And by a whopping mandate it has declared the 100+ year old Congress party as capabale enough to manage this great country for the next 5 years. It has done so without ambiguity, and has left no room for shakiness at the centre in the form of volatile driven-by-need coaltions or by power hungry time serving politicians.

The country has also voted succinctly and clearly against the left and has left them stumbling and incapable, even in their own bastions of Kerala and West Bengal. Not to be left behind, the bourses, when they opened on Monday, lauded this decision by two successive upper circuit breakers as the index spiralled up to glory, leaving no one in doubt about their decision to vote.

For me however, this brings in a huge diaspora of mixed emotions. The happy ones have been listed above, as I shared people sentiments of a stable govt, and market sentiments of faith leading to rises in indices. The ones that really irk me as of now are:

1) I see that we are heading back towards a regime where ruling party reins are handed down in the family, irrespective of capability or qualifications. Takes me back to eras where maharajah’s were elected at birth.

2) I see a weak opposition now, a much needed facet of any democracy that prides itself on being driven by mandate. An opposition that risks the danger of standing leaderless, and probably missionless too.

I have also spent the past 3 days skimming over regions, people who won, margins they won by and so on, and I have these points that hit my face when I look at an inch below the surface of this victory.

1) That the Congress has won on a purely minority vote aggregation. Sounds ridiculous ? Check out their strong bastions as of now : Kerala, TN, Andhra, where Xtian conversion activities are gathering force daily, and plague the very fibre of a really ancient culture. Check out UP and other bastions, where the Muslims have voted en masse for the Congress.

How can I really call a party that has focused on pure divisive strategies to polarize communities and win, secular? Just because they keep their minority forces satisfied and leave the rest of the country to its own devices?

2) Hindu (the majority) votes have been divided and dispersed by regional parties, star power, etc, to the point of being absolutely miniscule and unaccountable.

The bastions that remain with the BJP today in the form of states are ones that firmly protect culture by keeping away minority appeasement policies and by keeping conversions at bay. Staunchly, firmly Hindu with no move or trend to garner those “minority votes” through appeasement. (Many may of course choose to view this as “communal.”) But this is the stark reality that stands out today.

That Varun Gandhi would win, I had no doubt of. That he would win by such a whopping margin surprises me, given especially that he made “communal” speeches.

While I welcome this Govt and the immediate sense of stability it brin’gs to the country, I am worried about the long run. Especially given the ruling party’s leanings towards minority appeasement in various forms. And by its approach to define leadership of both the party and country in terms of Family.

I think its time I joined the BJP. If of course, it changes its fence sitting stand and decides to go and proudly label itself a Hindu party without being communal.

I for one would love to live in an India thats HINDU. A country where all religions from time immemorial have been tolerated and encouraged in terms of practice (not in terms of rsions, mind you). A country where I can go to a temple with my head held high, and not be labeled “communal.” A country whose culture I protect by not permitting conversions or allowing appeasements that lead to nothing but polarization.

Sanjeev

The journalist, as seen in a CNN-IBN video here, missed the Home Minister by less than 2 inches when he threw his shoe at Chidambaram. PC was, in his typical calm and suave way, asking the journo to shut up and not pursue a thread of conversation, when the fuse blew and the shoe flew.

Blogosphere, as usual is abuzz with this !

One of the blogs that stood out for sheer value add to the extremely amazing incident that has left fodder for the entire news grapevine to takeup and start buzzing is Monologue of a Nomad

With this incident, PC joins the exalted list of leaders who have had shoes thrown at them, including Ex-Prez George Bush. Loved the way PC conducted himself post the event though.

Would love to meet Jarnail Singh of Dainik Jagran (as reported here) to understand why he blew his fuse, and why this particular action, instead of a walk out, or whatever.

Who say’s life’s not happening, guys?

Sanjeev

SIC !

I mean, how DOH can people get?

On the Govt side of the fence, the esteemed home minister has said NO to IPL happening because of election season. And given that security will be spread out to ensure that the election process goes off peacefully, the Govt will not be able to spare enough security for IPL.

I think thats fine.

On the other hand, we have statements from the Cricket side of the fence to the tune that IPL is as necessary a process as elections are, and that the people might not be pleased if its put off.

That’s not fine, guys.

Yes, I am aware that lots of monies have been pumped in into making the IPL happen, and happen as gloriously as last year. On the other hand, doesn’t one feel that an election process, leading to a stable Govt at the centre assumes greater importance in the scheme of all things to do with this country, including Cricket?

I fail to see a “clash” between the two, unless of course, Cricket has really assumed political garbs, and is really in a fair position to sway minds of voters for or against a party or a govt.This, would be a fairly depressing scenario in a country where the centre is shaken because an unrelated entity called the municipal corporator with allegiance to a party has not performed or whatever.

I personally feel that the guys who call the shots in cricket should pull off the IPL during the election process, in the interests of elections conducted fairly and peacefully.

For example, I know that the Pakistani PM is called Gilani, and that the Prez is called Zardari. What both do seems to be the same though, they bow down to a seemingly still in force and control Pak army …

I know that Pakis are intelligent at putting things together fast. How they have called these terror attacks a diversion from the "hindu terror" tangle that the ATS was invovled in, and how the ATS was probing Hindu Mossad links, that finally led to the death of top 3 ATS officers, and how the Hindus and Mossad, along with the Indian Army planned this attack so that Pak can be taken over. Brilliant. All deduced by this bearded bloke with rolling eyes who kept insisting that Pak had better be ready for war and mayhem. Potty Philosophy? Guess the finger can point anyway for that.

I know that now, there are two kinds of terrorists as per Pak definitions, "state" vs "non state". This essentially means that if you harbor a terrorist in your home, you can esapce by saying "home" or "non-home". Seriously thrilling.

I also know that Barkha Dutt who earlier was to me, the most promising news anchor around, fell to cheap histrionics on screen, and at the end of it went hoarse (I guess she would have been gagged by someone, going by twitter posts about her, if she hadn't gone hoarse and decided to shut up). But thats ok Barkha, with great popularity comes greater criticism. Come to my office sometime, adrak chai for your throat, and adulations from an ex-fan of yours (based on pure past ok?) are in order.

I also am hugely aware of how CNN-IBN went around shouting about shootouts in CST resuming on day 3 or something, and how various editors and so on apologized for "spreading rumors". Isn't there some kinda action that can be instigated against these morons already? Rajdeep, go suck a lemon Man !!!

I know that Shri Obama has pointed out that he will focus on Pak to weed out terror. Happy Shri Obama, you don't need "Froof" (re. Gilani) to decide this, while India, in-numerable attacks later, is still hunting for proof.

And finally (probably I'm going outta my depth here) Muslim boards and associations have denied a final resting place for those terrorists killed in course of the offensive by the Indian armed forces, claiming that they are not Muslims. The only other options I see are burial in "Christian" places, or cremation in "Hindu" places. And sadly, it either of the latter happens, it would be that people were denied their religious resting place (conversions can happen, even after death, eh?)

We spend nights up discussing and horrifying ourselves. We run safety risks by not having fire brigade informed about number of potential candles, and so on, we don't even carry a fire extinguisher with us just in case …

We spend on candles. All the way from the simple to the exotically perfumed ones. And if we're lucky, Dimple Kapadia gives us some of her "expensive" candles in exchange for some footage somewhere. Not bad for the economy at all, thousands of candles purchased and so on, no ?

The Indian Govt not to be undone, has gotten into a regular posturing stand. Great for providing a "sense of pride and security". The Paki Govt keeps on saying "No Froof provided oppicially" when asked as to what they are going to do about the fact that things keep pointing in their direction.

Sure. Dawood, declared a criminal of the highest order and "WANTED" by India , goes shopping in Karachi for undies with a huge nonchalance that becomes only a don who contributes economically to the country that's housing him. No word on extraditing him, and so on. Proven LeT buggers with frizzled beards and fanatic rollings of eyes scream out from public podiums on the streets of Pakistan, calling Violent Attacks and Jehad against India. All the above is widely telecast on TV across the globe. Pakistan however, sticks to its "No Froof Oppicially" stand.

Back to basics I guess.

Waiting for the elusive decisive step…

Sanjeev

What are the answers? and what indeed do they satisfy?

1) Am I an Indian, because I, feeling so strongly about the terror attacks, blog about them?

2) am I an Indian, because, I use the choicest of epithets against the politicos who I (and a lot of other) feel are to blame ?

3) Am I an Indian, because I went back to work DURING the terror attacks, nonchalant and uncaring about what would erupt on the streets?

4) Am I an Indian, because I mourn those untimely demises of people, who till a minute before they passed away, had no inkling of the horror about to hit them and change their lives in a hugely binary way ?

5) Am I an Indian, because I raise my voice against Pak and hate that country even more?

?

Maybe, I am an Indian, because I am too numb, helpless and devastated to do anything else, so I have lunch and check my bank accounts, hoping that there will be enough for my family to buy provisions with, the next time terror strikes…

Over the years, we have observed that larger NGOs get away with larger slices of the “donations” pie, for the simple reason that they are more visible, can communicate better, and can present themselves in a more appealing manner designed to connect. The larger NGOs also have access to a larger skill set of professionals on various fronts, thereby allowing them to steal a march over the lesser, not so equipped and grass root NGOs.

empowerNGO.com wishes to level the playing ground by taking to NGOs a range of services at extremely affordable prices.

Some of the services that empowerNGO.com wishes to take to NGOs include:

1. Enabling NGOs with Websites, domain names, shopping cart, etc at Rs. 2500 per annum
2. Enabling NGOs with a range of visibility and reach services including Newsletters and Brochures, Photo and Video services, Professionally designed Project Reports and so on
3. Other than this, empowerNGO.com will also provide a range of process oriented services, including documentation, due diligence, conformance and other related services to make every NGO professionally sharper and more credible.

empowerNGO.com is also gearing up in the short run, to publish an eNewsletter that will hit CSR depts. of various companies, and high resource bodies like the Rotary, Lions, etc. The aim of this eNewsletter would be to present to all these bodies, works that the NGO is doing, along with contact details to do joint projects, matching grants and so on.

empowerNGO.com also provides a range of online networking facilities to its audiences, in the form of blogs, photogalleries, forums and so on. Matter from here will be used hugely to project these NGOs to various audiences.

Within this year, empowerNGO.com will surely reach  out to at least 5000 NGOs, SHGs, and other bodies with various products and services that will help them get access to larger resources, reach out to wider audiences, and thereby help service audiences better.

The roads were amazingly empty, the  traffic less snarly and more manageable, the hair raising stops less, the honking nearly non existent, and people used to traveling small distances by rick deciding to either skip it and chill where they are or take the bus.

This strike was apparently to object to the cost of the electronic meter, which is being made compulsory by the state govt.

I feel most strongly for those who lost a day’s earning due to this strike. The meters are coming in, there is no going back on that. So why strike ? What purpose does it serve ? Surely, a rick strike doesn’t affect the common man. He commutes by bus, or by cab or walks if the distance is too less.

The only people who lose in a strike are the people who are striking. Some day, when strike organizers are forced to pay for the losses of those they ask to join in the strike, is when they will feel the pinch.

Bad blathering here, bad gibberish even.  I’m tired though, so sketchy as it is…

Published

OSMOS to focus on NGOs 

A friend of mine Namrata Singh, has just quit a steady cushy job at one of India’s well known online media agency to start up her own venture.

Its called Antfort, and its available on antfort.com. It focuses on the hitherto not addressed space of providing a full universe of HR services for start-ups. A crazy domain to get into, where successes can be sky rocketing and failures can be crazily plumetting…

I am thrilled by this move of hers.

Its because I see one more capable person throw away the shackles of “security” to venture out into the unknown (not as per her, she’s got it all mapped out and ready in her head, etc etc). I know from experience the pushes and pulls of getting bang into the middle of nowhere and starting out on your own, ‘cuz I’ve walked down (or up) that lane. Parents, friends, well-wishers, everyone but everyone look at you with trepidation (probably wondering whether you’re going to be living off them for the next so many years)

I don’t think Namrata is going to be like that. From what I know of her, she’s got drive, commitment, enthusiasm and passion, and she’s giving this effort her all.

Wish her all success and god-speed in achieving her dreams.