The young voter

There is too much happening in India and across the world to talk about. After the bird flu has come the swine flu, which has taken about 159 lives in Mexico. Talking about India, the outcome of this election will definately have an impact on the 1.5 billion plus lives in India. The Jaago re campaign along with other campaigns such as "Papu vote nahin daalta" is surely going to lure the young voter like me to go out and vote. An interesting statistic on NDTV that caught my attention was that since the year Rajiv Gandhi government reduced the voting age to 18, every time we've been getting a hung parliament. And Vir on the same channel said that it is these "None of the Above" type young voters that are probably preventing a clear majority. Whether coalitions are good or bad for the country is a separate issue, but another statistic (NDTV) that needs to be addressed is that the percentage difference of voter turn out between the rural and urban areas is a staggering 9%, with urban areas lagging behind. Now this is a serious issue and if you are reading this take your relatives or friends who are hesitant to vote in the blazing heat, car pool and do whatever you want to get them to the polling booth. That will bring you good karma and help them form an opinion. It shouldn't be random vote for the sake of it.

There is another factor that concerns me. The phase I and II of elections have actually resulted in a lesser voter turn out than in 2004 general elections. Now c'mmon, so much has happened in the country and around the world. Go and exercise your power and right to vote and spread the word.

Finally there is another personal news. I've got through the fellow programme in management of IIM Lucknow and my research proposal includes rural marketing of mobile value added service. So probably you might read more of telecom and marketing on this blog. I hope to regularly keep posting my thoughts on this blog. You can also join and share your thoughts by filling up a small form.

The shoe maniac

Jarnail Singh has probably created a new wave of marketing your ideas to the democratic biggies by throwing shoes. He started the trend in India and now it has just become a common practice. I do not feel much for those on the other side, since the aam aadmi has suffered more than what these people are suffering. Our prime minister Dr Manmohan Singh has now been the victim of the shoe tornado. Hitesh Chauhan a failed engineering student threw a shoe at the PM during his Ahmedabad rally. Although the shoe missed, our PM now joins the elite company of Mr Bush.

The motives behind the shoe hurling at the PM have not been quite surprising. After the mileage Jarnail Singh got because of the shoe, the less mature Hitesh (aka Hitu) decided to do the same deed for what is being said as five minutes of fame. The deputy commissioner crime branch says "he did it only for the sake of publicity”.

Hitesh without press credentials was a sitting among the front rows of media enclosure reports TOI. So now this becomes a case of using the already bad boy media to get fame. BJP's PM candidate and congress MP Naveen Jindal too have been targets of the mighty shoe. Although Hitesh seems to have no motive apart from fame, the rising shoe shows the fearlessness and the extent "we" as a country are willing to go, to thwart off the people in power (misusing it). Meanwhile celebrities too need to be aware of the shoe maniac. Their poor performance, remarks against a particular community or supporting of a particular politician may just land them up on the list of the shoe maniac.

Preity Zinta splits with Ness Wadia

This could be said as the IPL 2's first major casualty and probably the Kings XI Punjab is a jinxed team. I.P.L season 1 had the sreesanth - Harbhajan spat and now its another break up. On the other end Rajasthan Royal's co-owner Shilpa is making merry with Raj Kundra and probably their marriage is on the cards. IPL 2 has had another dose of masala apart from the Whacking batting I've seen in the past few days. The split between Ms Dimple and Ness was confirmed by an email sent to Kings XI Punjab team by preity.

Woah! We just share a professional relationship now.

On the other hand the two of the most expensive players of the tournaments have disappointed too. About $3.1 million have simply been overburdening for them or probably have given critics (Charu Sharma) a chance to take a dig. Charu Sharma - remember the last year's drama. When the structures get too big, the normal engineering principles don't work. The same goes to money. The bigger the money, the bigger the lesson.

Aakriti Bhatia and misplaced anger

The case of Aakriti Bhatia, a class 12th student who died after an asthma attack has turned into probably the most important discussion. Its sad that Aakriti died unexpectedly in an untimely death but, I believe now emotions have gone out of control. The principal of the school (Mordern School, Vasant Vihar) Goldie Malhotra is beign asked to resign. Why ? Because a girl died. Now c'mmon, its a rare incidence and what role has Goldie to play in a case of rare natural death. Emotions can close the windows of mind, but surprisingly many parents coming out and doing hoo hallah is no way. Parents are demanding action against Goldie for alleged negligence. How can Goldie neglect her or how can he not. If a person suffers a heart attack, a medical room in school (Which my school had) help it. The whole story is still under the veil. Things such as, did her inhaler not work, or did she forget it at home, or the medical facility at school not have it can throw more light. Here I blame the media too. Now a particular hindi TV news channel known for its (un)popular undercover operations has an anchor wearing a police costume and explaining the scenario as if Vellupillai Prabhakaran has been caught. WTF!
I may not understand the emotions of the parents of Aakriti, but I know one thing for a fact. This chillam-chilli will not get Aakriti back and setting the heads rolling won't change the scenario. I feel for the humiliation suffered by Goldie and his family and they might be going through an equally troubled time bearing the burden of an innocent girl's death.
If still the parents of the kin feel that there is a case of negligence, then what kind of it, must be clear and if they were aware of it before Aakriti died, why didn't they say then ?

Auctions - IPL to politics

Indian Elections 2009 - The after effects of IPL auctions, new inducts and the lessons for Indian political parties for the elections of 2009.

The weather is hot in North India, especially Delhi. The speakers are burning more watts and are buzzing the air with hate speeches and all sorts of things that one would normally not like to hear. The silent tone is often set awake by the talk of "development" and the incumbents are experts in it. Now the thing that amazes me is the extreme stands taken by a few parties in this election. The lady leaders (if you know what I mean) have kept all options open.
Looking at the marketing campaigns of political parties, I believe none have kept a positive professional image barring a few exceptions and the minority of independent contestants. The concept of creating a positive professional image lies on not the candidates but on the others (Junta / Public). And comes the famous adage - "Yeh public hai, yeh sab jaanti hai". Whether it be the pseudo secular quote or the pampered IPL cricketers.
Now Rahu Dravid may have saved Royal Challengers from a match, KP still holds $1.55 million and the top spot. The same goes to DADA aka Sourav Ganguly who scored 1 run of 12 balls.

You may say how is politics linked to IPL. Going by development and excluding all other factors(caste, religion booze...) we might probably vote for the party with the most convincing manifesto in coherence with its past track record giving room for change. The same could go in for IPL auctions. The player's ranking in 20:20 format along with his past track record would fetch the deserved amount of money. Their presence in the team can also be quantitatively measured. For instance KP's performance in IPL-2 has been abysmal,but his past track record gives him the boost.

Now lets switch to politics. The coalitions, which will take shape after the results are going to be the decider in terms of the future of Indian democracy. I won't put them into the category of auctions, but quite similar to forming of an IPL team. Here, neglecting the third front, the two parties (BJP,Congress) will need to be wary of expensive players and multiple captains. Much like Kolkatta Knight Rider's 4 captain theory (and the ship down under), the reason for the rejection of the third front, which has its epicenter in the same place will go down under, except if they manage a few lucky breaks , as SRK's KKR did in match against Kings XI Punjab (bad light, rain and the D/L method).

Who wins will depend on who dares, but IPL can show how to win.

Give independents a chance

"Be the change you want to see", "Take the initiative", are phrases we often hear but when it comes to toiling in the heat few of us rarely go ahead. The elections of 2004 saw Shiv Khera in Delhi stand as an independent but lost. This time there are a few more standing to make a point and bring a change in the criminalized and corrupted democracy. 543 seats see candidates from filmi to a criminal background, but when it comes to educated and experienced candidates we hang our heads in shame.

Meera Sanyal is an independent candidate standing from South Mumbai. She has the experience, the will to stand against the strong forces of stereotyped politicians and can give us a new platform to take our democracy forward. Her 25 years in Banking gives her the experience and leadership skills that can come forward with a vision to change age old bureaucracy. Captain Gopinath is also taking the plunge this year. Although on a popularity level, since being the first generation entrepreneur he has an advantage, it is up to us to promote people like Meera who are willing to take the plunge and make a change.

I hope the best lot wins, still I feel an incubator support is needed that can be provided by us to keep the hopes of educated, experienced independents alive to protect the future of our democracy and nation.

Chappal - Joota election

An unsettling shoe just rattled the hopes of two congress MPs in Delhi, and now a war of words has begun between Congress and BJP. Narendra Modi called congress a "Budhiya", which was responded by "Gudhiya" by Priyanka, but now its just stooped below the standard of what a national party must be doing. The recent low in the war of words (WOW) comes from AICC general secretary, B Hariprasad. He says

"The man who made the statement on the old age of the Congress party must implement his statement on his own political party. First he should dump Atal Bihari Vajpayee and the oldest man who is in hurry to become Prime Minister L K Advani in the Arabian sea,"

Woah! The reader's reactions to this comment have been in favour of BJP rather than congress.
This comes after the four pronged attack by congress on BJP's PM candidate, Mr L K Advani. Rahul,Priyanka and Sonia Gandhi lashed out at Mr Advani and surprisingly Dr Manmohan Sigh also came prepared with a speech. The regional parties lower level can be understood starting from the level of their manifesto's but this is not in good taste. Adding to masala of regional party is Akhilesh Das [see video], who says the SP should have fielded Aishwraya Rai, atleast it would have kept them interested. WTF!
These elections will go down to the wire like some of the IPL matches but essentially it will be remembered as a chappal-joota election.

Changing trend of Indian Movies

Although Dilli-6 may have not got the box office collections or the critics acclaim, the changing trend of the "message" in the current breed of Indian movies is clearly visible. The concept of poor boy rich girl has been long blabbered in the Hindi cinema, and finally after the slamming by audiences of such movies, a new trend of giving a more realistic message is emerging. Slumdog millionaire was criticized for being a westerner's view of poverty in India, the Indian view of problems (not alone poverty) have been better but with a poor execution. The origin of communal riots showed in Dilli-6 and the focus on the roots was particularly good, but over dramatization and a slow story (very slow) killed the movie. Movies should be like whirlpool- even after you watch the movie it should still suck you in, a feature found in Ghajini.

Another movie, which caught my attention was Aloo Chaat starring Aftab Sivdasani, Kulbhushan Kharbandha and Aamna Shariff. The movie talks about intercaste marriage and how this couple of manages to overcome the prejudices of the groom's parents. The change is refreshing and execution is better with humour being chosen as the carrier to deliver the message. Farhan Akhtar's Luck By Chance also manages to do the same and its message though being less commonplace has a very deep meaning and impact. The rags to riches story of a person who dreams of being an actor and ultimately being one tells that it is important or remember your roots. Though it did not do very well, the movie too lacked the pace and the grip. While Ghajini's, DDLJ's are rare the movie with message like Rang De Basanti, Munnabhai duo need to focus on the execution so that the message is delivered more effectively.

Sai Baba, Shirdi and another India

On 3rd April I boarded the Amritsar-Dadar Express and set off for the journey to the place of Sai Baba- Shirdi. It was a last minute decision as my tickets for the return journey were through 'Tatkal' quota and could be booked only five days in advance of the journey. Tatkal is a system, which gives last minute travellers the chance to get a confirmed ticket. The journey to Manmad (one of the nearest stations near Shirdi) was not a comfortable ride as the weather was hot and my train was the dirtiest place I've ever stayed in for a day. My train as expected reached on time and I was comfortably sleeping in a hotel on the night of 4th April.

The morning of 5th had a journey hangover but the day proceeded fairly smoothly with my first Darshan of Sai Baba at around 9:15 PM after the Abhishek Pooja. The number of devotees for Pooja and Darshan were fairly large because of the weekend. After the Satyanarayana Pooja at 10:30, I along with my family went to Shingnapur.

Shingnapur is a two hour journey from Shirdi and has the temple of god Shani. After boarding a taxi and paying 80 rupees/head (up-down) a new world unseen and unknown to me gradually emerged. As our taxi entered the outskirts of Shingnapur we had to pay Rs 2 per person to visit the temple. The reason for this was that there are no doors in that area and hence they cannot put a ticket counter inside. If you might be wondering that it is just for show, you are mistaken. There are actually no doors outside any building in Shignapur and if any building has it, it does not survive for long. Then came the primitive sugarcane juice stalls on the highway where we had a brief pit stop. Finally after the long 2 hours of omni drive we reached Shingnapur. Then came the ritual of just wearing a cloth and not touching any woman after a bath before visiting the temple. Many others like me were preventing their dhoti from flying away in the afternoon wind. Day one concluded by finally shifting from the hotel to Bhakt Niwas.

Bhakt Niwas is a huge place (or palace) with 500 rooms, approximately 1 km away from the temple meant for lodging of devotees. The place is buzzing with Bhakti and the world's strongest atheists and agnostics would too find it hard to stay away from the power of Bhakti reinforced by the hundreds of devotees. Other good and reasonably cheap things about the place is the 1 rupee tea and 6 rupee meal available 24 X 7.

My Day 2 of the trip had the invisible forces of Bhakti and purity strongly vibrated by the surroundings. The second day had me walking thrice up and down along the kilometer long stretch between Bhakti Niwas and temple for three more Darshans of Sai Baba. The last darshan was the shej aarti just in the hall where the samadhi of Sai Baba rests. The chants and the bhakti was a hair raising experience. The trip ended as I boarded Goa express from one of the cleanest railway stations I've ever seen in India - Kopargaon. The rain and thunder showers throughout the journey made it a pleasant ride back to Delhi.

Looking back at my trip the only disturbing trend was the over indulgence of devotees to look at the shrine one more time that resulted in chaos and pushing during the Darshan. I believe it is that practical angle that we lack that sometimes gives us a few hiccups. Overall the place was extremely well managed and well kept. The walking and standing in queue was strenuous but on the whole it was an amazing experience.

Jagdish Tytler's conference - Has the tide turned ?

The emotions of an unhappy old man were quite visible when Jagdish Tytler gave the conference today, which was aired live on all news channels. Now I won't discuss whether his emotions are genuine or fake, the fact that a person with question mark on his name has finally,( and not after all hue and cry but after a mis-hit shoe by an angry surd) has taken a moral stand and most probably will put down his papers. Media activism has been long talked since the Jessica Lal murder case and others which have followed but Jarnail Singh's style of activism is new from media. Creativity, aesthetics and rules do matter but some times hook n crook methods of getting result also matter.

I was not born when the 1984 anti-Sikh riots took place and I can't comment on what is right, the fact that so many and yes so many including many middle aged men in my colony who were mature enough in 1984, point finger towards a possible congress party i.e. Jagdish Tytler and Sajjan Kumar link. The disturbing part about this whole episode is not the turn of events after anti-climax, but the one before it. "CBI gives clean chit to Tytler", got the attention and was the cause of outrage that took the form a shoe showdown, but I still doubt the timing. Had a mere stir caused because of the ticker flashing on news channels happened, probably Jagdish Tytler would've won by over 2 lakh votes as he said in the conference. But came the shoe and the instant start who hurled the shoe at the home minister of a country with a billion plus people. Now imagine it took a shoe to bring back the moral, ethical and all grounds for congress to practically disown Jagdish Tytler and Sajjan Kumar. Had that not happened, the Gandhi's would've backed and supported both of them and they (as they claim) would've won.

Pen might be mightier than the sword but sometimes hurling shoes can lead to historic changes. I really don't know where the idea of throwing the shoe came into Jarnail's mind, but if it came from Zaidi's experiment on Mr Bush, I must say we are good at using things in a better and more accurate manner.

Jarnail Singh's political career

This is a continuation of my previous post on the frustration vented out by Jarnail Singh by throwing a shoe at P Chidambaram (Also referred as Chidu by Deepak ). Now whether the shoe missed our home minister deliberately or it was a case of bad aiming is a mystery, the political career of Jarnail Singh might have just begun. The prospects of BJP in Delhi don't look very good even this time after their poor show in the assembly elections last year. Jarnail could well be their Saviour and the Akalis might also back him up.

The disciplinary proceedings against Jarnail Singh by Dainik Jagaran might be on the way, the frustration and the eagerness to settle scores with Anti-sikh (Rather anti-human, if true) is definately visible in this argument by a senior journalist:

“He has been our Defence reporter for years now. He was not deputed to cover the Congress press conference today. In fact at the Congress press conference today, we already had two reporters on duty. Singh went to Chidambaram’s press conference out of his own interest”

The fact that Jarnail Singh's action makes congress nervous on Sajjan Kumar and Jagdish Tytler's is an indicator of U-turn of historic nature that could take place. Madhu Soman writes on his blog

There are now reports that a nervous Congress party is rethinking the decision to give party tickets to Tytler and fellow accused Sajjan Kumar for the upcoming general elections. They’re both sitting MPs.

Vinod Sharma also raises a valid point as he comments

While Jarnail needs to be criticised for not displaying the balance and neutrality expected of a journalist, the Congress needs to introspect too. The party has been giving tickets to Tytler and Sajjan Kumar despite protests by Sikhs every time. Is it arrogance or does it reflect a disconnect with people?

As of now, the outcome of this event and the future of Jagdish Tytler and Sajjan Kumar needs to be carefully watched to see what emotional outbursts can do in this billion plus nation of varied religions, casts and creeds.

Jarnail Singh throws shoe

Whoops! Did he really do that ?
I was off for a holy trip at Shirdi and now the whole world seems alien to me. Firstly I can't believe our own Iraq shoe [video] happened (and Jarnail Singh missed) and secondly(on a more positive note) the Hindustan Times tie-up with (our-own) Google covering the Lok Sabha elections of 2009 is really exciting.

[Vote In or Vote out for Jagdish Tytler]

Is it anger, frustration or overpowering emotions, Jarnail Singh's act would not be called a courageous one by any standards but lets rewind and see what Jarnail or any patriotic Indian would've done had he/she been subject to such circumstances. In case the CBI has acted under duress and the government (as speculated) been behind Jagdish Tytler's clean chit, is there any mechanism to get justice or should we wait until the invisible power of God (any one) intervenes ?
This question has gone on for decades and some of the world's militias are a result of this anger and frustration. Had Jarnail Singh or another frustrated individual gone the wrong way a bullet would have been in the place of Shoe. Is the current government converting humane people like Jarnail into frustrated individuals who are ready to resort to violence ? I think more than the government it is the polluted politics.
The answers to justice may not lie in throwing shoes but lies in coherent action and action(or initiative) has been taken by Jarnail Singh. Right or Wrong is up to you to decide.
The worst of Indian Democracy today is that politicians with dubious record (of terror links) and not mere criminals are contesting.

The second part of Google joining HT covering Lok Sabha Elections 2009 is an amazing new dimension internet has taken. This is also an indicator of what the future beholds for the Internet in India. There are some interesting stats, which you can now use to get a crystal clear picture of the government's performance. For instance crime against (as % of total crime) women has increased from 1.9 to 3.5 (That's close to 100%).

Railway Bookings - Aha!

My train journeys have been on the rise recently as I have had to travel places through out India for my work. Last month it was Chennai and Karnataka and now I'll be leaving for Shirdi, this time for my own holy visit. Initially when I was in Kerala and I had to travel to Delhi every year to meet my grand parents, travelling was more of a project, but now with the ease of booking tickets through internet, it has become much more convenient and easier. The internet although has increased the efficiency, a whole new world of other factors in booking have opened up. Since I decided to make the trip only last month, there were no trains with vacant seats to Manmad and Kopargaon- the two railway stations close to Shirdi (The latter being closer).

The experience of booking the ticket on Internet also took a new dimension with many families looking to take a break in the beginning of the holiday season. The irctc website that primarily handles the ticket queries started showing the message, "The server could not process your query". I had selected Karnataka express, a train with two seats available in 'Tatkal' quota with an assumption that on the day of journey the waiting list numbers would reduce and my seats would be confirmed. After the glitch of servers, Karnataka Express showed 'W/L 1'. I had missed the two confirmed reservations that showed up on screen minutes before.

The inability of the servers to handle requests indicates only one thing. More people are on to the internet to book their railway tickets. This could also mean that more people are using internet and that could be an indicator of increasing awareness in the consumer about services on offer and an increase in rural penetration.

Moreover the customer delight component of using irctc's service came as pleasant surprise. I got a call from a customer care saying that since I had spent over Rs 22,000 on booking tickets I would get a free membership through which I'll be eligible to seek a 10% discount on my tickets in future. So indeed a good quality and efficient service has been setup by Indian Railways.

Now the first part of the project of travel in India i.e. booking has been reduced to a mere activity for the good. The second part of travel and the schedules too has been improved as I see more trains (atleast mine) travel on time. Last month I had used the service of Indian railways thrice and my train was never late. Now since the peak season begins, it'll be interesting to see the schedule and the efficiency second part of rail travel, which I'll write about after coming from Shirdi.

Politicians playing April Fool

It is sometimes amazing and hillarious to hear the arguments of some politicians who blatantly defend their acts defying the code of conduct. Their rhetorics could simply find way into literature in future. A few days back I had written about the hay time for the poor voter after Mulayam Singh's party was caught giving money on tape. This time it is Jaswant Singh who has crossed the line. J Balaji at the The Hindu reports

According to media reports, Mr. Singh allegedly handed over a Rs.100 note to a group of Manganiars (traditional singers in the desert) when he was campaigning at Gagaria village, 50 km. from Barmer, for his son Manavendra Singh, sitting BJP MP from Barmer.

I am not too sure whether this one is fake since Mr Jaswant has admitted that there is nothing wrong in doing so. While opposition parties have been quick to capitalize this opportunity and condemn his actions. AICC spokesperson Vearappa Moily responded by saying

It's a very shameful thing for a former finance minister to be doing this. Advani should look within, instead of blaming other parties for corruption. Election Commission should take action against him,

Now a few days back a raging case of communalism or fake tapes had Varun Gandhi in the middle of action. He has been shifted to Etah, a very notorious place in UP (I have been there). Although I am no expert I find it hard to believe that the tapes were mixed. Deepak Iyer makes a valid point in the political gimmicks on his blog and writes

You can debate and argue till eternity, but he got what he set out to do. He has a national presence, he has a following, he is a known face and name.If incidents like the Varun Gandhi’s one are done with the sole aim of garnering support base, I really have no problem. The only risk is if they follow their ideologies given power.

Varun Gandhi is obviously paying the price and his life threat too has increased. The National Security Act followed by threat from D company is a clear indication of the troubles that lie ahead. Power is good but the desire to adopt a short cut can give you a few extra thorns and make you pass through hidden swamps. In a shocking report by the press association the threat to his life was revealed. The report says

Indian investigative agencies intercepted a phone conversation between Chota Shakeel and his aide Rashid Malbari on March 21. Shakeel allegedly asked Malbari to go to Pilibhit, Mr Gandhi's constituency, and assassinate the politician.

The games people of power play is something we know quite transparently and that is probably the only thing transparent about them barring a few exceptions. This time in the Lok Sabha elections of 2009, the mandate will decide who fooled who ?