Wanderings of Mind

If congress and its UPA lose 2014 general elections, one of the key person they can thank for that is Digvijay Singh. Congress is living in a dreamworld of its own and Diggy has a part in creating that dreamland. Congress believes that a sop here and a statement there coupled with creating a danger alert about BJP can bring Muslims and weaker sections in droves to vote for congress. They would do well to remember Lalu Yadav's fate. His MY(Muslim-Yadav) strategy didn't save him at all. Caste combinations alone can't win any election. National elections are these days combination of various state level-national elections. Digvijay's loss in MP to BJP after two terms as chief minister cannot be forgotten. He was voted out based on popular perceptions of lack of roads and power - in summary lack of development. BJP is in power for the last two terms in MP. To go with his strategy of catching votebanks and painting others red would not help in the national election. ...

I am no fan of the Congress and it's President, Sonia Gandhi. But in a comment on various corruption scandals, she has said something that I agree with. She had said that our "moral universe" is shrinking and "Greed" is on the rise. It was really refreshing that a politician, for once, cared to talk about the root cause behind these scandals rather than the usual political responses of law-taking-its-own-course or bringing-culprits-to-book. The only sad part is that she, her son-cum-heir and her party only say such things, but don't live by it. Otherwise, how can she explain Shibu Soren, A Raja, Suresh Kalmadi and the various appointments of tainted politicians and bureaucrats to important positions like Governor, EC, CVC and others? As Sonia said, greed is the prime reason many of our even well-to-do politicians and bureaucrats indulge in scandals when they get a chance. Though no law can actually regulate greed, strict and speedy enforcement of laws...

There are things in common between Arunthathi Roy's defence of her as usual senseless Kashmir remarks and the encounter death of a driver in coimbatore. And what is coming out is one of the four top things ailing this nation's progress. For the uninitiated, Arunthathi Roy questioned Kashmir's accesssion to India at a seminar where maoists and Kashmir seperatist's participated right under our home minister PC's nose in Delhi. She said "... Kashmir has never been a part of India... Even Indian government has accepted this fact". When the government, egged on by BJP, considered slapping sedition charges on her, she released a statement saying among other things that "she only spoke for lack of justice and the need to ensure justice to all - to kashmiris, dalits and everyone else". Let's forget that it was a defence by Arunthathi Roy for a moment. What she said though is something true and you can see it everywhere. What is the need for encou...

The Google growth and success story has been the subject of many books. But to me as an ordinary Indian, the very fundamental lessons that we can learn from Google story are Simplicity and Understanding. Long back when Gmail came, it set the email stage on fire because of it's refreshingly simple interface, good performance and storage space which users really loved. Not that there were no gaps or problems - but Google has been able to understand and fix them and on top of it offer more features - like the growing storage space, chat within gmail etc.,. So, once you logged on to Gmail, Google has done something or the other to sort of keep you in Gmail. The recent priority inbox is another refreshing innovation aimed at making our life better in this age of email overload. Two things stand out from Google's story. One, Google's applications are almost always simple and down to earth - no complicated clutter. This simplicity and the stellar user experience it provides h...

It's been a very long time since I updated by blog. The last two posts were on India - Pakistan and to my dismay I find that it is still as relevant today - with the way we got snubbed by Pakistan during SM Krishna's disastrous visit recently. But having written enough on that, let me turn to something else - the monumental corruption in Commonwealth Games and why we should care and see the larger point behind that for us Indians. It's bad time for Suresh Kalmadi - he is being battered like anything for all the alledged misuse of funds, shoddy work, shady deals and all that. And everyone's response has been on predictable lines. Opposition cries foul, disrupts parliament, Congress distances itself from Kalmadi, promises a probe, there's one-expose-a-day in various TV channels, talk shows, expert opinions etc., etc., And then what? May be few cases, interrogations, arrest etc., and we'll forget it after that. Then we'll get another scandal and this cycle goes...

I don't understand what we achieved - apart from looking like impossible jokers. We invited someone to talk "something" without defining that "something". He came and blasted us for all world to see - the world powers need him so they won't speak a word. The entire government is eerily silent after that hell of a press conference by the Pakistani Foreign Secretary - even the normally tough talking home minister is completely silent. And after blasting us so heavily, Pakistan gets to say that India "is not willing to talk" while they are open to "discuss on any issue". The problem is that the government doesn't seem to be sure whether to talk or not to talk. We either talk or we don't. This business of "talking about something because we anyway have to talk" will get us nowhere except where it got us to this time - a seat in the loser's council. We need to understand something - that Pakistan will never be sincere ab...

The India-Pakistan show is again on. There seems to be no end to this crippling enmity despite so many years and so many regime changes in both Pakistan and India. I fear we might be discussing same stuff lets say 10 years from now as well. This has to stop. The first thing that has to stop is this obsession of India with Pakistan and Pakistan with India. If we don't like each other fine, but let's at least not get obsessed with each other. It's like two estranged lovers who can't stand each other. We don't have to be friends, but let's at least try to stop being enemies. We can be two neighbors who don't like each other but tolerate each other. Of course, I understand that its not that easy. But the point is it's getting ridiculous with all this needless IPL fiasco and all. Let's face the truth - US pressure or not, Pakistan is not going to stop supporting terrorists targeting India until they get over their terminal obsession - that India will some...