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Friday, May 28, 2004 Awesome Photo BlogsThanks to Raapi, I bounced upon Pradeep Raghunathan's fabulous collection of photographs, which left me awestruck. Seeing this, I feel obliged to mention about the other two photo blogs I regularly see & admire - Shyamal & Rajesh Krishnamurthy. Visit them all and have a visual treat! Posted at 5/28/2004 03:16:36 PM Link Thursday, May 27, 2004 OrbitsBorrowing Dr. A P.J. Abdul Kalam's words, "I have completed 28 orbits around the sun and have just entered the 29th. It is an insignificant event, compared to the dynamics of universe." Posted at 5/27/2004 09:13:33 AM Link Tuesday, May 25, 2004 Mera Bharath Mahan!Recently, a colleague of my friend had visited the High Commission of India in London to obtain a Tourist Visa to India. To his surprise & shock, he found that one had to grease the palms of the visa officer with ten quid to get the visa stamped. Posted at 5/25/2004 03:29:01 PM Link Friday, May 21, 2004 Accidents do happenBy hook or crook, I have been elected as Student Representative for the MBA - Distance Learning @ Durham Business School. I would get to represent my peers in the Board of Studies, which is the highest decision making body in the B-School comprising of academecians & other whos who of the university. Also, I have a voting rights when they put important decisions to ballot. This, I am sure would provide me good experience and lot of contacts. But, how did I get there in the first place? As I said before, ... read the title of this post. Posted at 5/21/2004 04:41:01 PM Link Tuesday, May 18, 2004 On the personal front, my wife would undergo a minor surgery tomorrow. It is nothing but wisdom tooth extraction but she has to be given anastecia since the last attempt complicated things a bit. I would be in the hospital lounge tomorrow and am planning to carry some books for company.Posted at 5/18/2004 11:26:17 AM Link No more political posts. Unless some important turnaround happens in India (as I write this, looks like there would be some surprises), I have decided not to talk about politics for a while. Not that I got bored of politics, I feel that I would be beating the same bush, time and again. There are lot many good things to talk about. Posted at 5/18/2004 11:25:44 AM Link Friday, May 14, 2004 Outsourcing at its bestI got this mail forwarded by my friend. Thought that its worth sharing here. Hello Friends, As India begins its new thrust in outsourcing, it will become the first country in the world to outsource the job of a prime-minister. Perhaps US, UK and other European nations should learn a thing or two from us about job losses. Vajpayee has just lost his job and to an Italian. But then, it’s his mistake, nobody asked to remain a bachelor, he could have married any of the presidential daughters. After all, what better qualification do you need to run a country than to be an xyz of someone special? He could have easily found a job elsewhere. Seriously, I never hated the Congress party for anything, but now they have just destroyed the pride and the faith in the country. Economics, development and FDI's and the rest of it - is all fine, deep down I strongly feel, India should be ruled by an Indian. The trend is really worrying because, next Rahul could land up marrying his Colombian girlfriend and she could well be a future PM. It amazing, that great national leaders like Patel, Rajaji wanted to get rid of dynastic rule, a view strongly supported by late Mrs. Gandhi and now, this family that once opposed dynastic rule is caught in its own web. I am neither a historian nor am I trying to be one. But to me, its really unfortunate that this trend looks well and truly imbibed in the Congress blood. This so called 'knowledgeable' Kapil Sibal once called Priyanka's new born as the leader of Congress Sishu.... something. If Priyanka and Mr. Vadhera can produce national leaders at will, I think the congress should insist that they have more kids, without any further delay. This could solve many of their problems and also stop people like me from writing such mails. Barring the Godhara incident, the BJP's effort at the centre wasn't bad by anymeans. Going by the Congress benchmark.... To me personally, it is really disappointing to see someone like Vajpayee leave the scene - this way. At the end of the day he did deserve something better. Regards Just another depressed Indian! Posted at 5/14/2004 04:40:46 PM Link A challenge to begin with Left parties have already fired their first salvo by demanding that the new government must cry halt to the Disinvestment process. Vajpayee government gave a real thrust to the process by creating an exclusive ministry for the purpose headed by Arun Shourie. Of all the ministers, Arun did a splendid job amidst trying circumstances. If Congress bows to this demand and scraps the ministry, it would be a sad end to the good work put in by Shourie and his men. As far as I could see, Congress & BJP doesn't differ widely on the economic policy. Its the Left, which has diametrically opposite views. Lets see how Sonia handles this. Another thing of interest for me is the budget that would be presented down the line by Dr. Manmohan Singh. Posted at 5/14/2004 04:36:09 PM Link Thursday, May 13, 2004 Hot PizzaSo, the results are out and the game is over now. What was projected as a cakewalk for NDA turned out to be a disaster in the end. All the opinion polls & exit polls projected that NDA would fall short of majority or would get a slender majority, but none of them projected such a trouncing for NDA. Nevertheless, it is an anti-incumbency wave. Though I am not an admirer of Gandhi Pvt Ltd Party, I feel that it is a good thing that Congress gained an upper hand over the so-called third front. Rather than having a 'kitchdi' government with guys like Mulayam, Devegowda, Harkishan Surjeet, Mayawati, Gujral & lot many 'potential' PMs clobbing for power supported from outside by Congress, it is better to have a party with a bigger number take the centrestage for there would be someone to account for. For in case, people are angry at the government, they would know whom to punish. Apart from the foreign origin issue (yes, it does matter to me!), my worries about the new government stem from two factors - 1. Stability: Congress is going to form the government, but it hasn't got a full mandate to govern. It would have to depend on its allies like RJD, DMK, PMK, MDMK, TRS and more importantly the Left against whom it was and still is fighting a bitter battle at Kerala & West Bengal. Given the track record of the turncoats, it would be interesting to see how long would these guys support Sonia? Also, given the background of Congress, it has never got along well with its allies in the Centre. Although this is the first time Congress is forming the government with the support from other parties, one couldn't help remembering Chandrasekhar, Devegowda & Gujral episodes. 2. Governance: What kind of experience does Sonia has to govern a country like India? Would it suffice to be a spouse of a Prime Minister (His governance is a different story altogether!) to take up his job? Look at Rabri Devi and you would get an idea. Having observed Congress in the opposition benches, I have seldom seen any visionary statements from its leadership. But for guys like Manmohan Singh & P Chidambaram (though he is not in Congress, technically speaking), could you identify any other leader who could talk sense, let alone with vision. Despite all this, I strongly believe that Congress 'pizza' would be far better than the United Front 'kitchdi'. Lets see how long the Pizza remains hot. Posted at 5/13/2004 05:25:35 PM Link Wednesday, May 12, 2004 "I took out few coins from my wallet and gave them the change but what they did afterwards made me agitated. While I was taking out the coppers, those boys spotted few more coins in my wallet and started asking for those as well. When I refused to part with them, they surrounded me and started begging with one of them falling at my feet."- Excerpts from my travelogue on my trip to Sri Lanka last year. Check out the report here and photos here. Posted at 5/12/2004 03:11:18 PM Link Sunday, May 09, 2004 Rajni 'the confused' Kanth!Until recently, 'Super Star' Rajnikanth was known to be a shrewd political strategist who makes his moves (& movies) with a charisma that seems to escape even seasoned politicians. In a state where all the Chief Ministers in the last two decades have been heavyweights from the filmdom, it is not surprising to find connoisseurs of politics expecting him & even egging him to step in to the ring. But so far, Rajnikanth has always remained on the periphery of South Indian politics preferring to keep his well wishers and arch rivals guessing. Thanks to Dr. Ramdoss, leader of a regional party PMK, 2004 General elections has thrown up a direct challenge (& an opportunity) for Rajnikanth to take a dive into politics. At a time when he was widely expected to pick up the gauntlet and prove his popularity among the masses, Rajnikanth chose to support BJP-ADMK combine. Things would have been better had he halted there. Rajnikanth confined his support only to those constituencies where PMK is contesting, thereby reducing himself to a mere District level player. If the fans who watched Rajnikanth's live press conference in late April 2004 were more than confused than the actor himself, the neutralists who observed were aghast as his statements & reasoning sounded very hollow. Rajnikanth's sudden love for the river linking project, his belief in BJP's manifesto that promises execution of his new dream project were nothing short of bluff. It was none too pleasing to see Rajnikanth indirectly support Jayalalithaa, whom he opposed vehemently, not so long ago. If any one had any doubts about the confused state of mind of Rajnikanth, they were laid to rest with the announcement about his new film followed by a statement from his fan's club that Rajnikanth would concentrate on his new film and let PMK concentrate on the election. The Superstar might continue to tread on the path he has laid out for himself (En Vazhi Thani Vazhi?), but the least he could do is to stop misleading his numerous fans by making it loud & clear that politics is not his cup of tea. A True leader leads from the front and more than that knows what he wants. Rajnikanth has done neither. Rajnikanth might be a pious man, but that doesn't make him an able leader. Sooner the people realise this, better it is for everyone, including Rajnikanth. Else, quoting the Superstar himself, "Even God cannot save Tamil Nadu". Posted at 5/9/2004 07:47:27 AM Link Thursday, May 06, 2004 Would Lord Varuna influence the voters?With unexpected rains lashing TN, I am sure that the dried up tanks & river beds would not present a sorry sight as had been the case about a week back. I know that this is not an U-turn of the situation for water starved Chennai. But I am sure that the incumbent government would grab the opportuntiy with both the hands and augment the water supply at least till the D-day (10th May) which might remind the people of 'feel-good' factor that had gone dry over the last few weeks. Already, there is a perception (stupid though!) in Tamilnadu that it rains well when Jayalalithaa is power. Would these rains turn the opinion polls topsy-turvy? Would a low pressure over the ocean - a purely natural phenomenon change the mindset of the people about their vote? Are people so very vulnerable ? Would the psephologists be humbled once again? Lot many questions would be answered and many new questions would be raised when the EVMs are taken out of the pack for counting. Posted at 5/6/2004 02:30:42 PM Link Wednesday, May 05, 2004 Half way through!I'm half way through the mark now w.r.t my driving. Last evening, I took up the Theory Test & Hazard Perception Test for Car Driving. In theory, which is a multiple-choice type of test, I scored 32 out of 35. One has to get 30 to pass the same. The Hazard perception test is a recently added one and is the bigger evil of the two. We'd be shown 14 video clips and we are required to watch these clips as if we were the driver. There will be 15 hazards to find - at least one on each clip. The hazard clips will not contain any sound - just like the old silent movies. Whenever we think a hazard is developing, we should click the mouse button. The speed at which we click the mouse button as a hazard develops will determine our score for that particular hazard clip. We can score between 0 and 5 on each hazard. I scored 63 out of 75 where one has to score 44 to pass the test. As I said before, I'm just half way through the mark. The real challenge begins when I take up the Driving test. I would be booking a slot for that very soon. Needless to say, I am all the more thrilled! Posted at 5/5/2004 11:07:21 AM Link Tuesday, May 04, 2004 Blog AnniversaryAs I have done many times before, I have put my fingers in to many different things and struggling with priorities resulting in infrequent blogging over the past few weeks. I have even missed a landmark in time w.r.t - my blog (Pray I don't forget my Wedding anniversary next month!!). Yep.. On 1st May, I completed one full year of blogging. Looking back, despite the occasional lull periods, frequencies, it has been a great experience for I got to know so many wonderful people (& some nerds!), learnt so many little things about people in other professions and picked up many, many unexplainable nitty gritties. On the other side, I could observe that the penchant for blogging has been on a noticeable decline with so many fellow bloggers. Many of them have hung up their boots and some of them are keeping the page alive updating it once a few weeks. I read somewhere that blogging is a habit best suited for teenagers. True or not, I do not know, but certainly blogging has given a new dimension to life. Posted at 5/4/2004 10:46:32 AM Link |
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