The Great Indian Tamasha

Democracy, trust, government, rule, power, nation.

The biggest tragedy of India is that, it is a democracy. A policy, how much ever good will face opposition. And a bad policy among detractors will always find supporters. And the lower house of parliament, the house containing the policy makers of the nation has always engaged in a Ruling party v/s opposition party battle, rather than battling a common war for the nation’s interest.
Each session of parliament brings forward new elements of power psychosis in politicians. The extent to which they may stoop to remain in power, no mater what happens to the country, is always on show.

Hence, this session of parliament convened for the no-confidence motion against the UPA government was no different in the plot, sub-plots and climax.
The plot again saw the politicos putting party needs and power greed ahead of the nation’s growth and development. And the climax as usual saw the nation’s interest fail. The sub-plot saw glaring double crossing and horse trading.

The Left wingers couldn’t stand the humiliation at the hands of congress any more. The left was treated like a small kid for the last 4 years by the grand old party of India, the congress. When the kid becomes delirious and gets insistent for an expensive toy, the clever parent bribes the kid with a chocolate bar and sweet talks the kid out of its demand for the toy. It was a similar ploy congress employed on the left. But this time the left wasn’t to be bluffed and pulled the plug out of the UPA coalition. But it is a different story altogether how the weakest PM ever of the largest democracy along with the US money and one broker named Amar singh showed all, that shamelessness has no bounds.


This congress government has only taken the nation from one depth to another depth over the last 4 years. The general feeling in the nation is that of anguish, desperation and hopelessness. Right from the beginning days of this govt, it has been involved in vote bank politics and played a game of pseudo secularism. Far better are the ways of BJP, which acknowledges that India is a Hindu nation (with a population of over 80% Hindus, how can India be any thing other than a Hindu nation), and need to progress forward on the fundamentals of Ram rajya.
Now, the pseudo secularists may draw swords at this reference and saw that there are Muslims and Christians and Buddhists too in this nation, then how can India have Ram rajya.
What’s wrong in it? Hinduism either as a religion or way of life doesn’t indulge in violence/force full conversion/aggression/cruelty and inequality. My advice to them would be to be Vedas and puranas literate. A Ram rajya is a rule bereft communal/caste divide, it is rule of equality in each and every sphere of life. It is a rule where there are no criminals; it is a rule of complete harmony, kindness and joy. It is rule of building friendship and allies. It is rule that sees no difference in man/woman/animals/trees. It is a golden rule of sufficiency and creative excellence.
Then why are these secularist tu tuing a Ram rajya??? Because in the disguise of secularism, they are scheming ways of winning the minority vote bank and use it to consolidate their hold on power.


This is the government which has kept a terrorist like Afzal guru from hanged to death, yes, he is the same guy who master minded the attack on parliament, how good would it have been if few of the laloos, sonias, sorens in the house would have been their victims rather than the poor guards.

This is the same government which has increased the quota reservation to almost 60%. Their basis of conclusion was that the SC/ST/OBC/minorities population in India is 60% hence the reservation. A 1 year old kid, an 80 year old woman were all part of their count, who would apply for a seat at IIM or government service this year… this is as per the govt study.
How many among the 60 % are actually eligible for the reservation, let that figure decide the reservation basis point. If there is a more detailed census taken, we would find that out of the SC/ST/OBC/minorities population, more than 50% are illiterate. So what the govt is telling is that it has reserved seats even for those who are illiterate and are in eligible for that course or vacancy. How more glaring can be injustice???
The same if compared with that population of India, which is termed general, you would find at least 80-90% of them eligible and literate.

So, where do you see the problem is??? At the top level or the grass root level???
These govts should understand that there is no quick fix/magic potion to solve the issues. In this case, the problem is illiteracy. Govt should be concentrating on educating and developing the skill set of that section of nation which is in the darkness of illiteracy. And start towards educating each and every child in India rather than blatantly put up reservation for the undeserving….while their own kids are enjoying the equal and free societies of the US and UK.

Then there is the inflation, that is on a all time high of 12% and still increasing. The govt shamelessly points out that the growth rate is 9%, a jump from 8%.
Is India so foolish not to understand why the growth increased?? When the inflation is more than 120% more than it used to be during the NDA rule???
For a middle class family, he may do some sacrifices in luxuries and tide over the inflation, but what of the section of society who live on daily wages??? When the essential commodities are scarce and prices sky rocketing, how are this section of people going to make their ends meet?? There are people who earn just over Rs70 per day. They have families; there are children too there, who have never known what it feels to have a full stomach. What plans does the govt have for them??? How are the reservations helping them???
Shouldn’t there be a more effective central distribution scheme in action??? Government Go downs are stacked with cereals and pulses for effective distribution among the poor, but the conniving power mongers indulge in literal looting from these go downs. Annually tones and tones of grains go rotten and wasted, while a part of nation doesn’t necessarily go to sleep having 1 square meal. The stacking of food grains is for use during a natural calamity, emergency or extreme food shortage. But in the name of foresight and preparations, it is a gross wastage. There must be a better ways of utilizing and managing these CDS.

All said and nothing done. But it is better than being unsaid. BJP, Congress or communist; no matter which party, unless India has better leaders who think about India and its people rather their party’s power adjustment, India will continue falling deeper into the depths of social/economical and cultural degrade.
For not even a single split of second should anyone mistake that leader to be Rahul Gandhi, who started of his speech in lok sabha stating “Today I speak as a true Indian…..” we Indians should have better vision and see through nepotism and plans of one single family who has exploited a great lineage’s name.
Gandhi, is only one and that is Mohandas karam chand Gandhi. Completely apolitical and so have been his true descendants.

In this whole discussion I have not once mentioned N-deal and that was purposefully.
In my next blog I will delve upon the much discussed N-deal. I have been going through the IAEA and US Govt’s websites and other independent forums on the actuality of N-deal. Once, I have a complete picture I will be publishing my findings.

Names

Names names names… Whatz there in a name? name is after all a reference to an object. And it is the thing that is referenced that matters, may that be named a, b or z for that matter.

But still most of us are very much attached to our names and love it.there are other few who do not like their name for the plain reason that it is either too long, Funny sounding or simply too old fashioned.

There is a lot of thought process that goes into naming the baby by the parents.
We in India give a lot of importance to the astrological timings and the position of the planets at the time of birth of the child to decide the name or the starting letter of the name; there are others who look at the names numerological aspect. In 7eventies and eighties it was a trend to name the child after a great personality/leaders and actors…. Then there is a safe path chosen, by naming the baby after the parent’s favourite diety….

Whatever it is, either ways the parents wish is that under all situation their kid is going to be a victor and all the good luck would belss upon him/her And hope that these names would prove good for their little bundle of joy….

Now as the kid grows, he identifies himself with what his name actually means. now if you are one among the many who doesnt know the meaning of your name...then please visit this link
http://www.behindthename.com/name/

Now a person name "Gyani" may feel from inside he is a very learned person....even though he may hate books ...."Shwetha" may not be exactly snow white in complexion. "Vivek" may actually be an Aviveki.
"Vijay" may not have known what success is all about and be closer to failures. "Muskan" might have actually given more cry faces than smiles. "Shanthi" may have made many ppl restless and "Prem" may be hated by more people than he is loved.

Yet, you make a connection with your name and accept it. But some folks are so very frustrated by their names that they seek the legal way out and just get their names changed.
a "Madhavan Kutty" may become "Madhav", a "Rajappan" would like it better as "RAjan" and for guys named "Veerappan" it would be a blessing if it could hv been "Veer" and so on... but i am not saying every1 would opt for name change.

and yes, when writting abt names...how can we missout on the various nick names?? it is like a caption to the new block buster movie... "If you have a name, then there will be nicknames ".............
as for4 me "VIVEK"...it is easy to have nick name, mom calls me "Viveku", others in family callled me "vivu" and also "vibu"...there was a time when ppl called me "batman" (still dunno why, and no wonder i have grown to love batman more than the other super heroes bcoz of this association, i think they actually meant badman)...in school/college it had always been vivek, but every now and then i would also acknowledge to avivek....there were some who called me vicky.There was a phase in life when i was also callled "Voki"....after that person's pet, which had got lost. At the same time there were other names "Kongu", "King kong"............

In office as most of you know you need to give your full name....
and mine being Vivek Edasserivallapil Ashokkumar... i felt Vivek E Ashokkumar would be a favour i would be doing to all....
and yes it was......
my email id was crucifixed as vivek.ashokkumar and mails were recieved by others as Ashokkumar, Vivek (silly stupid americans)... and what more you need i am known as Ashokkumar to entire office and to the very little others as vivek.
now i regret that favour i did, i should have gone wit my full name.....and no wonder ppl would have found vivek much easier than edasserivallapil.....and i could have been known as vivek....
but for one of my collegue who has a beautiful name in Aravind, happened to provide his full name
Aravind kopparappu. no prizes for guessing what he is now known as around the office....""Koppu"
mmm...when in the US, ppl there found it easier to call me vivek and i am greatful that they did call me by the name i loved the most. but again there was a circle of friends who called me "Viv".

now, apart from these... there is an other aspect to ur names/nick names..... if there is more than one person in the room with the same name as your's ????
These are the times when the physical attributes, state,hobbies etc.. come forth in deciding the differentiation factor....
there were 2 balajies in the college and thankfully one was as thin as any one could get and teh other was well built, so we had "body balaji" and "balaji".
in my colony we had 3 Govinds... one was from delhi, other from bombay and the other from Madras...we just prfixed their hometowns to differentiate them. in school we had many manjunaths.... each had differnt initals, one was L, the other SM, the other TM and K....so we ghad Lmanja, Tmanja,Smanja and Kmanja... wonder how they all are now.... had seen them last in 10th std.....

In my own case we have 2 vivek's in the team and 1 in the product support team... and to worsen things i share my cubicle with one of the namesakes. We have a tuff time if some one calls out Vivek.... but as i said thanks to the display on emails... i am ashokkumar, and one is karwa and the other nashi.....but it so happened that in a conference with the Business unit, all 3 of us were 2gether and the italian -american client had a harried time ........

and when ever we called her seperately... she had to make note that this the proffessional vivek and this is the personal vivek....and we still wonder who among us was the professional and personal...as we both have had our share of personla discussions with her....



names names names.....whats there in names???yes, if it is someone else's name, there is nothing there... but if it is your's there is everything in the world in it.

Just reflect back and try sorting out the nick names you had and still have and have a hearty laugh....

Reservation: Is it really helping or hurting the greater cause?

There was this joke passing around on the web...





"New Exam Policies"

1. General students - Answer ALL questions.

2. OBC - WRITE ANY one question.

3. SC - ONLY READ questions.

4. ST - THANKS FOR COMING..



we all surely had a good laugh, but the tragedy of the situation is that this is virtually what is happening.....



Reservation and quota system has effectively proved the above joke true.... and no wonder we had this joke!!



In today's world is this reservation madatory??? is it fair that we have such policies in a world which waits or sympathises with none.

In a nation such as ours where unemployment rate is always on a high and competition is getting tougher and tougher in every aspect of life, would it be correct to have a reservation or quota system based on caste and religion???

When a student sits and works hard to obtain 80% marks, shouldn’t he be more eligible than a student who has not even put half the effort and scores only about 60% marks. But this quota system is going to give the job/admission to the student with 60% marks…..Is this the correct way of shaping the future of our nation???

Should our nation’s knowledge base be as poor as 60%??? Shouldn’t the future of India be given the best in quality and not be bogged down by the caste/religion based reservation???In such scenario, what words of consolation do the people who support and are implementing this quota/reservation policies for the 80% guy who has lost his job/seat to the 60% guy???Isn’t this a pathetic way of drawing vote bank??? Why don’t the supporters of the quota system see the bigger picture and see through the politician’s gimmick and understand that this just an other ploy to get political mileage.

This quota system or this reservation rules for SC/ST/OBCs/Minorities in today’s society is acting as a caste system in a way it was in the olden times. General public is at the worst hit group and now it’s the so called “oppressed group” that is ruling the roost.

How many MPs/MLAs/Ministers get elected playing on this dalist/sc/st/minority card??? When in a majority parts of India the caste system of the olden days is of no relevance.Then comes the creamy layer issue, I do not wish to elaborate on the failures in this policy adopted by the inept government of ours.

Folks don’t you think that the quota system is being exploited right now and the additional reservations being implemented by the govt will be exploited even more???As an example from my life, I have seen my sc/st friends who have scored way below 60% in the CET and 12th yet getting a free seat in a very reputed engineering college. And a general category person with 80% marks getting no free seat and seeking some alternate course. And what more, this SC/ST friend of mine didn’t even manage to clear his BE course in 4 attempts and eventually dropped out!!! Tell me was that justice delivered to the potential of our nation???The amount of time, money and effort wasted on him, if put on the other guy we might have had a great world class engineer in our ranks…..The misery of reservation pours on……

I am one person who has always been against any sort of reservation or any sort of distinction made based on a person's caste/religon/creed.....Hence... aask you guys if there is any merit in having a reservation system inour country???



i may have missed the point ....hence request you to help me see if ther is any merit in the RESERVATION system??

The BMTC ride

It was a crowded bus. It was past 12 PM on a very hot Bangalore day. And there I was, in this bus….standing, cramped for space.

In the front of the bus there were few seats vacant but none of us men standing dared to occupy them; as it was “reserved” for the ladies.

As the bus trudged from one stop to the other in the notorious traffic, I saw an aged man get into the bus. He was visibly very tired, as much due to his old age as the hot day.
Finding a seat empty in the crowded bus would have been his wish if he had got a magic lamp…and behold he finds these seats in the front empty and he goes there and sits…
You could actually see the relief on his face; his body too.

Couple of stops later 3 ladies got into the bus, they were about 40 something year olds. They scan the whole bus, as if it was a crime for the others on the bus to be there…they see 2 empty seats and 2 of them occupy those, while the 3rd finds the old man and starts shouting at him….and quickly it turns abusive and the lady states “u r so old and still look at what your wishes are….don’t you have women at your home??”…. “look this is ladies seat just get up from there….its my seat”. The man feebly protests and says to adjust as he is very much tired and pleads for understanding. The lady would have none of this and also calls the conductor to get the man out o the seat….and the conductor duly obliges.

The whole scene was pathetic….once the trio occupied the seat with their useless weight, they begin chatting and laughing and gossiping around…..
Yes, life is beautiful………as of the old man…who cares for him???

On a different day, which was partly cloudy and blustery ….on my way to the office I was in much luck…as I had landed myself on a very rare bus…. A bus that was.   ....... not crowded !!!!
But on closer observation…I see that the women folks up front were in bigger number and there were ample seats empty at the back (the so called male area)……….
I was sitting in a cubicle type seating arrangement where 2 seats were placed facing each other. (A person traveling by BMTC would very well know this…. A total capacity of 4 people..2 each facing each other)… I was sitting on one of the seats alone and a young man around 30 year old sitting opposite me. He was wearing a soiled shirt, obvious from a crow bar he was carrying I knew that he was a laborer.

Then I see a middle aged lady coming towards us and sitting next to the laborer…in couple of seconds the lady starts behaving like she owned the place and started looking condescendingly at the labourer, and demanded him to get up from there and go somewhere else…It wasn’t a request …it was a thundering order… I was shocked at the way this lady was behaving…. I watched on inquisitively to see what the poor man would do…. Nothing surprising happened; he just stood up and sat next to me without a murmur….

mmm…so you would be thinking why was I recollecting these incidents??? Why not these are the minor incidents that clearly show how a noble idea can be exploited…how a directive from the government can be manipulative and used in the most inhumane fashion….yes… it is nothing but the idea of “RESERVATION”…

In the above case what you saw was the reservation given to the female traveler on the BMTC buses…even though the whole bus is empty…you a MALE is not allowed to take a female seat. Even if there is an old man or a sick/disabled man on the bus…he must always get up and salute the female passenger and wipe the seat and ask her to have a seat….no matter what happens….just because there is no so called “RESERVED” seats for men on the bus…a woman can have a seat any where on the bus…why to speak more… you have these pink coloured BMTC buses specially crafted for the women folks… which go empty and there you have a have normal bus where men are hanging on to their dear life on the crowded bus….these women show no respect and have no empathy towards others and are just carrying their dirty body mass around….

(When I refer to women/females in general in my post. I am pointing to the ones whom I illustrated in my above observations. Please do not take offence misunderstanding my generalization )

Is it against law to give a ladies-seat to an old man??? Is it correct if a female is sitting in a men’s seat with his boyfriend…and you have a tired/old person standing and feeling tortured???

When you make a rule, of course it may not be fool proof..but then putting in a bit of thinking behind these would never hurt as well….
As, I started off with the issue of “RESERVATION”, I think I will continue in my next blog about the QUOTA system for SC/ST/Minorities/OBCs……….

Till then make sure that you do…….not what the law and rule brought up by senseless politicians requires… but what your conscience and law of humanity and kindness would want.

At the same time above were the extreme cases of rudeness and it is not true that men are always meek and the women are always as heartless. But the worrying matter is that these incidents are becoming more common and an everyday happening!!

A day's musingz!!

so then frnz.....

one more day gone in our life...................older by one more day..............

And there have been so many things that happened around the world in this past day.....

Sehwag scored a half century in an odi after abt a year...(last i am told was at the world cup...omigosh!1) bt then wat delight his inningz had been...love the way he plays...come to think of it.....

when he first came into the side, i hated him the most and almost prayed that he be out of the team sooon....(i was so upset with him claiming 3 wkts and scoring a 50 on debut and winning the mom award..) thingz have changed since then and for me cricket now relates to just sehwag!!

pakis have broken their winning streak by losing this game.(their last 12 wins being against zmb and bangladesh)....

the national film awards were announced and as usual..a malayalam product bags the award...pulijanmam (tiger life) and to be frank...never heard of this film before..as confessed by its director...it ran only in 6 centres for a week and a half....
he also adds that nobody shud term these films as "award" films, as there is nothing suchas an "award" film...if the product is good then awards will come to it...and not vice versa; film being made just for the awards..a film thrives on its audience and every director wishes for maximum viewership for his product....

and what more ??italy was drubbed by holland....and what drama the first goal created....
russia as expected lost to a strong spain 1 to 4.....
and as i write the greece match is still on.....

after a long time i had a very long chat with my college friends....muralidhar reddy, suresh p and prem kamal...
they all share a flat in hyd and are in one mnc or the other....and having a blast of a time...
prem has bought a new apache....and cant stop swearing at his top boss...some one named venkatesh.......
suddenly i realize as time passes... the present day becomes a part of our memories and the memories that once were your present...comes running back to you...and you just feel like having visited the past...even if it were for a split second.

mmmm....when having a chat with my college friends it was obvious that the topic about my ex would come up... i think i did well by telling them that what happened was in the past... and it is better that those things remained in the past....

prem kamal though revealed to me abt his love life's new secret....mmm..i guess when i said secret...it is meant to be a secret...

secrets....secrets...i sometimes wonder why all this secrecy..why not just be frank and forthcomming in everything...if u have been true to urself...(this time in sathya harish chandra way) and are nt afraid of facing the challenge then y hide smething....

I think itz time to say good bye for now...and will come back soon with something from my life..ur life..our life........

In the grip of Idiot Box

I was just browsing through the various channels the other day....

While on it...I had to recheck if this was a new comedy/laughter channel or was it still the India ka no.1 newz channel AAJ TAK.... ha....
now dayz it shows more of the laughter challenge participants in a various avatar more than it shows actual news....may be it is vying for the tag of India ka no.1 comedy channel....mmmmmm,,

And then we had our all time fav channels to fall back on...the discovery/national geographic/animal planet n all.... but there u go... these channels are more of a telebrand showroom than anything else....

just spend some time watching the ads of these wonderful tele brand products.... the producers/directors of these ads feel that the TV viewing public has an IQ in minus!!!
it is outright stupid and idiotic.....

Amidst these we have the zee cinema/set max/ star gold...rerunning the same old bollywood flicks....in fact was surprised at the claims of set max ....they were publicing the amithabh starrer MAHAAN on the channel as world TV premiere .... But then I do faintly remember watching it on our good old doordarshan in the good old days of one channel world....

Not to mention the numerous regional channels plying around......but it was great moment to southern indian protype of globalization....
Me a mallu guy watching on telugu channel (gemini TV) a dubbed Tamil film (couldnt make out the film name as i am unpad in telugu) sitting in bangalore....hahahahahah.......

i abstain myself from the hindi channels...as you get a carbon copy of the same program on each n every channel..... when u have a saregama on zee TV, u have a voice of India and indian idol on star and sony rspectively...
then u have waar parivar, and simmilar pgm on zee with the devagan family judging it...its all crazy out ther....
panchvi pass and 10 ka dum.... uff.... thank fully hrithik is only branding ndtv imagine and not hosting junoon.....

but amidst all these i do scrap out the old episodes of sarabhai v/s sarabhai and jasubhen n jayanthilal........typical gujrati mix of comedy.... may b i prefer the modi land coz... itz my 2nd home twn having brought up till the age of 8 there....

then we have the videshi channels....
ah, the ftv has overcome the ban by introducing ftv india.... (damn ;-))......
and then we have the usual zee studio/hbo/hallmark... but there is this one channel that stands out...sony pix.... te way they introduce u to a film is fantastic..........

they pick one gripping moment out of the film and then show it as a trailor....by blanking out the scene to show the actors'/director's name....and finally the name of teh film and it's time of showing....

I would recommend you this channel.... and specially mention 2 films.... they are really good...
one was "heavan is a playground" and the other "do the right thing"...watch out for teh quotes they have at the end of the 2nd movie....
both movies deals with the black community in the US.......

i also happened to watch an episode of "two and a half men" and the "scrubs".... these 2 serials had been my staple deit during my US trip... was reallly gald to see these two again here..............

mmmm........i dont know what next is gonna come up on TV now... but i sort of miss my cricket....
after the damka of IPL...any thing lesser is boring....any how....lets also give some to to teh euro 2008 and what a match nadal had to beat that pig fedrer(dunno y, bt hate that guy)....then alas force india again crashed out ...and my fav hamilton smashed himself out too............

let me see what else i can find on tv...ba bye.....

Think!

Life goes on....and we live by that adage.....
but then there will be a day when the life stops....A day just for yourself...a day which will be exclusively for you and there will be no one to steal it from you, there will be no one there to stop you or call you back and be there for you...

It will be just you, you and you....mmmm.........just a thought guyz......

But, then isnt it a fact that we r all running... and just living on a fast lane...and we are rarely giving a thought to what is happening to us....???

how much ever fast or high we go...we must always have this realization that there will be a day that will slow us down and just push the brakes on you....there will be a day when you will come down from the heights u wer at...


If there will be such a day in each one of our lives then...why are we not slowing down...and try living a life our way....not the way world is living it......and the fact is that that day is inevitable.

what ever moment we get between our first and the last breath...why cant we live those moments and be true to ourselves each moment we are there....

being true to ourselves is not being a sathya harishchandra.....being true to ourselves is to be what we actually like to be and do what we would like to do......

why do have to study the complex equations and theorms and those principles laid out by a person long before us???
why are we forced to study a fixed syllabus and get ourselves prepared for a so called "exam"??

are these theorms and formulae going to come to ur rescue when u r drowning???
Would these equations and priciples come to ur help when the brakes of ur car has failed....???

I have wondered this many a times....... if we were nt taught that Earth is round and if we were not taught abt the universe.....would we have had the interest to explore and understand tehse facts ourselves???

in the same way if we were not taught abt the various phenomenons in physics and chemistry...would we have by our effort discovered those???

in all my counter answering surprisingly I came up with a very big YES.....
we would have we would definitely have......

But the fact remains exosed in "Would"........we could have and would have.....
but not "we have"......

tragedy in our life is everything was prepared for us...we werent supposed to change anything..we were supposed to follow....just be one among many ....

and be happy by scoring better than the other person in a memort/mugging up test..... we showed no ingenuity.....we showed no creativity...we showed nothing new to the world....
we just reproduced the ideas of the greats from the past and based on our ability to reproduce ideas of others..we were classified as a bright, avg and below par human beings.....

life goes on.... yes so does the river ganga......the droplets of water have been following the same path from centuries...a path laid down by the first ever droplet from gangotri.................the pioneer droplet!!! hahahah.....


so friends..... think..what have you done in your life other than using ur brain to pass the "memort test" and in the process understanding the rules laid out in our nature and society???

what have you done that is genuinely your's????

isnt it time that you did some thing different from the rest...

may be you could take up paintings and draw u ur ideas..... may be you could take up pen and there could be a great literary piece flowing out.... u could carry out experiments on various phenomenons in chem, physi or bio..... in fact it is not you "could", it is you "can"........

the fact again is based on ur interest you can do a lot of creative and innovative stuffz.....
mind you these activity you carry out may not be a world altering events but then it definetly will be a life-altering event...
yes...your life!!!

think about it... yes, its when you think the ideas come out..... think about it.....