Such is the web. Such is life.

It was 2002. Those days, I used to stay with my brother at Indore. He was preparing for his civil services exams and I was in my 3rd year engineering. Dot com bubble and world Trade Center had just busted, resulting in a grim job scenario. I was seeing my college seniors struggling with placements and the forecast wasn't any better for us, the next batch in line.

On one dry summer evening, I was having a stroll on our terrace with my brother and contemplating what lies ahead of me, he threw a question. "How much money do you want in a month from your job?", he asked. I actually took 3 minutes to do the maths and though I don't remember what went into my calculation, I distinctly remember my answer. I said, Rs 12000. I elaborated how I would splurge that money during the initial months on all the stuff I wanted and how I would be able to save money later on. For good measure, I told him that I am amused why people require more money in a month than what I was quoting!

An year later, I landed in my first job which paid me just a bit more than what I aspired or aimed! I outgrew that money in two months flat. I wanted better jeans, better shoes, an awesome guitar and what not.

Its been over 8 years since that conversation on the terrace. When I had nothing, I was amused what do people do with money in excess of 12K. Today, I manage to make few times the money I wanted initially and still it isn't suffice. What was in 'wish list' then is a 'must have' now.

Such is the web. Such is life.

Rants

They say it's Parliament's prerogative to clear bills and make acts/laws.

Anyone disputing that? Everyone knows. They teach that Class V onwards. But then extraordinary situations asks for extraordinary measures too! Afterall, Parliamentry system is 300 years old. May be its time for an overhaul!

PS: Should not be taken otherwise! Am all for democracy ;-)

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BTW, can any one tell me whats am I supposed to do to make government hear me between the elections?

Cheers!

The Magic Wand Theory

When I got up at 7 this morning, I thought of switching ON TV to catch the latest on Lokpal Vs Janlokpal. I could barely watched it for 10 minutes and there was Aruna Roy speaking about the Janlokpal and how people are being told that once this bill is passed, all the corruption would evaporate. She infact used the words which are currently in vogue, “Janlokpal is not a magic wand and people are selling false dreams to people”

To that I would say its high time one should give up this magic wand theory. No one is claiming that this bill would end all the corruption. No single law across the globe has been able to stop any crime completely. There are laws against rape and still the same crime happens. Similarly, there are laws against financial irregularities, murders, looting etc. Still these things are still very much there. A law may not be able to prevent something completely. Laws are there because they tend to serve as a deterrent too. There is no doubt that there would be cases of corruption even after Janlokpal comes into existence but because of Lokpal effect, if there is even 20% reduction in multi-million scams or 20% increase in conviction rate of the culprits, I would say it succeeded.

Jan Lokpal will fix accountability to some extent. And it will have powers to prosecute those who are usually out of every possible ambit. There are provisions of speedy trials and convictions. There is provision of similar officer in all the states which will try and curb corruption at state levels. Every government officer will be under its jurisdiction. RTI and Janlokpal would go hand it hand. Why not give it a chance!

People talk about the draconian nature of Janlokpal and that it would create a parallel power structure. In that case there are always provisions in constitution to repeal a bill! Wasn’t POTA draconian? Wasn’t it repealed? Do the same with Janlokpal if it doesn’t work.

Everyone including the politicians knows which bill is better. Unfortunately, there is always lack of political will whenever it is required most.

Cheers!

Costly Memories!

I wanted to write this originally on 21st May but lethargy got better of me. Even this time I am 2 days late as I should have written this on 20th August. Now what is the connection there? The former is the date when Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated while the latter is his B'day (which is now observed as 'Sadbhavna Diwas'.

If you read any newspaper of 20th August, it made a painful read. I happened to go through the pages of Times Of India. All I could find were images of Rajiv Gandhi staring out of those big pages. Pages after pages. And who were the well wishers? Here is the small list:

1. Indian National Congress

2. Ministry of Information and Broadcasting

3. Delhi Government

4. Ministry of Steel

5. Rajiv Gandhi Centre of Biotechnology

6. Ministry of Commerce and Steel

7. Rajiv Gandhi Grameen Vidyutikaran Yojna

8. Government of Haryana

9. Ministry of Tourism

10. Mazagaon Dock Limited ( A govt. of India undertaking)

11. Rajiv Yuva Kiranalu

12. Ministry of Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises

13. Ministry of Housing & Urban Poverty Alleviation

14. Ministry of Women & Child Development

15. Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment

16. Another one from Haryana Government

17. Navodaya Vidyalaya Samiti

18. National Commission of Women

19. Department of Information and Public Relations

20. Ministry of New and Renewable Energy

21. Ministry of Health and Family Welfare

And this is just one English news daily. I googled a bit and in one of the blog found that in a total of 12 English dailies, there were 108 Ads covering roughly 48 full pages. This still does not account for a number of regional dailies! Such a wise use of Tax Payers money.

Two years ago, I had to put in a 3x3 inch advertisement in one of the local Hindi daily and parted with 27K!

Historian Ramchandra Guha wrote in Telegraph last year,

“A back-of-the-envelope calculation suggests that on May 21, 2010, perhaps Rs 60 or 70 crore were spent by the taxpayer — without his and her consent — on praising Rajiv Gandhi. Since the practice has been in place since 2005, the aggregate expenditure to date on this account is probably in excess of Rs 300 crore.”

This practice started in 2005, when UPA came to power and every ministry jumped to show their gratitude to Sonia Gandhi. I am not sure about Rajiv Gandhi but one other Gandhi must surely be crying there up in heavens on such foolish extravaganza!

Cheers!

School Of Flirt

Had there been a contest for the cheesiest and ridiculous TV reality shows, programs of UTV Bindaas would have won hands down. They would occupy top 5 slots. I bet. Such is their standard that the word ridiculous doesn't do justice with the content.

Few days back, I happened to catch one such show. Superstud, School of flirt. The name itself gives you an idea. Its a reality show where a bunch of hunks (pun intended) who have got nothing better to do with their lives, are taught how to flirt with girls, how to speed date, whats the best way to kiss and other stupidities.

Not just theory but the practicals too. So you get to see the guys learning to smooch using strawberries as props, using balloons to learn how to hug. And like schools, there are tests too. After the practicals, they brought one foreign model and the hunks were tested on their kissing skills.

Can you guess the Anchor? None other than Ashmit Patel. The same guy who could not keep his girlfriend's MMS to himself.

Amazed to see how fast the TV content has changed. If Doordarshan was Nargis, DD Metro was Madhuri Dixit. Later ones became Dhupias and Sherawats and now Bindass is threatening to become Poonam Pandey. I guess the only program you can watch on TV with your family is KBC. Atleast you can be sure that AB wont jump out of his seat and do a full Monty.

Cheers!

The real fight

As I write this. Hoards of people are gathered outside Tihar Jail, Chatrasal Stadium, JP park, Jantar Mantar, India gate a several other places. If TV channels are to be believed, there are similar protests happening at various cities in the country.

Is this a start of a new revolution? Perhaps Yes. Perhaps No. Next seven days holds the answer. It would not be fair to compare this movement with the ones that the world witnessed in Tunisia, Egypt, and Syria etc. Those were uprisings against a tyrant ruler. In this case, common man is uniting against corruption (Is there a similarity?)

Opposition parties are trying desperately to project it as a war between Government and the rest. ‘Behti ganga main haath dhona chahte hain’. They are forgetting that this time people are not getting organized under any specific banner, be it communists, trade unions or other political parties. They are organizing for a cause and against the system. For once they are not talking about ‘chalta hai’ syndrome. You need to be as blind and ignorant as Prakash Javdekar to not realize that. They fail to realize that it’s a fight against them also. A fight against the entire political system, against red-tapism, against bureaucracy.

Personally, I am not too sure if keeping this fight only to achieve a strong Lokpal bill will really help the root cause of eradicating corruption from all levels. There are Lokayukta’s in some states, Chief Vigilance commission, Enforcement Directorate, CAG and few other offices and officers for more or less ensuring a corruption free state. All are failing miserably. It doesn’t look that another parallel office, however strong it is, would change things drastically. The need is to enlarge the ambit of this movement. Why just Jan Lokpal? Why not against the corruption in Judiciary? Why not for the electoral reforms?

Its been 35 years since people took to streets. So we all know how difficult it is to unite people for a social cause. JP’s movement was more about agitating against the then ruling government. They wanted to get rid of it. And when they finally succeeded, they had no clue what to do next. Janta Party was a disaster. This should not meet the same fate.

Indian needs reforms. And they need them badly. Reforms in every stream. Be it economic reforms, political reforms, judicial reforms, electoral reforms or constitutional reforms. I hope that this movement won’t stop with just another Bureaucrat above the rest.

The world this week

World seems to be quite busy these days. Who says we have too many 24 hours news channel? The way we are making/producing/reproducing and delivering news, I say even 200 more would not be enough.

No one seems to be unemployed these days in Britain. Everyone is busy. Busy rioting on streets and looting basmati rice from Sainsbury's and Tesco. Looks like education is over rated.

Britain's sister concern, US is experiencing Newton's law of gravity, 'what goes up, must come down'. S&P downgraded their rating from XXX to XX err...I mean from AAA to AA+. I never realized that a small change of an English letter to a mathematical symbol can bring such turmoil.

Sample this,

• Billions have evaporated from world market.
• Gold is acting as platinum.
• Oil is coming down at such a rate that it has reached Mumbai shores and
• Aishwarys Rai is about to produce a baby.

OK. Last one not related.

Back home, things are as cheerful as always.

• Anna Hazare is burning copies of Jokepal Bill. ( BTW, 2/3rd of India hasn't heard of Lokpal)
• Kris Srikanth and party is summoning players from caves ( Read RP Singh)
• Sheila D. is busy justifying the expenditure she has done on beautification ( You moron! Cant even see how clean and green delhi is, post CWG?)
• Raja and Kanimozhi happily spending time with each other in Tihar playing Dumb Charades.

and you have every right to ask whats the news on Gurgaon front?

It rained two days back.

Cheers!