Tantrum child of Indian politics

Very rarely do Indians want to try out or elect a new leader. With the dissatisfaction against the incumbent government at its peak, the people of Delhi handed the mandate to new face, a new hope. It took about 49 days of intense drama before he stepped down and decided to foray into national politics. In effect he pushed Delhi towards its 3rd election in a matter of months. The people of India decided against goving power again. Now neglected and out of reckoning at both centre and state a new twist was needed. Going to jail was the most logical choice. Having thrown tantrums all through his political journey is there any scope that people will hand him a mandate again?

Corruption and its Economic Benefits

I recently had to present about the economic benefits of corruption. I have grown up knowing that corruption is an evil and it took me a while to adjust or accept the fact that corruption has benefits too. If I'm not convinced how can I convince the judges. 

Thus, though morality of corruption always pricks us the economic development and benefits cannot be ignored. Ideally, if corruption is legalized, transparency can be bought into the flow of money. Investments will improve and India will be on road to prosperity. As we all know, the one who has money will not want to part with it unless there is a benefit attached. And the price he pays for this benefit ensures money can flow back into the economy. Placing the entire population in a single system will only encourage corruption. The rich would like to travel by business class and not the economy class. The current system in India is like an economy class for the entire population. This is what drives people to subvert the system to make sure their job is done. And those who have the means will pay their way through. There is a talk of a growing rich-divide. India was never a socialist country. History tells us that socialism never worked. USSR (doesn’t exist today), Cuba, and North Korea have all struggled to even give basic necessities to their population. What is the point of such a socialistic ideology then? People can argue that a great man like Narayana Murthy still travels economy class. But that is just one in a million and cannot be a benchmark for the entire population in this case. As a kid, I have seen my parents buy a general ticket when reservation was not available and then negotiate with the TTR for a ticket, and pay him some amount. This system has been on for many years until the GOI decided to bring this money into the system. Minister of Railways, Shri Nitish Kumar introduced the Tatkal system during his tenure (2001-2004) ensuring that the bribe amount paid to TTR was channeled into the Government coffers by the way of Tatkal charges. This is an excellent example of legalization of Corruption. Why can’t we have fixed charges for speeding up all transactions? Tatkal was introduced for the last minute travelers who did not want to book ahead of time and they were charged extra for this added service. Similarly, the “speed money” given as bribes can be standardized and brought back into the system.

The black money that is stashed abroad by the super rich can likewise be brought into the system. Few years ago, Income Tax Department tried to encourage this by giving all black money holders and option of bringing the money back into the country at a flat 30% tax rate. However, this failed to find many takers. If IT department were the only agency which could have filed proceedings against them, then they would have considered this a legal immunity. However, in India we have various agencies and bodies which regulate the affairs pertaining to black money. Legal immunity must be provided from all these bodies and not just the IT department. Relaxation must be provided under FEMA, CBDT and by agencies like Economic Offences Wing etc. Also, the people holding black money must be provided immunity from litigation. Unless this is done, there is no way anyone is going to try and bring back the money stashed abroad. End of the day, from the Rs. 100 that I have, I may part with Re. 1 to a beggar, but for the rest of the Rs. 99, I would want to spend them on my convenience. 

Teams, teams and teams

According to Tuckman's stages of group development, teams and groups go through the stages of forming, storming, norming and performing. This model had been applicable since 1965 with a couple of changes along the way. I have a very serious doubt about its relevance in this age. Most groups fall apart during the forming phase and people never seem to agree on anything. I'm forced to blame this on inflated egos and reluctance to accept people as they are. Probably the world of 1965 was more accommodating and forgiving than the present. Just one question, what have we achieved in life for us to be so egoistic. All scriptures say that ego is the root for evil and an inflated ego never helps in development of a person. Why does one upmanship take center stage over common development. Selfless attitude is becoming a rare commodity these days. The same group dynamics can be extrapolated to departments, divisions and organizations. Where is the world headed to...

India vs Pakistan and China

Indian air force's fighter squadron is below sanctioned numbers. There is a huge shortfall of officers in the Indian Army. Indian Navy has a shortfall of ships to enforce its superiority. Meanwhile Chinese army, navy and air force have grown to mind boggling levels. In terms of numbers and technology, India is years behind China. Pakistan on the other hand has stolen, borrowed and bartered nuclear weapons, missiles, fighter jets to counter India. India's superiority 'seems' to be dwindling. Does that mean India cannot face another war with Pakistan. I don't think so. Of all the wars fought between India and Pakistan, Pakistan always held superiority in terms of technology. 1963 saw Pakistan use advanced weapons thanks to America. 1971 witnessed the same. Again thanks to America. Kargil war saw Pakistan at a strategic advantage. And the world knows India won all of them.

What makes India potent and lethal despite the difference in technology?

1. Indian defense services are a part of Indian might. Whereas in Pakistan, the defense services are a power on their own, independent of the government. Democracy in Pakistan is a joke. This makes Indian defense services disciplined, loyal, smarter, potent and lethal. The focus is on the enemy. Pakistan defense services don't know who the enemy is. Their government, Taliban, India???????

2. Indian economy is much ahead of Pakistan. Sorry. There can be no comparison between the two. Pakistan... Where is the economy? They spend on missiles, jets, blah blah blah. No money to feed their population, no reserves in case of crisis. India could sustain a war longer than Pakistan. India is superior in terms of military. India has money. India has fuel reserves. Pakistan has neither. If war broke out today, Pakistan would probable scurry to the world powers for cease fire.

3. Both have nuclear weapons. An Indian first strike or even a retaliatory second strike would annihilate Pakistan. Point to note is that, if Pakistan keeps pushing terrorists across border India may be forced to openly declare war.


Let us come to China. World's largest army. Third largest air force. Second largest navy. Do we need to be scared? Let me be frank. Direct conventional conflict between India and China would probably result in Indian defeat 9 out of 10 times. Does India have to worry? Not really.

1. Both India and China have nuclear weapons. China has more, but Indian retaliation would cripple China beyond doubt. India does not want conflict with either Pakistan or China, but if pushed beyond a point it will have no choice but use nuclear weapons.

2. In 1962, India was not aligned to any power block. Today, India and Russia are partners in trade, space and military. China would not dare an open conflict for fear of Russia opening other fronts with China. Russia is still one of the two major nuclear forces in the world. Other than few border skirmishes and war of words, Indo-China border will remain calm, though unpleasant.

The day I lost 188 rs

Airtel customer care has improved a lot over the past few years. They give you a solution before even listening to the problem.

Having recharge my mobile with an internet data pack I noticed I was losing money from my main account. The CC executive was bent on blaming me for it.


He boldly said I was browsing since before the data recharge and so i was losing money from my main balance. What about the money I lost after recharge? Same answer. He repeated the same answer thrice before I started raising my voice. Change of tactics. He asked me to wait on line before transferring me to the 3G technical team (What can the tech team do about me losing balance). A lady with a sweet voice came on line.


After I tell her my problem



Tech support: 'Ok Sir'.



Me: 'What Ok, I'm lodging a complaint?'



Tech Support: 'Oh. You have lodged a complaint. Please give me the service no.'



Me: Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. 'I'm complaining to you'



Tech Support: 'Ok' and she repeats the same line that the CC executive stated and gives me the timeline of browsing.



I was at breaking point by this time since I was losing money even on the call to customer care (they charge 50 p per call these days). I had to explain that my problem was after the timeline. By this time both of us were frustrated and she says she will take a complaint and give me a solution in three days.



So here I was... stuck without balance. Not sure what to do. Cursing my fate. Cursing Airtel. But there was nothing i could do about it.



Kyunki har ek friend zaroori hota hai.......



p.s the tagline has nothing to do with the service airtel provides and so it does not have anything to do with the post either.

England vs India

The title is an attempt at being politically correct. It should actually read England vs a bunch of battered and bruised but rich men.
Winning or losing does not matter as long as the game is played in proper spirit and with full conviction but going down 4-0, 1-0, and 3-0 is not acceptable. We could not press for victory in the final test in West Indies because Dhoni knew the team was already at breaking point. So many injuries in the team over a single tournament is probably one of the firsts for India.

And anybody who says IPL is not to be blamed is living in Utopia. If IPL is not the reason for this crushing defeat then it can be safely assumed that winning the World Cup in 2011 was plain luck. Credit goes to the reserve players who performed to the best of their abilities but someone needs to look back and take stock of the situation and analyze what went wrong. Players often give the excuse of 'too much cricket.' What is IPL then.

Most teams across the world have realized the impact IPL is having on the players ability to perform in international matches and most cricket boards are taking steps to ensure national cricket is not slaughtered at the alter of IPL. Chris Gayle is a good example. Ponting stayed away. So did Clarke and many other English players. Maybe it is time to beat some sense into the Indian players. If not, we can safely say that the future of Indian cricket team will go for a six!

P.S. We can only pity Duncan Fletcher and Dhoni: You are the only one to blame for this mess. All the best for England's tour of India.

Team India's test defeat: A reality check

Top three batsmen in the Indian cricket team are set to retire in the next 2 to 3 years. What next? 2 of them were out due to injury. One scored a hundred and got out when he was needed the most. Where do we go in search of replacements for the best middle order ever? New recruits need to be groomed, but the process should have started at least 3 years ago. The 'what if' scenarios should have been discussed by the cricket board. But what exactly did they do about it? IPL was supposed to be a brilliant strategy to market cricket. Maybe. But if that brain had sense, it would have thought of creating a second line of batsmen years ago.

Fire fighting seems to be the order of the day. Unknown names (at least unknown to a lot of people) cropped up as soon as Rahul Dravid, V.V.S Laxman and Yuvraj Singh were ruled out of the test match. Agreed Dinesh Karthik was given more than enough chances to prove himself, but why persist with someone for so long. And if they have decided to persist why not one more match. Karthik was probably a safer option in the current situation. He has the experience. He can contribute. His abilities are known. Why experiment now? Why weren't others tried before this match? S. Badrinath, M. Vijay and W. Saha are good. But they need to be groomed around experienced players and not as replacement for an entire set of players. These players should have been tried out a long time ago. At least they would know what test cricket is all about. Bangladesh tour was a perfect platform to give them a taste of test cricket and also boost their confidence. Instead, the board decided to send rookies into a war zone. Playing a full strength South Africa with a full strength squad is tough as it is. Choosing a second string inexperienced players is a suicide mission. The BCCI needs to do some soul searching if India needs to regain the no. 1 test position. Hats off to Badrinath for holding fort in the first innings. Hats off to Vijay for lending support to Tendulkar against a devastating attack. Hats off to Saha for standing like a wall. They showed more courage then some of their other established team members. We have been depending on established batmen to pull us up even from the jaws of defeat. But that may not last long.

Another player who needs to do some soul searching is Harbhajan Singh. He is the leader of our spin attack. Agreed. But where are the wickets. He needs to go back to the drawing board and take a relook. Meanwhile there are other spinners who can fill in. India does not lack spinners since it has been our strength since the spin quartet. India genuinely lacked a pace attack but then Zaheer Khan has performed beautifully for the past few years. There is fresh talent in the form of Mithun and Tyagi. Ishant needs to get back to domestic cricket and discover that which lead him to a test cap. Time for a reality check.

Time to sell the Ferrari

Every morning my first task is to raise the screen of the laptop, as it is always on, and check updates on Facebook and Orkut. This has been the case for the past 8 months or so. Scrolling up and down through posts by various people (friends), some of whom I had last met or spoken to ages ago. The first time I logged into Facebook I was thrilled to find people I new since childhood. Many of them since 1st Grade. It was a mad rush to find more and more people through networks and adding them as friends. School, college, workplace, it went on and on till I had roughly over 200 hundred friends. Then the occasional hello, birthday wishes (these sites neatly display the current and upcoming birthdays of friends), poking began. Added to this were the games that Facebook had to offer. They can keep you engaged for hours. Upload photos. I can still see one or the other from my friends list update some photo or the other till today. As time progressed I realized that the real need to actually post something came up when it was my birthday. I had to spend few hours for 'thank you's' on that particular day. But besides that it just became a routine to scroll up and down through stuff that people, who I don't even talk to or probable don't meet or may not even meet in the near future, post. Also, I had no answer to a particular question. Why was I going through the posts on Facebook or Orkut? Someone I know wants to say something to one of his network friends. Why do I need to know what they are talking. How does it add value to me? Is it not eating through my time? I feel I'm just letting an outsider invade my life by taking up my time.

Whenever I start reading a book I end up going back to the system to check for updates. Is this distraction worth it. Before I leave my house for some work, after I come back from work, before sleeping I sit and stare at the monitor. For what? The web has other useful applications. It can be used for studying. Even then the mouse invariably clicks on the distractions very frequently.

If someone really needs him/her as a part of his/her network all they have to do is pick up the damn phone and call. Or maybe drop into their home over the weekend. What are we heading for? The best excuse I find to not do this is 'TIME'. People find it easier to ping from home. If you really care about a person time wouldn't matter. Relationships are built on feelings and emotions that cannot be converted to 1's and 0's. I understand the need to stay in touch when people are spread across geographic locations. Still a personal mail would mean much more than the cacophony on a public social site. Anyway calling cards are pretty cheap these days and STD rates have been on the decline for the past few years.

Relations should be in one's heart and not end up as thumbnails on a networking site. Time well spent is more fruitful. There are a lot of things to achieve in life instead of wasting time going through someone else's talk or discussion. If you really care, reach out in person. I believe it is time I sold my Ferrari.

When love turned to betrayal....

Does love necessarily demand that you spend time with him/her? Aren't there other beautiful/essential things in life that tend to take up time or help you relax? Is the price of doing ones duty as high as losing your loved one to someone else? Most people feel that when he/she is ignored, love no longer exists. Years of faith and trust is lost in a fraction of a second. The worst part is losing your loved one to someone else. All because you were doing your duty!!!!

People often say that they are not being understood. What they don't realize is, they have never tried to understand others. You never know what burden is being shouldered at the other end. When circumstances demand, you need to divert your attention to other activities. Not towards your loves best mate. What difference would remain between a common dog and us if we jumped from one to other just for attention.

There is an interesting but familiar story. An urgent piece of work took up a lot of his time. The person he loved the most saw less and less of him over a period of 2 months. She meanwhile started corresponding with the guys best mate. And over a period of time the guy stood forgotten. New bonds developed. Old ones were broken.

Is that all that love has to offer? Is that the level of committment that love invokes? It is not the end of one relation, but two. At one point there was love in his life. Now all he gets is betrayal. The dilemma still remains as to who betrayed him. The one he loved so much or the one he trusted so much. Who is right and who is wrong? Does one have to pay so dearly for others to be happy? In time every one will move on with their respective lives but the scars will remain.

You take a knife and stab someone in the back, no amount of sorry will right the wrong. The wounds may heal but the scars will always remain. Love is about being patient, understanding and standing by one no matter what. Even to the peril of life. Only when things go out of hand you get a chance to prove that you are still there, no matter what. A little bit of patience and recovery time go a long way in building relations. Remember; if it is not happy, then it is not the end.