Random thoughts on reaching Muscat after a decade in Kuwait

At last, a total change of life! Quite welcome, after a decade in Kuwait.

Landed yesterday in Muscat, to begin a fresh chapter.

The mountainous Muscat with its flat constructions, looks more like India than India itself. Quite unlike Kuwait, with tall skyscrapers and glass buildings.

In the process of finding a house, and settling down.

Blogging will be sporadic in the coming days. Bear with me.

Anyway, nothing much is happening anywhere. India looks more like an umpteenth episode of a never ending soap opera - food inflation still above 16%, general inflation hovering around 10%, government clueless, and people getting on with their life. Even the Ayodhya judgement isnt anything to write about.

Gave up my teaching career on 27th. Though there is a tinge of regret, it is time to move on. Nice to know at least some of the students will miss me. Small groups of students took me out to some informal dinners, which is quite appreciated. It is best to stop when people ask WHY, than WHY NOT.

Where is the redemption?

The UPA government has fully abdicated its responsibility. There is an absolute lack of leadership and accountability. The Prime Minister, widely believed to be honest personally, is heading the most corrupt Government India has seen (and India has really seen some corrupt governments in its 63 years history). He has no control over his various ministries and worse still do not have the moral or even legal authority to rule the country.

The minister, Raja, who presided over one of the worst cases of corruption - the 2G Auction-continues in the telecom ministry, even after syphoning off and ensuring the country loses Rs 1000 crores.

The CWG has become a national shame. Any PM worth his salt would have sacked Suresh Kalmadi immediately and pulled up that idiot Lalit Bhanot (of the Indian hygeine standards infame), sent the army to take over the CWG sites to bring a sense of efficiency. Instead, Kalmadi continues, Sheila Dixit continues and so do their cronies, though they have squandered nearly Rs 70,000 crores. India has become a laughing stock in the global arena. Nothing during the past two decades have shamed India as much as the CWG preparations (lack of).

Inflation is out of control. Food is not available in the streets, but the granaries are overflowing. Grains are rotting. But, hey, MMS wont release the grains despite a SC verdict. We are poised to have record food grain production this year, but the poor are starving and Government wont lift a finger.

The Government has totally mismanaged the Maoist insurgency and has no control over nearly 1/3rd of the country. Kashmir is burning and Government is totally apathetic.

Never has Indians felt so helpless as they are today. Nothing seems to make the Government work - not ethics, not Supreme Court, not street protests, not bandhs, not parliament- nothing.

Where is the redemption?

Print and Spend

The Congress Government's policy had always been to Tax and Spend, leading to Financial indiscipline and stunted growth.

But UPA 2 has chosen a more dangerous strategy, that will have long term consequence for the Country. During P.Chidambaram's tenure as Finance Minister, during UPA 1, the UPA Government has taxed anything and everything. As a wag once remarked "The only thing that PC has not taxed is f**king".

With hardly any new avenue open for additional taxation, the Government has shifted its policy to one of "PRINT AND SPEND". It has been printing money indiscriminately, leading to the hyper inflation that is prevalent in the Country today. Even the 'Economist' Prime Minister is pleading helplessness by saying that he is not a magician to tell when the inflation will come down, meaning it won't. Not when the irresponsible Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi, who enjoy considerable authority without a shred of responsibility, indulge in welfare economics of the worst kind that benefits none (with the exception of the corrupt), and especially the poor whom it is supposed to benefit.

Maybe Manmohan Singh is taking a leaf out of his Master's strategy to counter recession. The USA has been printing dollars indiscriminately (see pic above) to shore up a sagging economy. And disaster looms for dollar.

How to segment the Marriage Market!!

Opening the Mathrubhumi Newspaper, I was intrigued by the advertisements in the Matrimonial Column. In olden days, there were only two general categories - Brides wanted and Grooms Wanted.

Now, they have taken Market Segmentation, Targeting to a new level. There were numerous subsections, each targeting at specific segments like, Girls who have Mars (Chovva) in the 7/8th house, Nair Girls, Ezhava Girls, OBC marriages, Vellala grooms, Sudha Jathakam only, Vaaniyar brides, above 45 grooms,  etc etc............. The list was endless, and each section has a separate contact telephone number. Looks like Marriage brokers are MBA Marketing graduates these days, who have segmented, and then further segmented the market.

Amazing!

In the name of God, Go!

Never has been Oliver Cramwell's words of 1653 more relevant than today;

"Dr.Manmohan Singh, you have sat too long for any good you have been doing lately... Depart, I say; and let us have done with you. In the name of God, go!"

Disaster in Waiting

The Prime Minister, who staked his prestige on the nuclear agreement with USA and then on getting the nuclear liability bill passed in the parliament, has shown an unsurprising lack of leadership when it comes to tackling the Kashmir issue, or the Maoist insurgency, or in controlling the inflation or in any of internal issues that cries for a clear cut policy initiative.

And the Kashmir issue is getting out of hand. And, the person to blame for this is not the PM, but Rahul Gandhi. Media has not surprisingly downplayed his culpability in this sordid saga.

To know how, one has to go back to the last J&K election. Congress and the National Congress had gone into the election projecting the seasoned elder Abdullah, Omar's father, Farooq Abdullah as the Chief Minister. Despite his high profile life style, Farooq Abdullah, is a seasoned politician, who has handled the State before. He was all ready to take the Oath, when Rahul Gandhi stepped in and pressurised a very reluctant Farooq to make his son, the highly inexperience Omar Abdullah, the Chief Minister. At that time, everyone (read psychophants in the Congress party and their chamcha media) hailed it as a great intervention by the PM in waiting to give a youthful face to governance. Wise men murmered then that this would be a disaster, for Omar has never lived in Kashmir, had very limited administrative experience, was not respected by people and was just not ready to handle a complicated state like Kashmir, which is always volatile. He did not have the stature to govern the State, that has both national and international relevance.

And now that Omar has proved to be a disaster (the current crisis can be directly attributed to poor governance by Omar), and everyone crying for Farooq Abdullah to take over (not that he is great but he is certainly wiser), Rahul and his cronies are blocking the move, as it would tantamount to accepting that Prince Charming's (Prince Disaster?) judgement was wrong. And hey! how can someone from the dynasty be wrong? So Kashmir continues to burn, while Rahul and Omar fiddles (read parties with the high and mighty).

Dread to think what will happen to India, if such a disaster becomes India's PM!

Let us change his description from PM in Waiting to Disaster in Waiting!

IIT needs IIM help

Read somewhere that IIT's are planning to get into Medical Education in India.

This is downright silly. IIT's are the premier Technology Education Institutions in India. They have core competency in offering world class engineering education. The Core Competency required for offering a similar world class education in Medicine is totally different, and IIT's frankly do not possess it.

Looks like IIM's need to step in, and tell IIT's that an insane strategy of offering medical education will dilute the focus and brand equity of IIT, which we can ill afford.

How the PM-in-Waiting's Constituency is faring!

It is amusing to hear Rahul Gandhi, the Congress's self-proclaimed Prime Minister-in-waiting of India, talk about lack of development, concern for the poor and the contribution made by his great grandfather, grandmother, father, mother and himself to nation building.

We shall expose how hollow the claim of theNehru-Gandhi dynasty is by looking at certain socio economic indices of two constituencies - Rae Bareli & Amethi - represented by the so called first family of India. All the figures are averaged for Rae Bareli and Amethi together

People Below Poverty Line - 54%
Families without electricity - 86%
Children NOT Vaccinated - 84%
Neo Natal Death - 83 per 1000
Post Natal Death (0-5 years) - 160 per 1000

This, despite the Constituencies getting preferential treatment and unlimited resources.

A person(s) who cannot improve the welfare of his constituency in, well nearly 4 decades, cannot be expected to improve the lot of the Indians elsewhere.

We get the politicians we deserve!

Yeh bhi chalta hai

http://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/randomaccess/entry/a-fat-and-portly-air

The flip side is that I don't have to be ashamed any more  :)

When will you ever get this into your thick skull, Prime Minister

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Monday gently told the Supreme Court, which recently directed the government to distribute foodgrains free to the poor, not to get into the 'realm of policy formulation'.

"How can foodgrains be distributed free to an estimated 37 per cent of the population which lives below the poverty line," Singh asked during an interaction with editors at his residence in New Delhi.

It was not not possible to give free foodgrains to all the poor, he said while answering a question on the order of the Apex Court which had directed Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar to distribute foodgrains to the poor instead of allowing them to rot.

BECAUSE, my insensitive Prime Minister, the food is rotting, eaten by rats and rodents, who dont pay the Government when millions of people starve!!! And your Government is sitting on a stock pile of food grains while the poor are tightening their belts because they are hungry!! You are talking about the need for people to be happy with 8.8% GDP growth, which is a self actualization need, when their first level, basic needs for food are not met!!.

 
When will you ever get this into your thick skull?

Indian Athletes given the rough end of the stick in CWG

The Commonwealth Games organizers have been questioning the patriotism of people who accuse them of corruption, citing that raising all the stink in the public adversely affects the image of the nation.

The reason why Countries bid for mega events like Olympics, Asian Games and the not so mega event like CWG is to give a fillip to the athletes in their country. During the 5-6 years it takes from Games being awarded to it being held, prospective medal winners are identified and given the best of the facilities so that the host nation wins as much medals as possible. That and that alone will enhance the image of the host country, and not the organizational effciency (sic) as Suresh Kalmadi and his ilk make it out to be.

But with barely a month to go for CWG, do anyone of us know who are our medal prospects, how much effort has been put on training them and on putting them in the best frame of mind. I doubt it. At least do Indian Olympic Association know who the top athletes are? The answer is an emphatic NO.

Instead, what we have is a series of cases where weight lifters and swimmers are tested positive for doping (bringing shame to the country). The irony is that the Indian Weighlifting Federation has been in the radar of the anti doping agencies who are certain that doping is done with official patronage. The Federation was handed out a hefty fine recently, but IOA could care less. This is a national disgrace.

We have the situation where the only Indian to win an Olympic Silver, Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore will not be able to participate in the Games due to internal politics and silly selection policies.

We have the situation where our top athelete of the Games, shuttler Saina Nehwal, has expressed her total dissatisfaction with the facilities. The skeletons are tumbling out.

In the end, we will return with a bounty of medals that is much less than what we got in earlier Games - But hey! Who Cares? We have spent Rs 70,000 crores, everyone involved had made money through organized loot and what if Nation doesnt get medals and athletes are given Rs 100 rooms (if at all) apart from Rice gruel and pappad to eat?

And no one is held accountable!

What a Shame!

Guruve Namaha:

Akhanda Mandalaakaaram

Vyaaptam Yenam charaacharam

Tatpadam Darshitam Yena

Tasmai Sri Gurave Namaha.

A loose translation is as follows, "Guru can guide us to the supreme knowledge of THAT which pervades all the living and non-living beings in the entire Universe (namely Brahman). I salute such a Guru"

Teacher's day gives me mixed feelings. On the one hand I have always regretted that I was never blessed to have one ideal guru who had a profound influence on me, though there were many who contributed in one way or other to me being what I am today. On the other hand, I am apprehensive whether I have lived upto the expectation of my students myself. And then there is a feeling of gratitude to God for giving me the opportunity to be a Guru in this short life, a role that has given me immense satisfaction.

But this Teacher's day has a melancholy touch to it. It will be the last Teacher's day as an active Teacher. Professional developments and a personal decision has led me to draw the curtains on my teaching career. The Marketing Management and Macro Economics lectures I conduct for my MBA students is likely to be the last.

I shall be taking a sabbatical for a couple of years, during which I shall be working on a dream project on Education, aimed at school kids aged 8-14. A project, I hope, that shall shape the personality of at least a few thousands of young kids. Kids have always been close to my heart and I have always regretted not using my skills as a Guru on them. I enjoy being with kids and the feeling is mutual. Being with them, interacting with them, teaching them and learning from them should give me the peace of mind, sense of satisfaction and an attainment of certain self actualization needs.

But all that is in the future.

For now, 'Au revoir'

Time for sterner actions

Pakistan has mastered the art of being victimised to a fine degree. They are like an irrant child, who beats up his brother and then cries loudly that he himself has been unfairly attacked first or punished unjustly. It is time someone called their bluff once and for all.

They do this every single time they instigate a terror attack in India. They go aggressively in the media, and win the war of sound bytes by proclaiming their innocence or rather lack of proof of their guilt a bit too loudly. The world at large, which are not as roguish as this infant terrible, are too gentlemanly to take them on their own game, especially India. The result? They get away with murder, literally.

They did this when the Srilankan team was attacked by gunmen in Pakistan, leading to ICC cancelling all future matches in Pakistan. They cried their innocence from roof tops, claimed that it would kill Pakistan Cricket bla bla bla and got away with it without being sanctioned or slapped with a harsher punishment that was justly deserved.

Now the spot fixing case. There is enough circumstantial evidence to implicate Butt, Asif and Aamer. And Mohammed Asif is a serial offender - he was caught in possession of drugs in the Dubai Airport and it took intervention at the highest level to get him released, but he is personna non grata in Dubai (It is another matter that Pakistan accepted this meekly. They never let out a peep about Dubai Customs falsely implicating Asif. Hey! They know what the consequences if they hurt the sentimates of one of the middle east rich countries). Now, instead of suspending the trio pending the completion of an enquiry (which is what is the normal practice in any decent organization), the Pakistan high commission and the cricket board has been going hammer and tongs at how the players have been framed and how Pakistan cricket has been singled out as a victim. The classic act of the hunted turning the hunter. When ICC got fed up with Pakistans ambivalence, they promptly suspended the unholy trio, and instead of accepting it meekly, Pakistan is on the offensive, even insinuating the Pawar, an Indian, who is the head of ICC is behind this, thus turning this into an Indo-Pak animosity, which is rubbish. Anyone who knows Pawar, is aware that he is one of those who will protect the corrupt, for he himself is corrupt to the boot (remember that he was the main backer of Lalit Modi in BCCI and tried his best to protect him during the IPL scandal)

Pakistan Cricket is rotting, like the Country. It is the nerve centre of corruption and unethical practices. Remember how the matches in Sharjah during 1980s were fixed, forcing India to take the tough decision on not sending teams to Sharjah tournaments, which eventually killed that tournament. Remember the ball tampering under Wasim and Waqar?  Remember the match fixing involving Salim Malik et al? Remember the whispers about drug use by Imran and Co? Remember the various allegations of match fixing of late involving Kamran Akmal and a few others? And now this. Like the country, Pakistan Cricket is a pest that should be squashed at the earliest.

Surely, if one can throw out Zimbabwe cricket just because they have a dictator ruling the country, and isolate South Africa because the Country was practicing apartheid, then Pakistan can be given the boot from International Cricket till the Country and the Board turns a new leaf. Certain people understand only certain language.