The Angry India

In few days we are going to celebrate our Independence. 64 years of Independent country. One of the worlds fastest growing economy. Tremendous wealth creation for its citizen. Some of the best entrepreneurs and corporates ( The world is least bothered if some senator calls Infosys Chop shop). Some of the world largest corporates now are headed by Indians. It will not be a surprise to see some Indian becoming head of state of the so called First world countries in the next few years.

Then why don't we have quality life? Why don't we have civic sense? Why do we believe in always breaking the law of state? Why are we sadist? Whether newspapers or television - all show ugly sad and bad news? Why don't we have happy news? We always try to sympathize and also create an atmosphere around us where people can sympathize.

Everyday we have incidences of people destroying public property. For every mundane thing happening , some buses are broken, trains set on fire etc.... Why this anger? Why the frustration? Is it because we are attached with the way things are? Or we identify with the pain and feel it ourselves? Or is it frustration of being ruled for donkeys years by Mughals, Britishers and now the politicians. What ever be the reason - we do not see and realise that its us who loose. We only hurt ourselves. I have never seen or heard anger make any positive impact on anyone. Have you? I think we feel that if we don't show anger and be dormant , the other guy will walk over . This is a myth. We should be assertive, positively assertive instead of angry. We don't see any solution by being angry. We only get un necessary victims. People get killed and public property destroyed. Our own property. The taxpayers money. Its a different story that only 4 billion of the 120 in this country pay taxes. How do we bring the change? Of the various means available and possible the simplest I believe is Media. I have been following Indian Idol on TV and was discussing with Dad last night when one of the participants danced and hug Amir Khan - how this "nobody" suddenly has become a known figure within few weeks and till this time he never even dreamt of seeing Amir Khan in person and today he was dancing with him. There are hundred such examples. Ramdevbaba and his yoga would have not gone beyond Haridwar without media. I feel if the media spreads positivity - things may change drastically. Lets not glorify the wrongs. Why does the Media not do something to help making the situation better? Trouble is it has become a compulsive complainer. If it just keeps complaining that means it is not prepared to actually do something about it.

Hey friends, lets do something to make this country a heaven that is now part of only grandma's story. Even that generation has forgotten it as a Sone ki chidiya. Lets be honest towards our country and its people. Jai Hind and Wish all a happy Independence day.

Talibanisation has a new Synonym

The largest number of Member of Parliament in India come from Uttar Pradesh. A state with great history. A state which has given us most of our Prime Ministers. A state which has Taj Mahal , the monument of love within its boundaries. Our most sacred river Ganga flows through it. It is the state where Lord Rama and Krishna were born. It has been the karmabhumi of Buddha, Mahavir, Ashoka and Harsha. UttarPradesh has contributed numerous golden chapters to annals of Indian History. But the present status of this great state is pathetic that people fear crossing the state while travelling east in trains. The recent hate speech by Varun Gandhi is to be heard to be believed. How can a young guy educated at London school of Economics with such a decent upbringing speak what he has spoken. What has happened to our so called Indian values. Is this the only way a candidate wins votes. I thought we in India never accepted this kind of harsh words. But then worse happened a couple of days back when a candidate was found murdered and hanged at Jaunpur. Such a shame for our great democracy. Almost 25% of our last parliament had people against whom some criminal investigation is going on. The UP assembly has more than 40% of members with criminal investigation on. Charges include rape, armed robbery and murder. The political parties in India have a moral responsibility to weed out corrupt and criminals from their rank. I need a genuine choice to elect my representative. Its so unfortunate that the two main stream parties have lost out of Uttarpradesh to being single digit representation amongst 80 MP's. If such criminal activities keep on happening and people are tortured and murdered, votes cast out of fear - shortly we may have a synonym to Talibanisation - UPnasisation.

If I was Wise....

I have always learnt from my father about savings and investment and he has done a wonderful justice to this through out his career. I have been doing reasonably well too. But some how the last five years I made some wrong choices. I invested in stocks, mutual funds and properties. And I am loosing in most of it. If only I was wise enough to invest in our politicians.... They have grown by almost 8-10 times since the 2004 elections. That's an average of prominent contestants who have filed nominations so far. The richest of the lot so far I believe is a MP from Andhra Pradesh at 2.99 Billion INR. Mind it these are valued not even a fraction of the market price. Rahul Gandhis assets list 6 acres farm house at Faridabad for 3 million INR. As I live in Faridabad and can say with conviction that you can not buy a single property here for even 5 million INR for a single acre. "Prime Minister in waiting" Mr Advanis assets have trebled in the last 5 years. The 541 MP's in 2004 parliament had some 900 Crores amongst themselves meaning each was worth 1.7 Crores. Now this does not include assets in families name and no cars. At the rate its going this time in announcing the assets while filing nominations I am sure by the time the Lok Sabha is constituted in May this average could well be 10 Cr or so per MP. In any case if you are not a Crorepati you cant even buy your ticket which is being rumored at 10 Crores specially in Andhra Pradesh or UP. Compare this to our countries per capita income after taking inflation into account is 26000 INR. A simple bank fixed deposit of 2004 worth of each MP would earn almost 10 times this amount. And its said THEY ARE OUR REPRESENTATIVE.

Manifestos - God bless this country

Manifestos visit us once in five years as do our politicians. I dont remember past manifestos neither does the political parties which announced them. But this time the manifestos are real stupidity and more stupidity. So we have one national party announcing rice at Rs 3.00 per kg and the opposition coming up with Rs.2.00 per kg. Unfortunately they dont have schemes to give employment and better economy so that the people can afford to buy at what ever is the market price. There is another party which promises free television and cable connection. As these are IT times so one party has promised to give computers to all at 10000 Rs with free Internet connection thrown in. The Left front in their manifesto does not speak of industrialization as its a capitalist agenda.Last time around Behenji didnt use manifesto as she didnt believe in theory but she wanted to show action in practise..Hope she could teach people the ways of her rising wealth.

But the most stupid manifesto has been released today by SP. No English classes as its against our culture. No computers as it takes away employment. I thought the maximum employment created in this country in the last decade was in the IT sector. No harvesters as it takes away job of workers in farms. No machines but all work needs to be done by hand. Machines brings unemployment. No share trading and " Shopping Mall" culture. Sounds some what like we are talking of Swat valley. I hope the voters see through the tall promises and nonsense talks otherwise only God can save this country.

The Great Indian Tamasha - Elections

The Indian Elections starts next week. It might be the only country where the General Elections are held over a month. The poll results will be counted on 16th May and we have a one month of daily dose of entertainment on television. I am sorry I used the wrong word entertainment. This time its hate & more hate. The politicians talk all crap. The media is working for their TRP's . Its just one week left for the election to start and there has been no talk of any issue and development. All the brick backing on the news channels is by hand picked few politicians of the main parties and is stage managed to increase more hate and partition.

You can very well make out the apathy of we taxpaying and peace loving voters from the fact that at the age of 42 this will be first time I will vote. Despite going to various offices to enroll my name in the voters list - every time when I went to vote - I found my name missing from the list. I am sure there would be thousands whose name are stuck off from the list. Any way now this time hopefully my name will be there and I will vote but whom do I vote for? The candidates dont visit the city area - they prefer to go to the rural area and places where there are more voters and where they can manipulate the voters using caste and false promises. I did a search on various election sites to find out who the candidates are. Looking at their history,performance in the past and activities I dont want to vote for any of these guys. So I decided I will vote for the party which synchs most with my thought process. Unfortunately its a huge vacuum there also. All parties this time are just talking division and hate. Its so unfortunate and I feel so depressed about the future of this great country. The Indian political system must be the most unaccountable one in the world to its citizen. Does any tax payer know whats happening to his hard earned money? Where does it go? What are we doing towards education, quality of life, health care, security .... ? Is there a concrete plan and follow up action. Are we supposed to sit idle and vote for these guys as voting is our dutiful right as a citizen of this country? Amir Khan reminds me this everytime I switch on the TV. I dont have a platform to vent my anguish and pain. I found expressing my views on the blog here might lessen my stress. I need to be heard. And I am sure when I say ' I ' - its not just me but many more like me who want to play a role in taking back the country to its golden heights. I would like to express some of my anguish in the next few blogs. Hopefully some one some where comes across this to lead us.

Jai Ho - Celebrating India

It was a great and proud Evening when the Oscar this year had 10 nominations for Slumdog Millionaire - a predominantly Indian movie. The best news obviously was Rahman getting triple nomination. The two music directors whose music has always made me happy and relaxed are him and RD Burman. The most played songs in my ipod are from these two folders only.

Couple of days back I read in the newspapers about Amitabh Bacchan not comfortable about poverty being shown in India for the western world. There is a huge debate going on as how only poverty and hunger attracts the western world etc. etc. Today I read that some one in Patna has filed defamation suit against the film for calling slum dwellers names in the movie. I think this is all bullshit. The fact is - the movie is so much India - based on book by an Indian Vikas Swarup, shot in India, cast is Indian and music is Indian. And though I am yet to see the movie but I am sure what ever has been shown is actual India and this movie is all about hope. Anyway I am not a critic and never like them , I prefer to enjoy the moment. I am proud of it and all of us should celebrate this moment.

Lets hope and pray that Rahman wins the Oscars when they are announced in February. In any case we have enough to be proud of at this time with his Golden Globe award - the first for an Indian.Lets all celebrate India.Jai Ho.... By the way have you visited Rahmans website - http://www.arrahman.com - wonderfully done.

I have a dream

It was fascinating and exciting to watch Barrack Obama take oath as the 44th President of United states yesterday evening. It was a well organized inauguration and impressive. Impressive not because of the grandeur of the event or history being created with the first black President being sworn in but because of the hysteria, hope and belief President Obama has created - not just amongst Americans but the whole world.


When he spoke, "We remain the most prosperous, powerful nation on Earth. Our workers are no less productive than when this crisis began. Our minds are no less inventive, our goods and services no less needed than they were last week or last month or last year. Our capacity remains undiminished. But our time of standing pat, of protecting narrow interests and putting off unpleasant decisions -- that time has surely passed. Starting today, we must pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and begin again the work of remaking America", it must have inspired millions of Americans take that one extra step, one extra effort to reach the goal. More than 2 million people braving the freezing temperatures chanting Obama Obama was for real. It must have come naturally to the people present there as they see hope in their leader specially during these low times.



When was the last time we felt the same in India? I dont recollect a single moment in my life. Since the last thirty years that I can recollect from my memory - I dont remember any leader in this country who has created so much hope and awe. Yes, in history we have. Gandhijis Non Cooperation movement, Netajis call of " Give me blood and I will give you freedom", Indias first Prime Minister Nehruji's independence speech "At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom" India's Second Prime Minister Shastrijis call of " Jai Jawan, Jai Kishan" during the 1965 war with Pakistan are some moments in Indian history which must have inspired all Indians.



Where has all that gone now? Why don't our leaders inspire us any more? There must be many reasons because of which our leadership has deteriorated over the years - castism, corruption, lack of education etc but I feel one of the major reasons could be the age of our leaders. For a country with more than 2/3rd of population below the age of 35 - the Prime Minister and President are above 75. The leader of opposition is above 75 and two members of his party are fighting for the post, in case the party comes to power are above 80. Major cabinet ministers are senior citizens. There is an age limit in almost all jobs. We start questioning Saurav Ganguly for his age despite him scoring the highest run in the year. Why dont we have the same rules for our politicians and leaders?



I am no Martin Luthar King but I also have a dream. Dream of being inspired by a dynamic leader, dream of living in a just society and corruption free country. Where people fear and abide law and don’t buy it. A place where there is no discrimination based on caste, creed and religion. A " SONE KI CHIDIYA" . Love you India.

Too many people in the park - not a healthy sight

I started going to work for few hours from this week. Recovery is slow and as per the Docs its going to take some six months for all the symptoms to get back to normal. I still have the burning sensation in my hands and left leg. The positive is I am able to walk better and have some good percent recovery in the strength in my right hand. Its painful though to carry all the sensations. No alternative, so...

Well I started going to the park for walk in the afternoon. Slowly and gradually with few days I have started to do 2Kms and feel good about it. Its usually a time when its mostly house wives who come to the park. But surprisingly in the last few days I am noticing lot of young and middle aged guys in the park at 4 in the afternoon which is unusual. Then I realized that they are mostly coming from lay offs or there companies now going to 4 or 3 day week. A bad sign. The roads also suddenly look less crowded and what usually used to take us almost 20-25 mins to come home from work now we reach in 15 mins. Clear signs of a huge slow down in economy. This really looks bad. Everything looked so good till September and suddenly by November we are talking recession in India. There seems to be no money around. I am sure there is going to be tough times for every one in months ahead. The best way to survive at this time is to sit quiet and let the storm pass. We all know good times are round the corner and have to be be patient till they come.

Another incident which has really shook the whole country has been the terror attack on Mumbai on 26/11. The horrifying events of those 60 hours will be embedded in the mind of each and every Indian. There has been tremendous display of anger and the TV channels have been propagating it hopefully for the country's benefit and not to increase there TRP's. But I believe most of the anger being displayed was directionless and will not reach us anywhere. The so called celebritiies who came on TV spelt rubbish ideas - dont pay taxes(like they are paying religiously in the first place), hand over the country to army, bombarding pakistan and so on. I believe why India is stable in this world is because we are tolerant and have a strong democracy. We need to strengthen these qualities more with rooting off corruption, education for all and stronger implementation of our laws. The war on terror can be won if we strongly fight corruption. Its not just politicians who are corrupt , the whole society has degenerated. But what most hurt me as an Indian was repeated reference of Mumbaikar fighting and Mumbaikar spirit and so on. Its not just Mumbai , its India and Indians which is hurt and wounded - whether terror strikes at Mumbai, Delhi, Ahmedabad or jaipur. Its the Indian spirit and greatness of our culture and society that helps us fight back. In any case do we have a choice?

Will we ever touch them

For the last many years I had been under the impression that the biggest competition for my business comes from China but this trip has really changed my prospective. LNM is presently making products for all the top OEM companies in Mining & Construction supplying products all across the globe. Couple of year back I used to listen from my customers that we are expensive then China etc but lately nobody was saying this. Now I realise that the chinese companies have taken a massive jump are not even competing with us but have gone a step further and were competing with my customers infact. There was this huge river basin project which all my customers had bid for and I was working closely with two of them as a potential partner. This was a huge project for all these companies and obviously LNM.  Every body had jacked up their capacity with huge investments to cope up the demand. And you know what the whole project has been given to a chinese company and the millions that these bigger players had invested in the project has just been a huge loss. What do the chinese do that we dont?  Can we ever reach the levels that they have created for themselves. The Olympics have been an eyeopener for the world about what China can do. The amount of money China is spending on infrastructure is mind boggling. 45% of there GDP . No country has ever done this. It is being said that by 2025, Sanghai will have more than 50000 skycrappers ie equivalent of 10 New York cities. China is doing in decades what the west did in centuries. I believe the democratic system in India or say other countries increases the cost and delays to projects.  But then their system of government increases privilege, corruption and special interest group. This results in major failures. The recent episodes with lead in children toys or the presently going on news on contaiminated milk causing numerous deaths of children are a testimony of damages the chinese system does. But then the positives are more than the negatives.  And China is taking massive steps to cut down on these failures. Their growth rate is really gravity defying growing more than 10% for last 15 years or more which is a dream for the rest of the world.  The fastest train in China takes just over four hours for the 800 mile plus Sanghai- Beijing journey.  By 2020 they have planned to have as many airports that each citizen will be living within 60 miles of an airport. By this year China will have around 40000 miles of expressway, India does not even have 1000. If you have been to London and seen the London Eye, china is building something similar in Beijing which will be almost twice as bigger than London eye.  What are we doing? Fighting for land in Kashmir, intelligence fails to unearth the terrorist bombings which is such a casual phenomenon and topic of the kitty parties - where next? We are so much busy in our caste system and reservations that we burn public property some where every day. I have been trying to get my name in the voters list for three years but still have been unable to do so despite efforts. Wake up India. Brand India has more pluses than China in the world as a brand which can be trusted. But why there are no efforts to grow on it? I will certainly try to understand China very closely when I travel there in November end.

Happy Birthday India.

Tears rolled down my eyes when the Indian flag went up and our national anthem was played at the Olympics couple of days back. Abhinav Bindra had won the Gold Medal for India after 28 years and of course its the first individual Gold by an Indian. India last had won the Gold in 1980 in hockey and at that time I was a student of class VIII and in my hostel wardens room had heard the commentary live on his radio.

I was just changing channels on the TV at home and suddenly came across the Mens 10Mtr air rifles final on. Abhinav Bindra was in the second position after 7 rounds. I felt he was in a great position to get India a medal so called every one at home to see the moment. After 9th round he was tied with Hakkinen at the top. I just told to everyone he is going to shoot a 10.8 and he did that. I shouted out of joy seeing the moment of India's first individual glory in Olympics in 116 years and after 2 billion births in this116 years. I was suddenly proud of my country. The last 3 days have almost 3-4 pages dedicated to Abhinav and I believe now every body in this country knows each small thing about him - how his father has built for him a private shooting range and a 2000 million INR hotel he is going to get as a gift from his father etc. etc. Suddenly there are new columnist born in newspapers - his class 3 schoolmate, his high school principal, his sponsors, his sister. Every body had known from when he was born that this guy had talent from his birth. Suddenly Abhinav on his return to India tonite will find new friends and relatives.

Any way, I am proud of him like any other Indian for giving me that precious moment in my life when I saw my country flag go up in a sports event. Other wise the politicians and leaders had made our golden land into a drama stage - a drama no one wants to watch but are forced to act. My friend Rajesh's father had an appointment at the Apollo hospital today but they had to come back midway as one political party had jammed all roads in the country protesting some religious decisions. I heard in the news few people died as there ambulance could not reach the hospital because of these blockades. Billions of public property is burnt and damaged by these political parties - bought from tax payers money - unfortunately only 3% of our people pay taxes. The media also adds fire to these political dramas. If our media is proactive these things will not be spreading. What ever positive we hear and see in India is just because of individual brilliance of people of this country. We are amongst the most intelligent community in this world and if we get a support from the Government India's growth can be something which no economist can even predict.

There is so much of apathy from these govt. officials in every thing they do. No clean air, no pure drinking water, nothing moves without the wheels of money, absurd misuse of power, no basic infrastructure, cast ism - I mean it can be such a huge list that you at times feel punished living here. And no solution in sight. Its such a mess. Life remains nasty for far too many Indians. India is in the bottom third of the human development index.Poverty and illiteracy is still a major problem. Bribery is rampart. Corruption is in every sphere of life. Economic growth has not touched majority of the population. The human cost for this is rising farmer suicides.

But its not all that is bad. Our democracy is something for which we all Indians should be proud of.Its election machinery, given the scale and complexity of the task, is the best in the world.Using purchasing-power parity, India is now the world's fourth-largest economy. The economy is expected to grow by 8 percent annually and account for more than 12 percent of world's economic growth in the next 15 years. India will jump from 24th to the 10th biggest trading nation in the world. Unlike China's foreign investment fueled growth, Indias growth is self generated. There are more MNC's India produce then chinese or other developing countries. Its Indians like Mittals or Tatas who dream and make it happen when they take over bigger entitities then they are to make India proud.

When I see Phelps Michael going up the podium for his 5th Gold , 11 golds in Olympics as of now and expected to win three more in this Olympics, I don't know what emotion does each American go through. But whats so special about these American or Chinese sportsmen that we don't have. I am sure talent is not missing in this country , its the system which is rotten.

2 days from now we celebrate the 61st Independence day. I am not sure this is what the freedom fighters dreamt when they fought for our independence. I am also not sure do we want our children to live in this country as it is. I know for sure that all these politicians who play with our sentiments - there children don't live in this country.

Every birthday brings new hope and new possibilities. India today is the youngest country in the world. I am confident the young generation will slowly takeover and rebuild this great country.History shows India has always picked itself up and kept going. I am sure it will be same now. Happy 61st Birthday India, I love you.
(Some inputs and data in this blog has been sourced from an article by Mr. Ramesh Thakur in www.chowk.com)