This is a mail I received recently from a friend, which has been published at a couple of places on the web.

Is always up for a fight.

Why is it that despite all our might,

We cower in fright?

The approach is to always sit tight.

The whole of 2008 we dealt with terrorists.

The whole of 2009 we seem to be dealing with the Maoists.

This time they hijacked a train

,

Tomorrow it will be a plane.

How many more have to die in vain?

How much longer will India have to deal with this pain?

This one is a writer:

Should one even listen to her?

Just because she has a Man Booker?

Let her throw a hissy fit,

Tell her to stay in her poisonous pit.

Everyone knows shes full of shit.

What is wrong with her types?

Cant they see whats right and whats wrong?

Has some false sense of righteousness filled their crack pipes?

Something they use to keep getting high with their bong?

The governments prime approach is to “condemn”

Or better still “strongly condemn”

They prefer it be handled by the Police,

But those guys are equipped the least.

You saw what happened during 26/11.

The terrorist used the AK-47,

While the policeman used the rifle,

The terrorist wasnt even troubled a trifle.

How can you expect such a one,

To fight the Naxal who cares for none?

Oh sure youll give him money for the machine gun,

From twenty years that money is only going towards the MPs fun.

Even under the eyes of Madam Ji,

Raja is making crores of the spectrum fee.

Of course its wrong to use the army,

Even if the Naxal continues to harm me.

For you its about support,

Didi has helped to make your UPA fort,

To get rid of the communist,

She sided with the Maoist,

And drove away the industrialist.

Now her hand is being bitten,

By the redheads led by Kishen.

All the killing,

And blood spilling,

Has not had an effect,

Are you a eunuch with a defect?

Have your balls fallen off?

How much longer will you tolerate the Naxals scoff?

If you were Mahinda Rajapakse;

You wouldnt listen to one damn thing the Maoist had to say.

For the sake of his country,

He and his army destroyed the LTTE.

You on the other hand,

Act like a boy band.

Singing and dancing to the Naxals tune,

They make you look like a hapless cartoon.

Francis Induwar died headless,

His wife became husband-less,

His children fatherless,

All you could do was to say that the violence was “senseless”

What bloody Nonsense!!

When ever there is a pest infestation,

Its time to call in the extermination.

Only you want to indulge these cockroaches,

And they will continue to burn train coaches.

Send the Maoist philosophy back to China,

With a heavy dose of severe heart angina.

If the Naxals want to play war games,

Then send them up in flames.

These cockroaches want to commit homicide,

Blast them with a heavy dose of insecticide.

A mail that I received from a friend.

A newlywed couple had only been married for two weeks. The husband, although very much in love, couldn’t wait to go out on the town and party with his old buddies ..
So, he said to his new wife, ‘Honey, I’ll be right back.’
‘Where are you going, coochy cooh?’ asked the wife.
‘I’m going to the bar, pretty face. I’ m going to have a beer.’
The wife said, ‘You want a beer, my love?’
She opened the door to the refrigerator and showed him 25 different kinds of beer brands from 12 different countries: Germany, Holland, Japan , India ,etc.
The husband didn’t know what to do, and the only thing that he could think of saying was, ‘Yes, lolly pop…but at the bar…you know…they have frozen glasses…’
He didn’t get to finish the sentence, because the wife interrupted him by saying,
‘You want a frozen glass, puppy face?’
She took a huge beer mug out of the freezer, so frozen that she was getting chills just holding it.
The husband, looking a bit pale, said, ‘Yes, tootsie roll, but at the Bar they have those hors d’oeuvres that are really delicious… I won’t be long, I’ll be right back. I promise. OK?’
You want hors d’oeuvres, poochi pooh?’ She opened the oven and took out 5 dishes of different hors d’oeuvres: chicken wings, pigs in blankets, mushroom caps, pork strips, etc.
‘But my sweet honey… At the bar… You know…there’s swearing, dirty words and all that…’

‘You want dirty words, Dickhead? Drink your f***ing beer in your Goddamn frozen mug and eat your mother-f***ing snacks, because you are Married now, and you aren’t f***ing going anywhere! Got it, Asshole?’

I support this site. Well, I don’t support IE, forget just un-supporting only IE6. This website very correctly calls for the death of something really outdated – Internet Explorer 6. Just click on the links below and update your browser, if you haven’t done so already.

My suggestion goes for Mozilla Firefox. The most customizable browser in this universe!

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For a better experience using this site, please upgrade to a modern web browser.

After a really long while, I got to read an excellent book – ie Traders, Guns and Money by  Satyajit Das.

“This book gives an inside view of a person who’s been observing the markets. Lot’s of great insights with respect to companies and a country, some funny name calling, a take on how traders in the Derivatives markets themselves don’t understand the derivatives and their over-reliance on models, how Financial Services are reduced to Money Making rather than something more sensible and a lot more is discovered.

The Second half disappoints. In the first half, The energy is very high and the writing is much more sharp. Due to this, the first high keeps the reader glued – this because the humour is new and fresh. In the later half, it goes down into a long harangue of various products and the kind of insights that were to be read in the preceding part were lacking.

However, overall I give a book a 8/10. The extra 2 point, Simply because not too many books are written with the same clarity of Das’ book and his explanation of various dervatives.

All in all, it’s a great read and a recommended read.

I myself am surprised that we have something so relevant in the Mahabharata. No wonder Sage Vyasa said, ” What is found here, will be found everywhere; what is not found here will not be found anywhere”. This article brings out many sides to teaching. It tells us to change continously and not to be hypocritical.

Also, the article presents an amazing view of our culture and it’s thoughts on people who do not fit into the “Regular Mainstream” and the definition of being “Normal” and it’s relevance to our Current Day debate whether Article 377 should be quashed or not. Observe the intelligence of the Mahabharata & Ved Vyasa, which is mentioned in the article.

http://devdutt.com/on-krishnas-chariot-stands-shikhandi

I am no fan of the Left in anyway. Firstly, their loyalty lies with China. Next, they seem to be caught in a time warp – they still celebrate the October revolution even when the fall of the USSR is nearing two decades. And lastly, there is no room for flexibility with the Left in India. They are caught in ideology for far too long. Even China has dropped Communism over three decades ago and adopted market reforms in 1979. The only ray of pragmatism is shown by Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee  who of course is no saint, but atleast is more practical. Alas, neither does he enjoy major popularity within the CPM due to his statements, reforms policies & his straightforwardness nor within West Bengal. The Communists have never felt so low in Bengal if we go by the results of the Zilla Parishad polls held in the not so distant past.

Some of the major reforms they have blocked in India are

• Opening up of the insurance sector for greater FDI
• Allowing change in labour laws
• Privatisation of airports ( reluctantly, they agreed to the privatisation of Delhi and Mumbai airports
• Opening up of the retail sector to FDI
• Reluctance to PPPs

The problem with the Left was that though  they  were giving support, they acted more like an opposition, protesting against almost any kind of reform. They didn’t give any kind of new ideas to the government. Their agitations against fuel price hikes had no effect for obvious reasons that fuel is used by middle & higher income individuals more than that of grassroots. Neither on the inflation front did they suggest anything new or could mobilise support. They have been faltering in the not so recent past.

Now that they have finally withdrawn support to the UPA, I hope that the Congress is allowed to take reforms process ahead. It has to start right NOW. Already Samajwadi Party is known for a bit of it’s pro-private sector approach and I hope they give some leeway to the FM to initiate some reforms which are long overdue.

Even Sagarika Ghose has some words for the Left. A good read relating to where the Left was never right!

Red Letter Day

On a final note, I am happy that they Atleast they put words into action. Unfortunately, they will be decimated due to this. Inflation would be more of a concern for the aam aadmi than a nuclear deal.  The BJP has simply been sidelined and it’s hypocrisy is really baseless when it has come out that they were close to signing the CTBT some years back for the N-Deal. The Deal shouldn’t be salvaged just like that & more importantly – Deal or No-Deal, the country’s image of not being able to honour it’s commitments in the global arena should be salvaged

The inflation rate has already crossed the 11.63% mark this day. This really pinches hard. Just today, I bought some vegetables and was wondering that money a couple of months ago would have bought me more. Even the FMCG eatables are costlier by means of lesser weights in the same packaging.

Everybody in the Parliament, Opposition & Left will be baying for P. Chidambaram’s blood but in my opinion it’s of no consequence.Why? Read on…

He can’t do much in this case, the growth that happened in the past four years was not due to him or his government even thought he may like to claim so. The growth was despite the government intervention in business, red tapism and the FM’s high taxation policies. The growth was mainly due to high global growth experienced in a lot of  developed countries & developing countries including India, Vietnam and Latin America experienced the trickle down effect. The FM and PM didn’t do anything radical that would have stimulated growth majorly – no major policy intervention, no cutting down of red tape, single window clearances. Nothing was done by the incumbent government to stimulate growth.

Now that global inflation has come to roost, the FM likes to blame the global prices. But when the FM didn’t have any hand in the growth process how can he control inflation. In my opinion, someone who’s needs to be held majorly accountable is Agriculture Minister – Sharad Pawar. Farmers are dying in Anantpur and Vidarbha, our per capita output has fallen to the level of 1970’s and this minister is more interested in Cricket than Agriculture. He has never gone to Vidarbha even once but he has gone to Johannesburg during the T20 World Cup, he has watched IPL matches and recently went to London to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the ‘83 World Cup win. He in my opinion is more to be blamed for the current agricultural crisis. Of course, agreed that that inflation basket is comprised of many other items than food – steel, oil, cement, etc; in a country like India where 75-80% of the people earn below $2 a day, the food price inflation is what matters since people do not eat steel, oil & cement ( the FM was quick to call their manufacturers and call for price controls) and this boils my blood against the Agriculture Minister.

On a final note, I think with the amount of people in agriculture, if India takes proactive steps to improve farming and the agriculture sector, we can cool not only the domestic prices but also export them. We have a lot of capability but alas…

This question comes to my mind following the reversal of the order to give 100 acres of land to the Amarnath Shrine board(SASB). While the idea was to give the land to house pilgrims on a temporary basis given the hostile weather and roads to Amarnath, some people “fighting/standing up” for Kashmir feel that it would change the demographics of Kashmir following which the order was revoked.

The point of my post is

1)Didn’t the demographics change when around 400,000 Kashmiri Pandits left the valley in the wake of militancy. Where are the Hindu rights then?What about Buddhists and Sikhs who lived in the valley before the wake of militancy in the fag end of 1980s

2 )Any party in India if it appeases to Muslim and Christian communities apparently is “secular” ( Congress, PDP, NCP, SP, DMK CPM,etc.) but if any party or group parades nationalism on it’s sleeve or says that it is pro Hindu is branded communal and every small mistake/misdeed is magnified and subject to maximum scrutiny and judgment by the media( for ex:the murder of Gandhi, any bandh call by Bal Thackrey or the Gujarat riots).

One of the worst part of the whole story is that more media scrutiny is given to bandh call by the BJP & VHP and it evokes a debate on CNN-IBN, but when the Commies had more successful “Bharat Bandhs” and the very regular strikes in their bastions of WB and Kerala, the media simply refuses to debate much into the Bandh’s.

Having said all this, the threats given by the BJP to choke supplies to the valley was very lame and pathetic. This is not expected of a National party and is not a way to govern or protest by any means.

Chak de India! What a match. Kudos to Dhoni and Company for giving India the inaugural Twenty20 World Cup and great doses of cricket. And they did all this without the “Big Three” of Dravid, Sachin and Ganguly. I can still listen to crackers bursting an hour after the match.

As for today’s match, it was a real close finish. Just 5 runs short. And the match was almost lost hadn’t it been for the miserable shot played by Misbah-Ul-Haq. Even though I had a gut feeling all along India would win the match, it just went off when Misbah tried to play the unconventional shot off Joginder Sharma. Luckily, the field placement was intelligent throughout the match and the cup went to the team which history has always favored.

One of the good things about this series has been that the team has played more cohesively and more unitedly. And the real huge improvement in the Fielding department. The Imran Nazir run out did display the great improvement that has come into the department since the last series against England. Batting has been average( against Pak and SA) to world class( against Australia) and bowling of Shreesanth has been inconsistent. Of course, not to mention Agarkar who almost gave away the first match against Pakistan. Not the kind of bowling one would expect from a 200 match veteran.

Bowling should remain a source of concern especially before the big home series against Australia coming up in a few days. Hope they improve soon. All the best to Dhoni and Co. for the upcoming series. And once again, Chak De India!

At last I got the mood to write a blog post. Haven’t blogged or written anything since I have come to Mumbai/Bombay.

Life has come a full circle this year and has changed from the kind of life I lived in Hyderabad. Hyderabad was more relaxed, Mumbai’s life is constantly moving. I didn’t have any plans for the future when I was in Hyderabad. In Mumbai, I have decided that I Shall be writing CAT and other MBA entrance exams this year. And yes, for a change I am studying very seriously. Also, myThird Year of B.Com begins and I have decided to take life more seriously. Have seriously played too much fool with life!!!

Didn’t get to roam around much in Mumbai and it’s historical places. Yes, went to Navi Mumbai on 31st December. Found the roads and the city to be much better than Mumbai. It’s cleaner, lacks slums and is seriously very well planned.