Regionalism is as bad as terrorism

India has been already under the grip of perhaps the widest range of terrorism for quite some time.  With 509 incidences between 2000 & 2006 India ranks 7th in the world in of terrorist acts - just behind Afghanistan and ahead of Pakistan. During the same time there have been 899 official deaths due to terrorism in India - that's 5th highest in the world - even ahead of Pakistan and Afghanistan. With all these India ranks first in Global Terrorism Indicator. In most cases of terrorism the government very easily point fingers to 'foreign hands' - thus shedding their own responsibility. Most of the terrorist acts are linked to Pakistani agencies. Incidentally most of the terrorists lately have been Muslims. This makes even easier for the government to link them to the Muslim fundamentalist organizations of the world. Osama Bin Laden has created enough such organizations for our government to resort to.

No doubt most of the terrorist acts are caused directly or indirectly by the so called foreign agencies. But not all can be attributed to outsiders. By 2006 more than a third of India's 600 or so districts were affected by various acts of insurgencies and terrorism. Apart from the Muslim fundamentalists there are the Naxalites & ULFA - perhaps the two most important in-house terrorist organizations. The reasons of terrorism in various parts of India might not be very similar. Also it would be tough to generalize the terrorisms across the entire nation. For example the terrorism in Kashmir is not exactly same as that in the tribal districts of Chattisgarh, Orissa & Jharkhand. Socio-religio-economical reasons sometimes polarized with politics are widely the reasons of terrorism in most cases. The Naxalites or the ULFAs might not have been active had there been proper growth and prosperity in the tribal and north-eastern areas of India. But same is not true in Kashmir. Perhaps the government pump in most funds and 'packages' for Kashmir. The subsidies that the Kashmiris enjoy are perhaps more than that in any other state. The terrorism is Kashmir is mainly politico-religious in nature. The 'outside' hand is also very strong here.

What-so-ever be the reason or nature, each act of terrorism is like a dark black stigma on our country. More than the loss of life it's a loss of trust. People lose trust on government for failing to curb terrorism, the government lose trust on people because everyone becomes point of suspicion. Terrorism can't be justified under any circumstance, be it the Muslim fundamentalists fighting against American imperialism or the LTTEs fighting against decades of social discrimination against the Tamil speaking Sri Lankans. Each terrorism arises from some genuine reason which in most case related to oppression or discrimination. In most cases at least a few of the terrorists are also very selfless people, who really think they would do some good for people by sacrificing their lives. That's why many terrorists often become legends and martyrs. So if you think very deeply, you might start having a soft corner for some of these terrorists even for an iota of second.

But would you ever have any soft feeling or sympathy for persons like Raj Thackeray or Karunanidhi or so many other people who are responsible for spreading the cancer of regionalism in India? Don't you think that regionalism is even worse than terrorism? Terrorism is often a natural outburst of oppressed people. But regionalism is just a parochial and selfish tactic of some vested politicians, just to get some short term political mileage. Raj Thackeray thinks Maharashtra is for the Marathas and Karunanidhi has the audacity to threaten the sovereignty of India by forcing our Prime Minister to ask Sri Lankan government to stop their war against the LTTEs, which is supposedly the most advanced and organized terrorist outfit in the world with access to both navy and air force. Karunanidhi feels bad when Tamil speaking innocent people are killed in Sri Lanka. He doesn't feel bad even when much more people are getting killed in so many parts of the world in acts of terrorism. Does he ask Israel to stop killing innocent Palestinians? Does he go and ask Talibans to stop killing innocent people in Afghanistan and Pakistan? Does he go and ask the Somalian pirates to not attack the inncocent sailors? Does he go and ask Pakistan to stop supplying arms to so many terrorist outfits in India for killing so many innocent Indians across the length and breadth of the country? He doesn't care for the thousand people who have died over the past few years in various terrorist activities because most of them didn't speak Tamil. Not only is this just hypocrisy, but also utter selfishness and a serious bolt to our nationhood. We all have just only one identity - and that's of being Indians. We don't write our state or language in our passport. Just because I speak Bengali that doesn't mean that I've to stay in West Bengal. Every part of the country is as much mine as it is others'. It's my fundamental right to settle in any part of India and work and earn. The states were created just to facilitate efficient administration. The states had to be created based on some formula and linguistic basis did make a very simple sense. But that doesn't mean that language should become more important that nationality. Every one in India should be equally sympathetic to any death to any innocent person, be it from Sri Lanka or Uganda or Somalia or Honolulu.

If people like Raj Thackeray and Karunanidhi are given way it's not very long that we'd go back to the medieval period of multiple nations each speaking a differnt lnguage. The idea of India doesn't make any sense when people start talking about region and language. It's the responsibility of the local governments to provide proper education and health care to its people so that they well equipped to get the right employment. It's not the responsibility of the any government to reserve employment or opportunity for any particular community. Who-so-ever is the fittest for any job would come and fill in irrespective of his/her caste, creed, religion and language. Each of the Indian languages is very strong and it doesn't require anyone to protect it from extinction. Marathi language will thrive many more thousand years despite any of Raj's effort. Even if the people speaking Marathi decline in Bombay, that doesn't mean that the Marathi manguage is perishing. Language and culture are too fundamental to be impacted by anything. Sanskrit perished despite being protected by so many emperors for centuries. If a language has to die, it will do so naturally even after all efforts and if it thrives it will do so despite everything. You don't show more respect to Kannada by just enforcing all shop owners to write the bill boards in Kannada. You don't increase the staus of a language by putting the tag of a classical language on it. Each anguage is unique and is classical in its own way. It's really silly to fight for a language.

 

Terrorism can kill people. But regionalism will kill the very backbone of our country. If India breaks down into multiple small countries, that's the most pathetic thing that can happen to us - much much worse than our brothers and sisters getting killed every day in various terrorist acts.

It's important to curb terrorism. But it's even more important to curb regionalism.

 

Thanks & Regards,
Sudipto Das

 

+91-9886067137
http://www.mirafra.com

 

_________________________________________________________________________________
                                                                               http://www.sudiptodas.com

Inter IIT Musical Evening: Moods and Melodies

The Bangalore Chapter of the IITB Alumni Association is organizing "Moods
and Melodies" Inter IIT Musical evening on 8th of november, 2008 as a fund
raiser event for "Village knowledge centers" initiative of IITB AA.

To register any IITian can send mail to saumil@sportzvillage.com.

VKC's inspiration was from former President APJ Kalam's vision of each
IITian adopting one Village Knowledge Center across India - and
revolutionizing the village through technology and knowledge.

The 1st VKC has been operational in Ittamadu (a few kms from Eagleton)
over the last few years - and this fund-raising is to open more VKCs. The
Panchayat and villagers have been very enthusiastic and other villages are
asking for VKCs.

http://www.iitbombay.org/VKC/index.html has the details of the VKC
initiative.

IITB AA plans to set up and run Village Knowledge Centres in and around
Bangalore Rural. These VKCs would act as a nodal centre for knowledge
connectivity of villages. Pilot VKC has already been launched and fully
functional over past few years at Ittamadu.

"Moods and Melodies" evening will see bands from across the IITs playing
the choicest numbers. With an expected turnout of over 300 alumni and
family members, evening will be lively with the presence of many
distinguished alumni.

All proceeds from the event will be used for setting up VKCs.

As you can imagine, we are seeking sponsorship for the event - and
advertising in the souvenir (ranging from 10k to 1L) - in addition to
pledges. You can also adopt a VKC as an individual.

If any of you can assist on the sponsorship/fundraising front, please
write to us.

Details of the event are as follows:

Date: 8th November, Saturday

Time: 7:00 Pm - 10:00 pm including dinner

Venue: Royal Orchid, next to KGA.

Entry fee: INR 300/person. 150/- for kids below 12.

Chief Guest: Prof. D B Phatak (Computer Science, IIT Bombay)

To Register: Email Rahul [rahulchaubey@gmail.com] or Saumil
[saumil@sportzvillage.com]

Please block your calendars and inform other Bangalore-based IIT alumni.

We welcome you to have a great evening with your friends and cherish the
memories of hostel days.

More about VKC:

Website: http://www.iitbombay.org/VKC/index.html

For Donations/Volunteers please contact: Srikant Rao [srikant.rao@abs.in ]

Address: 565 E, 7th Main, 5th Cross, H.A.L. II Stage, Indiranagar,
Bangalore -38. Cell. 98450 29010

Thanks & Regards,
Sudipto

+91-9886067137,
http://www.mirafra.com

Employee's suicide due to alleged manager's harassment

With reference to the recent suicide of an employee of an MNC in Bangalore
due to alleged harassment by her managers I'd like to say that it's not
logical to blame the company for the entire episode. It has brought into
light perhaps the greatest taboo in corporate culture - that managers are
the most important reasons for dissatisfaction among employees. Enough
surveys have been done to corroborate the same, but still I don't find
companies taking serious note of it. Managers get along everytime because
people seldom speak the truth in exit interviews. Management of most
companies think that taking actions against managers might disrupt the
normal functioning of the company and give an undesirable impression of
being overtly 'soft' towards employees. Managing people is an art, a part
of the personality and a skill with which a person is born. It's something
like the sense of music of art, which can be nurtured or matured to a
great extent but never imbibed into someone. Even what the IIMs or any
other business schools do is just help people to manifest the skills and
traits they already have in them. Myself being a manager for the past many
years, I'd still say that unfortunately majority of the managers, mainly
in the hi-tech field, don't have the right set of managerial skills, nor
they get any help from HR, which itself is one of the most unskilled
departments of any company. You see people from IITs, MIT, Berkeley in R&D
and high class CAs in finance. HR, like finance or R&D, needs special
education and training. But very rarely you'd find HR managers, with the
right technical knowledge. It's like me, being an engineer, trying to be
in medical field. Even among the people with right set of skills - people
with MBA degrees - the top rankers never choose human resource. With bad
HR, it's really tough to have good people management.
As a solution (1) companies should try to get properly trained HR people,
preferably top-ranking MBAs (2) no one should be promoted to a manager's
position without proper mentorship (3) each attrition should be attributed
to the direct manager (4) there should be provision for 360 degree
feedback for managers (5) provision for anonymous feedback for managers
should be set up and (6) an atmosphere should be created where anyone has
the authority to vent out his/her dissatisfaction at work, even if it
involves the manager and finally (7) a person who doesn't have the proper
people management trait should never be made a manager.

Durga Puja at Koramangala, Bangalore

Please find the highlights of the Durga Puja at Koramangala (5-8th Oct) at Mangala Kalyan Mantapa (besides Angan Restaurant, near Raheja Arcade and Monday to Sunday)
This is by far the most youthful and exuberent Durga Puja in Bangalore.

Inauguration on 5th Oct at 7:30pm, by Mr. Shankar Bidari, Commissioner of Police, Bangalore

Morning Sessions are for Kids' events (11am onwards)

(http://www.sarathionline.com/kidsevents2008)

• Boogie Boogie & Fashion Show - 7th Oct
• Drawing Competition - 6th Oct

Afternoon sessions are for Youth Events with attractive prizes (2pm onwards)

(http://www.sarathionline.com/youthevents2008)

• Antakshari & Band Competition - 8th Oct
  • Entrees for Antakshari are open

The evnings for professional events (7pm onwards)

(http://www.sarathionline.com/professionalevents2008)

• Krosswindz: Prolific Rock - 5th Oct
• Kingfisher Nites: Popular Band MO2 (6th) and Salsa by Vijay Lourd (7th Oct)
• Gunjan: Bollywood Masti - 8th Oct
• Dance Dhamakha: Jhankar Beats (7th Oct)
• Contemporary & Evergreen Music: Om (6th) & Kohal (8th)

Community Bhog in the afternoon everday between 6-8th Oct

Please check our site: http://sarathionline.com for venue, latest updates and Puja schedules and details of the itinerary for all events.

Please pass on this information to everyone in Bangalore who would be interested!! Concerned people please take the responsibility to take a print out of this message and post it in the notice boards of Infosys, CTS, Oracle, Honeywell, Novell, Synopsys, Nokia, Cisco, Broadcom, Magma, Intel, Microsoft, TI, CITI, HSBC, Target, AOL, Aviva and other companies and schools/colleges, whatever or whereever applicable.

See you all sometime between 5-8th October!!

Thanks & Regards,
Sudipto Das

+91-9886067137

Editor Bangalore (TOI) - What's the main reason for unrest in Singur

In the spate of events at Singur for the past quite sometime people are forgetting one very basic thing - what's the real reason for so much unrest. Land acquisition is a part of any new industrial project. That means each and every large factory that came up anywhere in India had to go through similar steps of land acquisition. But such level of unrest has not been seen much. To a great extent the extent of the unrest in Singur, and any where else in Bengal - be it Nandigram or Haldia, is due to the fact that the ratio of land owning and landless farmers in Bengal is just mind boggling. This means that if some hundred people get compensation from Government many thousands don't get. The reason behind this shattering ratio is the fact that the Left front government, for almost three decades, has always indulged in 'arranging' small pieces of land for farming to millions of rural and illiterate people of Bengal, many of whom are immigrants from Bangladesh, without formally allocating lands to them and making them self-sufficient and less dependable on the local 'dada's of Panchayet. They always made sure that the farmers in Bengal remain poor forever because that make them more vulnerable to be perennially dependent on politicians. It  has been a very conscious plan to ensure that Bengali farmers never become as prosperous as that in Punjab or Haryana. Now when land is acquired only the legal owners get the compensation, leaving majority of the farmers, who have been farming for years without owning any land, uncompensated. So it's very logical that majority of the people would objct to it.  In most other states the ratio between lan owning and landless farmers is much less compared to that in Bengal and hence the unrest in any land acquisition is also more tame in nature. That's true for any place in Bengal and I don't think there's any solution. I don't see any hope of any industrialization in Bengal in near future. It will require some drastic reformists to change the paradigm in Bengal and make room for land acquisition and industrialization.

 

Thanks & Regards,
Sudipto Das

 

+91-9886067137
http://www.mirafra.com

 

_________________________________________________________________________________
                                                                               http://www.sudiptodas.com

A Thousand Splendid Suns

Just now I've completed reading the second novel by my recent favorite writer Khaled Hosseini, "A Thousand Splendid Suns". Ever since I read "Kite Runner" I just fell in love with this new writer. I've been always very passionate about the Bengali writers - specially Sarat Chandra Chatterjee, Bibhuti Bhushan Bandyopadhyay and off course, not to mention, Tagore - for the intricate sentiments with which they weave a diamond necklace out of simple characters. Might be due to my lack of extensive reading in English, I never found much of that type in English. My English readings are mainly limited to best sellers or classics. I was ecstatic when I read "Love Story" by Eric Segal because I got the glimpses of those simple sentiments and free flowing emotions that I generally see only in the Bengali writings on the backdrop of rural Bengal. Most of the English novels are rich in plot, characters, climax and ingredients. But they most often lack simplicity. Eric Segal had already started breaking my idea of English writings and Khaled Hosseini has now totally shattered it. And I'm really so happy.
I have been always quite put off with the silly translations of some of the best works in Bengali. The simplicity always get washed away in translation. I've always wondered how would have Sarat Chandra or Bibhuti Bhushan written had they been born in England. I can say very well now that they would have written something like what Khaled Hosseini writes. His "Kite Runner" reminds me of Apu, the child whose life is like a song, despite the hardship he has to endure throughout his life. The optimism in his character, the life in his life and the urge to live through everything have always stunned me. The brazen and cruel world of Afghanistan, the poverty, the harrowing experiences of Taliban etc never seem to be cruel or prominent. The simple life, which swings in the air like a light fallen leaf, surpasses everything else.
I don't remember how many times have I gifted "Kite Runner" to my friends and relatives. I was waiting eagerly for the next book by Khaled Hosseini. My father bought "A Thousand Splendid Suns" on his way to Bangalore at the Calcutta airport. Very obviously I'd given "Kite Runner" to my father and inflicted the Khaled-Hosseini-bug in him. And even more obviously I didn't allow him to carry the book back to Calcutta. But for many reasons I couldn't read the book for almost a year. Only very recently I started reading the book and completed it in a few days. Well, to be very frank, I somehow lacked the passion and excitement that I felt after completing "Kite Runner".
"A Thousand Splendid Suns" is indeed a more researched work than "Kite Runner". It deals with Afghanistan in a much more vivid manner. It gives you a crash course on the socio-political scenario and happenings of Afghanistan over the past few decades.
The story is about two women, Mariam and Laila, hailing from totally different backgrounds, but finally coming together by the turn of events. Mariam is the illegitimate child of a rich businessman Jalil from Heerat. She is brought up by her mother, a past maid at Jalil's house, deprived of Jalil's association and recognition. Even before she starts dreaming, all her dreams are shattered when she is married to Rashid, a cobbler from Kabul, at an age of sixteen. Rashid is a typical wife-bashing, heartless, uncultured and primitive person, who might represent majority of Talibanised people of Afghanistan. The other woman is Laila, a very bubbly girl born to an educated and cultured couple. Laila grows up with Rumi's and Hafez's ghazals, her father's profound knowledge and teachings about life and people, and off course her love for Tariq, a boy little older then her. As she grows up, grows her love for Tariq and fate pulls them apart. Tariq vanishes after their first love making and Laila's life gets entangled with Mariam's. In the backdrop is the changing political and social scenario of Afghanistan from royalty to Russia to local warlords to Talibans across three decades. It's a story of love, and only love, which triumphs above everything else that goes wrong for both Laila and Mariam. It's a story of hope too - the hope for the sunny mornings after the long wintery nights of Talibanism. It's the story of Kabul, Heerat and the entire Afghanistan that changes radically over years. It's a story of endurance, a story of immense unimaginable hardships, a story of courage, a story of revenge and repentance and deceit.
There are off course a few things that I didn't like. The episodes of Rashid's wife-bashing are too prolonged and repetitive at times. The decsriptions are too graphic and become gross. Also the climax is quite premature and ending is mellow and predictable. Nevertheless, I'm moved after completing the novel. It's surely a novel worth reading. In English not many people write such stories, so rich in emotions but so simple in nature.
I love it!!

Thanks & Regards,
Sudipto Das

+91-9886067137
http://www.mirafra.com

_________________________________________________________________________________
http://www.sudiptodas.com

Inaugural Speech by Chetan Bhagat for the new batch at the Symbiosis BBA program 2008

Courtesy - Priyank Shukla
--------------------------------------------------
Good Morning everyone and thank you for giving me this chance to speak to you. This day is about you. You, who have come to this college, leaving the comfort of your homes (or in some cases discomfort), to become something in your life. I am sure you are excited. There are few days in human life when one is truly elated. The first day in college is one of them. When you were getting ready today, you felt a tingling in your stomach. What would the auditorium be like, what would the teachers be like, who are my new classmates - there is so much to be curious about. I call this excitement, the spark within you that makes you feel truly alive today. Today I am going to talk about keeping the spark shining. Or to put it another way, how to be happy most, if not all the time.

Where do these sparks start? I think we are born with them. My 3-year old twin boys have a million sparks. A little Spiderman toy can make them jump on the bed. They get thrills from creaky swings in the park. A story from daddy gets them excited. They do a daily countdown for birthday party – several months in advance – just for the day they will cut their own birthday cake.

I see students like you, and I still see some sparks. But when I see older people, the spark is difficult to find. That means as we age, the spark fades. People whose spark has faded too much are dull, dejected, aimless and bitter. Remember Kareena in the first half of Jab We Met vs the second half? That is what happens when the spark is lost. So how to save the spark?

Imagine the spark to be a lamp's flame. The first aspect is nurturing - to give your spark the fuel, continuously. The second is to guard against storms.

To nurture, always have goals. It is human nature to strive, improve and achieve full potential. In fact, that is success. It is what is possible for you. It isn't any external measure - a certain cost to company pay package, a particular car or house.

Most of us are from middle class families. To us, having material landmarks is success and rightly so. When you have grown up where money constraints force everyday choices, financial freedom is a big achievement.

But it isn't the purpose of life. If that was the case, Mr Ambani would not show up for work. Shah Rukh Khan would stay at home and not dance anymore. Steve Jobs won't be working hard to make a better iPhone, as he sold Pixar for billions of dollars already. Why do they do it? What makes them come to work everyday?

They do it because it makes them happy. They do it because it makes them feel alive. Just getting better from current levels feels good. If you study hard, you can improve your rank. If you make an effort to interact with people, you will do better in interviews. If you practice, your cricket will get better. You may also know that you cannot become Tendulkar, yet. But you can get to the next level. Striving for that next level is important.

Nature designed with a random set of genes and circumstances in which we were born. To be happy, we have to accept it and make the most of nature's design. Are you? Goals will help you do that.

I must add, don't just have career or academic goals. Set goals to give you a balanced, successful life. I use the word balanced before successful. Balanced means ensuring your health, relationships, mental peace are all in good order.

There is no point of getting a promotion on the day of your breakup. There is no fun in driving a car if your back hurts. Shopping is not enjoyable if your mind is full of tensions.

You must have read some quotes - Life is a tough race, it is a marathon or whatever. No, from what I have seen so far, life is one of those races in nursery school. Where you have to run with a marble in a spoon kept in your mouth. If the marble falls, there is no point coming first. Same with life, where health and relationships are the marble. Your striving is only worth it if there is harmony in your life. Else, you may achieve the success, but this spark, this feeling of being excited and alive, will start to die.

One last thing about nurturing the spark - don't take life seriously. One of my yoga teachers used to make students laugh during classes. One student asked him if these jokes would take away something from the yoga practice. The teacher said - don't be serious, be sincere. This quote has defined my work ever since. Whether its my writing, my job, my relationships or any of my goals. I get thousands of opinions on my writing everyday. There is heaps of praise, there is intense criticism. If I take it all seriously, how will I write? Or rather, how will I live? Life is not to be taken seriously, as we are really temporary here. We are like a pre-paid card with limited validity. If we are lucky, we may last another 50 years. And 50 years is just 2,500 weekends. Do we really need to get so worked up? It's ok, bunk a few classes, goof up a few interviews, fall in love. We are people, not programmed devices.

I've told you three things - reasonable goals, balance and not taking it too seriously that will nurture the spark. However, there are four storms in life that will threaten to completely put out the flame. These must be guarded against. These are disappointment, frustration, unfairness and loneliness of purpose.

Disappointment will come when your effort does not give you the expected return. If things don't go as planned or if you face failure. Failure is extremely difficult to handle, but those that do come out stronger. What did this failure teach me? is the question you will need to ask. You will feel miserable. You will want to quit, like I wanted to when nine publishers rejected my first book. Some IITians kill themselves over low grades – how silly is that? But that is how much failure can hurt you.

But it's life. If challenges could always be overcome, they would cease to be a challenge. And remember - if you are failing at something, that means you are at your limit or potential. And that's where you want to be.

Disappointment's cousin is frustration, the second storm. Have you ever been frustrated? It happens when things are stuck. This is especially relevant in India. From traffic jams to getting that job you deserve, sometimes things take so long that you don't know if you chose the right goal. After books, I set the goal of writing for Bollywood, as I thought they needed writers. I am called extremely lucky, but it took me five years to get close to a release.

Frustration saps excitement, and turns your initial energy into something negative, making you a bitter person. How did I deal with it? A realistic assessment of the time involved – movies take a long time to make even though they are watched quickly, seeking a certain enjoyment in the process rather than the end result – at least I was learning how to write scripts , having a side plan – I had my third book to write and even something as simple as pleasurable distractions in your life - friends, food, travel can help you overcome it. Remember, nothing is to be taken seriously. Frustration is a sign somewhere, you took it too seriously.

Unfairness - this is hardest to deal with, but unfortunately that is how our country works. People with connections, rich dads, beautiful faces, pedigree find it easier to make it – not just in Bollywood, but everywhere. And sometimes it is just plain luck. There are so few opportunities in India, so many stars need to be aligned for you to make it happen. Merit and hard work is not always linked to achievement in the short term, but the long term correlation is high, and ultimately things do work out. But realize, there will be some people luckier than you.

In fact, to have an opportunity to go to college and understand this speech in English means you are pretty darn lucky by Indian standards. Let's be grateful for what we have and get the strength to accept what we don't. I have so much love from my readers that other writers cannot even imagine it. However, I don't get literary praise. It's ok. I don't look like Aishwarya Rai, but I have two boys who I think are more beautiful than her. It's ok. Don't let unfairness kill your spark.

Finally, the last point that can kill your spark is isolation. As you grow older you will realize you are unique. When you are little, all kids want Ice cream and Spiderman. As you grow older to college, you still are a lot like your friends. But ten years later and you realize you are unique. What you want, what you believe in, what makes you feel, may be different from even the people closest to you. This can create conflict as your goals may not match with others. . And you may drop some of them. Basketball captains in college invariably stop playing basketball by the time they have their second child. They give up something that meant so much to them. They do it for their family. But in doing that, the spark dies. Never, ever make that compromise. Love yourself first, and then others.

There you go. I've told you the four thunderstorms - disappointment, frustration, unfairness and isolation. You cannot avoid them, as like the monsoon they will come into your life at regular intervals. You just need to keep the raincoat handy to not let the spark die.

I welcome you again to the most wonderful years of your life. If someone gave me the choice to go back in time, I will surely choose college. But I also hope that ten years later as well, you eyes will shine the same way as they do today. That you will Keep the Spark alive, not only through college, but through the next 2,500 weekends. And I hope not just you, but my whole country will keep that spark alive, as we really need it now more than any moment in history. And there is something cool about saying - I come from the land of a billion sparks.

Keep the Spark

Indian politicians need management lessons

India is the land of the three most efficient managers the world has ever produced. The award for "Best Manager" surely goes to Krishna, well Lord Krishna to be more specific, whose management principles based on four different strokes - Sam, Daam, Dand and Bhed - for different people is still taught in all business schools even today. The way he was able to manipulate situations in his favor is something that any top business tycoon would die to learn and emulate for the best possible results. His people management skills are beyond any question. The way he convinced a reluctant Arjun to fight the battle of Kurukshetra is worth studying.

The second position for management surely goes to Chanakya and the third to none other than Mahatma Gandhi for managing the highest ever number of people. Both Chanakya and Mahatma Gandhi's principles of management were based on Sam, Daam, Dand and Bhed. The right stroke when used for the right people can have miraculous result. But at the same time the incorrect stroke can cause disaster.The Indian politics is full of incorrect strokes.

When a father motivates a little kid to drink a bottle of milk with the promise of a chocolate he is actually using "Daam" or reward for managing his little kid. This type of management works very well for immature people. When the same kid grows up a bit the same father has to rebuke and scold in order to keep him under control. Then the father is using "Dand" or punishment as a management tactic. When the kid grows up to a young man the aged father discusses his family business with the same kid and takes important decisions together. The father is then using "Sam" or equality in management. The Britishers used the divide and rule or the "Bhed" tactic to manage (or rather mismanage) Indians. Anyone can find out that the father can't apply Sam on the small kid or Dand on his grown up young son. But at the same time he has to use Dand many times to grow the right sense of discipline in his child. Rewarding and punishment at the right time in the right proportion is very essential for an efficient management.

In Indian politics what we see is just Daam and Bhed. There's no space for Sam and Dand. The entire horse trading of MPs is the wrong use of Daam. Not punishing the Left for their irrational behavior is also an instance of not using Dand when it's of utmost importance. The classic example of mishandling the Nuclear Deal is an example of failure to use Sam. It's well known that the BJP had actually sowed the seeds of the nuclear deal. But the Congress didn't want to give any credit to the BJP and wanted to usurp all the credits themselves. That made the BJP antagonized to the entire episode. Had the Congress given the proper credits to BJP publicly and kept them in loop for all their discussions then the later won't have had any scope to antagonize the deal. Even now BJP is never saying that they are opposing the UPA on the nuclear deal. Even in his speech during the debate before the Trust Vote on 22nd July leader of opposition Shri L K Advani made it very clear that BJP is opposing other issues like price hike, inflation, bad conditions of farmers etc. Very aptly BJP utilized the scenario of opposition to the nuclear deal to their favor to create pressure on Congress. The recent crisis won't have arisen at all had the Congress applied Sam or equality in management. Lastly there's innumerable cases of using Bhed. The entire politics of appeasement of Muslims is the blatant use of divide-and-rule tactics. Not only the Hindu-Muslim bhed, people use Dalit-Brahmin, Dalit-OBC, Creamy-non Creamy OBC, Yadavs-non Yadavs and all other forms or bheds or divisions to their advantage.

So overall the entire political class need thorough lessons in management, if at all they are interested to manage the country in an efficient and ethical manner.

Shri L K Advani's response to Dr. Manmohan Singh's speech on 22nd July in Parliament

This is interesting. Yesterday Dr. Manmohan Singh had published a speech in his website targeting Shri L K Advani's and today here is later's response. The good part is that now-a-days all the transcripts are available online immediately and the people of India can have a direct look into who is saying what. I think these are indeed worth reading, irrespective of the political affiliations of anyone.

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Slightly over two decades ago, a stinking corruption scandal at the highest level of the Government, first unearthed by the foreign media and subsequently investigated by several courageous journalists in the Indian media, changed the political landscape in the country. Such was the public outrage created by the revelations of huge kickbacks in the purchase of Bofors guns from Sweden that the late Shri Rajiv Gandhi, who had won a four-fifth majority for the Congress party in the Lok Sabha in 1984, was swept out of power in the parliamentary elections in 1989.

The country witnessed an even more shocking bribery scandal yesterday when the Congress-led UPA Government secured a completely illegitimate victory in the trust vote by manufacturing a slender majority in the House. Three BJP MPs — Shri Ashok Argal and Shri Faggan Singh Kulaste from Madhya Pradesh and Shri Mahavir Baghora from Rajasthan — exposed, with tell-tale evidence, of how top leaders of the Congress and Samajwadi Party conspired together to secure cross-voting and abstention of non-UPA MPs by paying them crores of rupees.

A close look at the final tally in the House shows that the Government would have certainly lost the confidence motion in the absence of cross-voting and abstentions by MPs belonging to several non-UPA parties.

So shameless were activities and public pronouncements of the top functionaries of the two parties in the run-up to the trust vote that the entire country started suspecting that the Government was up to some mischief. Indeed, in my speech in Parliament on 21 July, I had specifically referred to the corrupt means being employed by a Government which, in the name of promising nuclear power, was resorting to "horse power" to save itself. Honourable Members from several other opposition parties also accused the Government of indulging in the worst kind of horse-trading to convert its minority into majority.

The Prime Minister had asked in a tone of injured innocence: "Where is the proof?" After the incontrovertible proof that our three MPs produced in front of the Speaker, the Prime Minister has no moral right to continue in office. His is a tainted victory. After having devalued the office of the Prime Minister by allowing the misuse of several democratic institutions for highly questionable ends — which includes misuse of the CBI and the Law Ministry in the Bofors case —, Dr. Manmohan Singh now stands exposed as one who blessed the desecration of the Temple of Democracy.

I am deeply saddened by the fact that several of our own MPs became a party to the murder of democracy. The BJP has decided to expel them with immediate effect.

The BJP profusely congratulates our brave three MPs who not only resisted the temptation of crores of rupees offered by the Congress-SP combine to abstain from the vote, but chose to expose this scandal in an effective manner.

I would also like to congratulate several other MPs, belonging to both the BJP and other political parties, for defying the threats, blackmailing tactics and allurements coming from persons in very high quarters in the Government and the Congress-SP combine. They have stood by the high standards of parliamentary behavior expected from every political party.

The cash-for-votes scandal has raised serious questions about the journalistic ethic followed by the TV news channel which recorded it. The right thing for the channel to have done is to show it and let the people draw their own conclusion. Indeed, at the meeting party leaders at the Speaker's Chamber yesterday, several opposition leaders, including Shri Vijay Kumar Malhotra of the BJP, had demanded that the tape be shown to all MPs before the trust vote was taken. After listening to the account given by our three MPs, the BJP is left with no doubt that, had the channel broadcast the tape, the Government would have been in the dock before the trust vote was taken.

Soon after our three MPs exposed the scandal inside the House, the TV channel had announced, at around 4.30 pm yesterday, that it had handed over the tape to the Speaker. We have now come to know that the tape had not been delivered to the Speaker's office till 1.00 pm today. This raises great apprehensions in everyone's mind about the possibility of doctoring of the tape.

The BJP demands that the Speaker immediately convene a meeting of the leaders of all parties, show the tape to them, and institute a time-bound inquiry. The outcome of this inquiry must be made known before Parliament convenes for the Monsoon Session in August.

The BJP has decided to launch a nationwide campaign to make the people aware of the illegitimacy of the UPA Government and its unsuitability to continue in office after exposure of the cash-for-votes scandal. The campaign, which will begin from Sunday (27 July), will also highlight the UPA Government's saga of failures and betrayals – above all, its failure to control skyrocketing prices of essential commodities, to ameliorate the plight of farmers, and to effectively fight the menace of terrorism.

Somnath Chatterjee - The Lotus among the comrades

Yesterday I'd written about the filth in Indian parliament and today I'm thrilled to see a Lotus blooming in that filth. Despite the relatively cleaner (lesser criminal credentials, lesser scams and corruption charges and almost not a single case of horse trading) background of the Left, there's no doubt that they have filled the Indian politics with the maximum filth with their hypocritical ideologies and total nonsense principles. Let me not remind everyone that they'd opposed the Quit India Movement and supported the Emergency. They had burnt effigies of Rabindranath Tagore, Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar and many other luminaries of Bengal renaissance in Bengal a few decades back stating that these personalities are representative of the Burjwa Class, the term plagiarized by the Left people from some French word referring to the rich people. They still hang pictures of a person like Stalin, who is no lesser evil than Hitler, in their party offices. There are zillion other filth that can be written about them. But amidst all the filth we do see a personality like Somnath Chatterjee who defies his party whips and decides to be a torch bearer of India's constitution. He is like a Pankaj, a lotus, that thrives in the filth, 'pank'. His decision to not step down from the post of speaker is an exemplary evidence of selflessness, nonpartisanism, and integrity in today's Indian politics of greed, opportunism and horse trading. The post of speaker is above any party. The role of the speaker is like a headmaster in a school. What he has done, even at the cost of being expelled from his party, is a rarity in today's politics. Everyone in Indian politics should take a lesson from him.
Hail Somnath!!