One step forward and two steps backward...

Late nights, long days, sweat and tears of hard working Indians are all put to waste by some dumbass dhoti clad politician such as Mulyam Singh yadav and his partymen. Their election manifesto promises to ban English and Computers!!! They believe these two factors are cause of unemployment and inequality in the job market. Are you fucking kidding me! The manifesto instead should say that they will make English and Computer education commonly avaliable so that people can be competitive in job market.
How can we have grandoise campaigns such as Lead India, India Poised, Infinite India to put India on the forefront of the developing nations when we have politicians who are trying to take us back to the stone age? Aren't we sick of vote bank politics? And the sad part is the cause of such politicians still in business is YOU & ME. Isn't it our responsibility englighten the lesser educated people that these politicians mean no good by offering free rice, banning English and computers. They are in turn handicapping us in the ever changing and globalizing world!

Our campaigns should focus educating the grass root level people the disadvantages for vote bank politics, the bad effects of electing politicians that are not maturing at the same pace as the ever changing world. As i have said again and again in almost every blog we need make literacy/education reachable to every kid. This for sure will add sense into people who elect the old-enough-to-be-dead dumbass politicians! Parting note -so lets start a new Campaign "Educate India"!!

Ananlyzing..

The biggest democratic election in the world is about to begin in a couple of months in India. Coalitions are being formed, age old relations are being changed based on demography, agendas are being set, educated folks are slowly waking up to the importance of voting, and lastly there is a slow momentum gain amongst youngster to vote and make choices that is going to effect their life.

But when I start to compare the recent presidential elections here in United States with what we are going through in India its hard to come up with a single leader who is even as remotely motivating as Obama. When did we last have a leader who mobilized the whole nation to a common cause? (The only leader i can think of is Vajpayee)

Why does India lack good leaders? One of the traits that makes someone a Leader is public speaking, and we have no one in our political arena that is an exceptional Public speaker (Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, Reagan some of the great presidents in US were good public speakers) I believe a good public speaker can inspire, motivate and mobilize people. They can break the regional and language barriers to reach out to larger mass. They can make religion differences or demographic differences a non-issue. Wish India had more of such public speakers!

So how do we change our age old rotting political scene in India and find our next great leader? The first step would be to start voting. This is the only way we can weed out the under performing, uneducated criminals who pose to be leaders and guardians of our society. Secondly, more educated people should start getting involved in the electoral process (Lead India winner, Mishra, joined the BJP and other finalists joined BSP, congress etc - signal of a good start). This will help us formulate better policies, start developmental projects that are effective and serve a purpose, and encourage other educated people to not shun away from active politics. Lastly improve our education system making it affordable and reachable to every child. A educated society knows its rights and its responsibilities and won't be fooled by false promises and bipartisan agendas set by politicians.

I hope that one day I will part of movement that changes the political scene in India and redefines India - a lofty goal but achievable for sure!

General Rant

Holidays are here! Office adorns a desolate look and no one is in the mood to work. Watching TV too gets boring during this time as every alternate channel has a "Christmas" or a "Elf" or a "Santa Claus" movie. Come on people isn't it enough you re celebrating the festival - why watch movies with same theme too?

Bernard Madoff is the new sensation adding fodder to the already hungry media. Running a huge ponzi scam for nearly 10 years with being audited by SEC only a couple times is truly shocking and has further deteriorated the confidence of people in wall street. Although he was one of the top market maker and a pioneer of electronic trading he also cheated people through his ponzi scam to a tune of 50 billion (largest scam, in the history, to be attributed to a one single person). His hedge fund showed a return of 10-11% return for years and close to 6% return even during downswing. Interesting fact is his own company was the broker-dealer for his advisory firm.

I wonder -
Why is mouse the "favorite animal" for animated movies? So many of them....

You know what will be cool?

Mini-Me version of me! I bet I will never get bored and i will never need a pet :)

Mumbai Attacks - Result of our chalta hai attitude?

The terrorist attacks in Mumbai is not only a sign of how depraved and misled are some people who shoot at unarmed innocent folks going about their day as any other day but about how incompetent our government is when it comes to protecting it's people! Kids, old people, folks visiting our country to see its wonder, workers who were returning home to their families after a day's hard work and couples having a nice dinner were all attacked with no mercy. Freedom of a whole city was taken away in a night by some 20 odd terrorists who I believe were cowards to target the innocent.
Once this is over are we going start over with the "chalta hai" attitude that we are so famous for? However resilient that might seem we got to show our government that we are not OK. We are not OK that

-our freedom has been taken away
-we can't peacefully celebrate a night out with friends and family without worrying about being shot
-we need to think twice before we board a train
-foreigners brand India with terrorism
-people die for no reason or no mistake of theirs
-petty terrorists can instill fear in us to roam our own streets
-the leaders we elect are not fit to do their jobs
-it makes us question secularity of our country
-the very fabric of our society is being torn apart in parts
-ANYBODY CAN SNEAK ON US AND STEAL OUR FREEDOM!
The only way to make our leaders accountable for this mess is tell them we are not OK!!!!

What we need to realise is India is a easier and softer target after countries such as US and UK have strengthened the security and are less prone to terrorist attack. Guess, it helps the terrorists keep themselves motivated by reining terror on easier targets. So lets shed our "chalta hai" attitude before we mourn the loss of more countrymen and hold our leaders responsible for our safety and peace!

Sketch Idea for SNL

Palin a participant on "Are you smarter than a five grader?" show :)

America Rebooted

If you happen to watch any of the news channels here in US you will see nothing but teary eyes, jubilant youngsters, dreamy eyes, pumping fists and hopeful faces. This is after the defining moment when they chose a African American to the highest office in united states. People here have been reinvigorated and have started to believe that America is still the land-of-opportunity.

But i feel pundits are making more of this than it actually is. I believe its more about choosing the right candidate to set alright the things screwed up by a pathetic incumbent administration. People are frustrated by the current administration and they are hungry for a "Change" that Obama promised them. Also, McCain ran a lacklustre campaign with no clear and constant message. Interesting question would be what would have been the result if we had an equally strong republican candidate? Would color-of-skin mattered then?

I guess Obama gets complete credit for a long and hard campaign. He ran a organized campaign keeping the message constant. He utilized the incompetency of the current administration to mobilize people against another term of Republican govt. The Obama campaign team also strategised the voter registration and as exit polls indicated most of the first time voters voted for Obama.
This election is surely a historic event and seems to have rebooted America to do what they are best at - be the Superpower!

PS: I do have a Nov 5 edition of USA Today. Wondering how much it will fetch me on eBay :)