You wont believe that I took a liking to the HP story not by reading the original work of JK Rowling, but one really convincing fan fiction. I had received the ebook through mail (The Order of the Phoenix) and assumed it to be the real one and to be fair I really did enjoy the book. Thats when I decided to purchase  the first four books (assuming that I had already read the 5th) and completed reading the books in a matter of 2 weeks.

My brother was visiting us then and he had at that time just completed  reading the 5th book (which was surprising back then because my bro had never shown interest in reading novels, to be fair to him now all that has changed, he has read quite a few books now on a broad range of topics) and was discussing something on the storyline. Thats when I realized that I hadn't read the 5th part at all. I did manage to read it immediately afterwards and had promptly booked, collected and read the 6th & 7th books on the day of their release in India.

Its now 3 years since the release of the deathly hallows, but I still haven't completely recovered from the reader's block. I've tried various cures ranging from re-reading all my fav FF novels, all time fav "October Sky", tried out new authors like James Rollins (who is good btw), tried delving into sci-fi and cyberpunk genres but all of them have resulted in me coming back to square one!! I had to resort to re-reading the HP series another couple of times to satisfy my insatiable appetite for reading. I am now desperate. I need to get over this block. I hope that FF's new book thats due to release this Nov will help me get over this. But if anybody who has gone through similar feeling/condition have few suggestions/advice for me I will be very happy to hear them.

Doing a Phoenix

Been wanting to do this for sometime now and re-incarnate this blog which was long dead the second time. Suddenly decided to do this today. Found few brilliant new templates on blogger and thought of trying them out and lo...the blog has re-incarnated...but doesn't have any new content.... Need to think of something to blog now...

UK election results - A reflection of India in late 1990s

UK heading to coalition politics brought back vivid memories of the Election and Govt of India in late 90s. Guess all nations have to deal with coalition at some point of time. Maybe India can well give some lessons to UK now......

Twitter killed the (aspiring) Blogger

Not that I was a regular at blogging, nevertheless the death of the aspiration is certain. I'd have to do a phoenix to start blogging again!!!