Why the Left is never right!

They were the first to privatise the airports under their control in Kerala, still they vehemently oppose the privatisation of airports in Metros.They oppose land acquisition for industrial use but use brute force to do the same in their backyard- West Bengal. This is the PEAK- They were the ones who supported the Chinese during the 1962 war and even raised money for the Chinese soldiers. Yes, you guessed it right, I am talking about the LEFTISTS. Though Communism died a slow death globally, it is very much alive and kicking in India.We have a range of communists from the moderate political parties to hardcore naxalites who still dream of establishing a global communist regime. When will they open their eyes and realise the ground realities? To be frank , the MODERATE political parties are causing much damage than the HARDLINE Naxalites. The blows that are being dealt by them to the Indian economy will take a long time to heal.The latest blow being the opposition to the Strategic alliance with US.

When in Rome, act like a Roman

Did you ever hear about the "camel and traveller" story. Once, a traveller was stranded in the middle of a desert along with his camel. It was already dark, so he set up a tent and took shelter in it, leaving his camel outside. Since the nights in deserts are quite chilly, the camel started to shiver and asked it's master for some place in the tent to keep it legs. After a while , it asks his permission to cover its neck and so on. Within a short span of time, the camel was fully inside the tent and it kicks the traveler out. Look around you and you many real-life examples vindicating the story. The Tamil community which migrated to Sri Lanka for want of work, today demands a separate state for itself. The Muslims and Sikhs in France went gaga when the French Govt. banned the wearing of turban and burkha by the children.The list goes on. How can a person demand special rights when he is in an alien land?He went to that country seeking his livelihood and he should be thankful for the same.He should develop respect for the both the culture and legal system of that country.

Of murder and mercy

Yes, you guessed it right, I am referring to the clemency petition pending with our President. A few people who call themselves "Human right activists" go gaga whenever a rapist/murderer/terrorist is awarded capital punishment by the courts. Some feel that capital punishment is a sign of an uncivilised society.Well, I must say that these are very 'Fashionable' statements to make. Everytime a naxalite is killed in AP, these organisations get restless and start accusing police of faking encounters.They argue that the police should follow the law and only arrest them instead of firing at them. But these 'Civilised citizens' forget the fact that once a person picks up an AK -47 and wages a war against the state, he has openly challenged the law of the land and in the process lost the right to be protected by the same law.Where are these activists when the naxalites/terrorists mercilessly butcher local citizens and security personnel. Do they know how it feels when you step on a landmine? Your body is pierced by a thousand sharpnel and your limbs are torn apart in opposite directions and before you realise that you are over a landmine,you will be dead.And should we grant mercy to those merciless creatures who devise such means of death and destruction?

A tribute to Indian Cinema

To start off, when I say Indian cinema I largely refer to the movies which were made in the right spirit of movie making and not the ones which were knitted around a STAR to satisfy his FANS.Surprisingly this FAN following madness plagues the Southern Industry (Read AP and TN) more than Bollywood.Instead of getting into a debate on which one is the better industry, lets stick to the main theme. Last year when I was in Calcutta, I went to this movie called PARINEETA along with our gang.It had Vidyabalan( Yes, She is the real HERO of the movie), Sanjay Dutt, SaifAli Khan in its Starcast.It was directed by Pradeep Sarkar and was entail shot in Kolkata. Right from the start, this movie takes us into a different world altogether where we completely forget abt the Starcast and only identify with the Characters. The music complements the mood on every occasion. For once I fell in love with the city/culture of Kolkata. Parineeta is a feast of emotions topped with awesome background score & narration. For a moment I believed that Indian cinema had come of age.There are scores of movies like Parineeta which are heralding a new revolution in the Indian Cinema. And as the audience for such kind of movies increases by leaps and bounds, more Nagesh Kukunoors and Shyam Benegals will emerge. There are many who argue that hollywood is lot better than Bollywood and Oscars are the real testimonies to one's acting caliber.But I beg to differ with that argument. I have deep respect for Hollywood, but I also believe that Indian Moviemaking is second to none.Perhaps one day, hollywood will situp and take notice of its Eastern cousin.
~till then Lage Raho Munna Bhai

Of Marriages and Divorces

Yesterday, I was discussing the age old tradition of marriage with my friend. We were comparing the Indian marriages with those of the western world where on an average, the event would be the 5th wedding for the bride and 6th one for the groom. In India, one looks at marriage as a life-long wedlock. Come rain or shine, they are "supposed" to sail through. If not for anything , atleast for their children's sake. So what happens ? Generation after generation people stop living for themselves and SACRIFICE their life's ambitions. Their sole aim is to ensure the well-being of their kids. Of course, I am not attributing the same to every household. But the Indian society by and large lives by this diktat. But contrast this with the westerners. They live their lives by their own terms. They don't sacrifice/compromise their own freedom for the sake of their children's well-being. I don't mean to say that they don't love their progeny. They do care for them, but they don't think that getting a divorce would have an adverse effect on their child. One explanation for this contrasting behavior in both these societies would be the empowerment of the fairer sex. A woman in India depends on her husband for her livelihood. ( Atleast it used to be that way). So the thought of a divorce would send shivers down her spine. Unfortunately, the same fact has been brutally exploited by the male race for centuries.But her western counterpart was well-educated and had the potential to earn her livelihood. Slowly but surely, the Indian woman is breaking the shackles which bound her for ages. And even though my good friend laments that the Indian society is getting westernised going by the increasing number of divorces, I believe that we can a learn a few lessons from the Western society.

Chennai throws a challenge for MS Word!

I had been to Chennai the day before. Ok, dont panic , I can understand Tamil a bit and know the city to such extent that auto-wallahs can't con me. As soon as one lands in Chennai, he is welcomed with a gush of VERY VERY hot breeze. I cant put it in more pleasant terms.In a hour's time, I started realising how beautiful & pleasant, Hyderbad is! Atleast in Hyderabd, you don't find 3D-writings on every wall in the city. Yes, 3D wall writings are something special to Sambharland. Its very difficult to describe them verbally, but I will try. Basically, you have three colours in every letter. The top half is normally RED then you have WHITE or YELLOW which is usually followed by BLACK at the bottom. Even Micrsoft hasn't been able to come up with such a font in their MS-WORD application. Poor chaps, they are not a match to the indigenous ways of Indian populace. Half the walls in Tamilnadu are covered with Amma's portraits while the other half are grabbed by Karunanidhi/Stalin. Our Star "Vijaykanth" who disproved many age old physics laws , is also a strong contender in this wall-mart. I believe that Tamilians are among the most politically-active groups in India. Thought the state has developed a lot, the elections are still fought on caste equations. Brahmins are ignored since they are a meager 1-2% of the population. Almost all the parties have taken the state voters for a ride. But still they get elected year after year.

China goes the Desi way!

Yahoo News reported that Chinese Govt has banned the American cartoon series on its TV Network for fear of collapse of its own cartoon makers.Wow, finally the Chinese seem to have been infected with our Desi Attitude. Ban anything that poses a threat to your own industry. Lets draw an analogy from this. Suppose your child is studying in a class of 40 and gets a rank of 10. The BEST solution to IMPROVE his performance is to ensure that the first 9 rankers don't continue in the school. Sounds foolish? Ask our politicians.Not long ago , India used to have 'leaders' who proclaimed socialism as the panacea to the age old Indian problems. So they banished all imports and closed our economy. So Indians had to consume home made stuff no matter how poorly they were made and how costly they were priced.( You can read the book INDIA UNBOUND by Gurcharan Das for more information and statistics) The govt protected the Indian industries as they became more and more inefficient. A majority of the industries were setup only for the purpose of creation of jobs. This continued for a looong time and fortunately sense prevailed. The govt. finally opened its doors( actually it was forced to, due to a foreign exchange crisis) to foreign goods and services. And the rest is history or shd I say future? But China is way ahead of India in this regards. Instead of banning imports they encouraged exports. The result- the cheapest goods on the planet are made in China. As the Chinese dragon races ahead, the Indian elephant is still in the first gear. At the dawn of Independence day, as an INDIAN I only wish that out nation learns from its mistakes and surges ahead in the road to development.
~Jai Hind