Oh! for a leader with balls

I am disappointed with the troika of Manmohan Singh, P Chidambaram and Montek Singh Ahluwalia.

Now, I can hear you sigh and say "Here he goes again. Indulging in his favourite past time of Government bashing".

Great leadership (even good governance) calls for seizing the opportunity and being the trend rather than following the trend. India, has for long, been following the trend but has never set the trend.

We missed the bus in 1970's when the economy was crying to be opened up. We missed the manufacturing boom that ensued. We did not built on the Green revolution of the 1960's. The only time we took leadership was in IT,but that was more by accident than by any design of the Government. Even the IT sector failed to grasp the need for coming up with low cost solutions to reach out to the masses, that would have given them volumes unimaginable. And, we totally overlooked the business opportunity in the Hardware sector. Our IT sector was happy to pander to the blue collared needs of the developed countries to earn the green currency in doves.

Here was the opportunity of a life time. The developed countries are reeling and confused. Their facade of financial superiority in shambles. They are rocking as they just dont have a Plan B. They dont have an agricultural base, their manufacturing industries are costly and untenable (last heard all the Auto giants GM, Ford and Chrysler are facing bankruptcy in one month), financial services sector in a coma, hardly any money in circulation, unemployment on the rise............the list of woes is endless.

India is relatively better off. We did not lose our shirt in the sub prime market. Our banking structure is sound. Stock market suffered mainly due to faulty government policies of yore that allowed unrestricted Foreign Institutional Investments in India, rather than much more long term Foreign Direct Investment in long term infrastructure projects that would have prevented reverse flow of capital. The major worry was runaway inflation and the rising crude oil prices.

But the last two are under control, but no thanks are due to the Government. The inflation is down to 8 + (which is still high but manageable) mainly due to the fall in global oil prices and the good harvest during the Kharif. Inflation in India has always been traditionally seen to be falling post kharif. The Crude oil prices are at rock bottom now.

What should the Government have done? They should have

Slashed the interest rate drastically that would have fuelled the cycle of growth. Admitted, inflation would have gone up but that would have been manageable. This one act would have send the right kind of signals to the industry and small investors.

Reduced the petroleum prices. It is ridiculous that ATF prices have been slashed by 40% to save the Airlines (whose losses are more due to poor business models) but the Petrol, Diesel prices have not been slashed. The inflationary pressure that would have been felt on reduction of interest rates would have been offset by the subsequent reduction in commodity prices through lower transportation charges.

Scrap the pay commission report. The government employees dont deserve a single paisa as pay revision for they hardly do any job and are corrupt to boot. Some might argue that people will quit Government sector for Private sector. So be it. Good riddance. Dont fill those vacancies. At least the exchequer would be saved of considerable waste. (The latest is that the Public Sector employees are expected to get a 300% hike. For what? An incentive for running PUC's to ground?)

Read the riot act to the Banks. The financial crisis is mainly due to poor inter bank lending. If banks dont trust each other, then how can a common man trust a bank. Encourage the banks to merge. We have too many banks who doesnt have the size to compete globally. Indian banks just dont aim to have a global presence. If we are to grab the global leadership, we need to have really world class, huge asset based financial institutions than can make of break countries. All the Indian Banks can be merged into 3 or 4. Anyway, why do we need so many banks ?

Create a India International Fund. This fund can act like IMF. Use this fund as a handle to control the financial markets of other countries.

Give substantial incentives to our Manufacturing base. This is where our strength lies. Abundant educated manpower.Strong engineering base. Let us become an industrial superpower in 20 years.

Put Mani Shankar Aiyer back in Petroleum ministry. The guy had great ideas on energy security before he was kicked out at US instance. This is the time to tie up long term contracts for Energy, as assets are cost effective and Oil producing countries are worried about reduced investment in the sector. India should go ahead, invest massively in Energy Assets, and leverage long term contracts.

None of the above I have mentioned is impractical.

But the ego centric, US a** licking troika of MMS, PC and MSA do not have the guts to do it. What a crying shame!

Oh! for a leader with balls!

Everything happens for good

In one of India's little kingdoms of long ago there lived a King who (like most of them) was fond of hunting in wild places.

His Chief Advisor was a very intelligent man, and also a very optimistic one. He was famous for seeing the rosy side of things. In fact, so strong was his habit of finding good in everything that at times this annoyed his ruler.

One day when the King and his Advisor were on a hunting trip through a dense jungle which went on for miles, the King decided to have a fresh coconut for his breakfast, and, finding a coconut tree near at hand, with his sword cut down a coconut. But as luck would have it, his sword slipped in his hand and came crashing down on one of his toes, cutting it off!

Limping over to his Advisor with loud shouts of pain, he was terribly shocked to hear the latter say, "Ah, that's wonderful!""What?!" yelled the King; "I cut off my toe and you say it is wonderful?""This is a real blessing," replied the Advisor.

By now the King was furious, thinking the man was making fun of him."Take it from me," said his Advisor, "behind this apparent bad accident there is some good which we cannot now see."

That was it! The King had noticed a dry well nearby, and being a strong man, he picked up his companion and just threw him into that well. Then he set out to limp back to his fortified town and castle.

This meant, however, walking through dense jungle, frequented by the wild tribes of those days, some of whom were headhunters. On his way the King met a band of those headhunters, who decided that, being royalty, he would make an excellent sacrifice for this month's festival. As you may imagine, the King did not feel at all honored by this decision. The warriors carried him to the tribal priest. It was the duty of this priest to approve all of the offerings that were to be presented. The priest was most particular to see that the item to be offered to the gods was perfect in all respects.

While anointing the King's body the priest noticed that he was lacking one toe.

"I am sorry," he told the King, "but we cannot use you after all for this holy sacrifice. The gods will not accept anyone who is not whole-bodied You will have to go."

Naturally the King was delighted and began hobbling away toward his palace. Aha! he thought, so his Advisor had been right -- there was indeed a hidden blessing behind that accident.

As fast as his wounded leg would allow, he turned around and went back to the well where he had left his counsellor. There he was, standing down in the well and whistling happily to himself.

Now the king managed to reach down far enough to grasp the hand of the Advisor and with great effort to pull him up. Then he apologized for having doubted him and having thought him a fool.

"Oh how sorry I am that I threw you in there," said the King as he dusted off his courtier. "I was taken prisoner by some wild native headhunters who were about to make me a sacrifice victim. Then they saw that my toe was missing, and let me go. And you foretold all this, in a way. Can you ever forgive me?"

"You need not apologize at all; it was a blessing that you threw me down the well and left me there."

"Now, how are you going to make something positive out of that?" queried the King.

"Well," said the other, "if I had been with you they would surely have taken me for their sacrifice."

Pearls from Chanakyaneethi

Pearls from Chanakya Neethi,

"A person should not be too honest. Straight trees are cut first and honest people are screwed first." - (Can vouch from personal experience that this is true)


"There is some self-interest behind every friendship. There is no friendship without self-interests. This is a bitter truth." - (People always ask WIIFM (What Is In it For Me))


"Before you start some work, always ask yourself three questions - Why am I doing it, What the results might be and Will I be successful. Only when you think deeply and find satisfactory answers to these questions, go ahead."


"Treat your kid like a darling for the first five years. For the next five years, scold them. By the time they turn sixteen, treat them like a friend. Your grown up children are your best friends." - I fully endorse the first and the last. I am not a great votary of scolding my children at any age.

All for a loincloth - Story

One of the tales Sri Ramakrishna used to tell is about a holy man who had given up all his possessions. His teacher had advised him to make a little hut thatched with palm leaves, in a solitary place away from the public. This he did. He began to live there, meditating long hours and going out only to beg his one meal of the day.


But there was one problem. After his morning bath, the sadhu (holy man) would hang his loincloth on the limb of a tree close to the hut. When he returned from the village it would be dry. It would also have some holes in it! It turned out that rats were running up the tree and chewing holes in the cloth. Rats will munch on almost anything.


One day he decided to dry it on the roof of his hut. That was worse. The rats tore it into shreds, and he had to go and beg a new one in the village. When the villagers heard of his predicament, they said, “Who is going to supply you with cloth all the time? Why not keep a cat; that will chase the rats away.” So someone in the village gave him a kitten, he brought it home to the hut, and sure enough, the rats disappeared and the trouble stopped.


The sadhu became delighted and took great care of the cat. Not finding any rats, it needed milk, so he went again to the village and begged for milk for the cat. After some days, a villager said, “We can't go on this way. Who is going to supply you with milk all year long? Why not keep a cow; that way you too will have milk – you and your cat.”


It took a long time for the man to acquire a cow. Finally someone took pity on him and gave him one. Of course the cow had to be milked. Moreover eventually she ate up all the greenery for yards around. “What will the cow eat now?” he thought. Going to the village to beg for some straw, he got more advice. What do you think it was?


“Till the land around your place and grow your own grain!”


With great difficulty the sadhu was able to clear land, cultivate it with borrowed tools, and sow a crop. His days were busy. His hut grew into more of a house.


One day his teacher came that way. What he saw was a collection of possessions. He inquired of a passerby, “An ascetic used to live in this hut, a meditator with no possessions. Do you know where he has gone?” But the traveler knew nothing. The teacher ventured into the place and found his disciple.


“What! You went out to be alone, and to meditate. You were going to renounce everything and be free. What in the world happened?” Shame-faced, the man told his story.


And this is why Sri Ramakrishna used to say, “Be careful: ‘All for a loincloth.’”

Are these jokers for real?

Three separate statements by three worthies from our ruling party -Congress (I) on the same day.

Congress General Secretary Rahul Gandhi on Monday said "the UPA Government is not only fighting terrorism but also winning on the front" - I am really baffled on the claim of 'Winning'. What does this mean? That the number of terror strikes have come down from once in 30 days to once in 29.99 days? I have not seen any signs of Government winning. Have you?

Contending that the Government was ‘strong enough to manage’ terrorism, Home Minister Shivraj Patil on Monday said, however, ‘weapons’ alone will not be able to help combat the menace in the country - What noble thoughts! Pray my idiot of a Home Minister, can you tell me what other than weapons will combat the menace? Holding the terrorist by the arms and patting him on the back? And what does 'managing' terrorism mean? Does it mean that it is alright to have terrorism as long as Government is able to 'manage' it? Or is it that Patil has let the cat out of the bag? Are we to understand that the terrorist strikes so far are ' (stage) managed' by the Government?

Finally, here is a Sheila Dikshit gem. "The government is not sitting on the file. We are just deciding on the fate of the convict," Dikshit told reporters when asked about the issue of Afzal Guru, who has been sentenced to death by the Supreme Court - It must be one hell of a decision making process, for as far as I know the issue was refered to the Delhi Government more than 2 years ago. And she continued to make a more bizzaire statement, "Only the decision has to be taken whether he should be hanged or given life imprisonment. We will not allow Afzal Guru to get out of jail." - Here is a guy who is sentenced to death by the Supreme Court and the Delhi Chief Minister is claiming that she will not allow him to get out of jail. As if she has the power to do it. Or is it that she is just echoing her parties wish?

Are these three jokers for real?

I know that there is a political license (akin to poetic license) during campaigning. But this is idiotic and I am being charitable.

The s**t that goes as news these days

The s**t that are considered newsworthy by newspapers these days,

"An Indian doctor has sworn a legal undertaking (sic) that she will improve her handwriting after judges complained that they could not read her spidery scrawl" - (umm.......... if this judgement were to be extended to ALL the DOCTORS in India, then there is a tremendous market potential for Pencils and Two line/Four line note books. Imagine our esteemed Judges peering over moon glasses with a cane in the hand and watching the doctors practice their handwriting. And pray what is this lady doctor supposed to do. Write "I shall improve my handwriting 1ooo times and go to the courtroom next day to show the worthy judge her homework?. Give me a break.There are millions of important cases on which judgements have not been passed pending for decades and our courts find time to pass such frivolous judgements)

"Indian man killed for urinating against a wall" - ( No.I am not conning you. This happened a couple of days back in India. The poor guy had one too many and took a leak, whack! and next thing he knows, he is in the gates to the pearly heaven. Now, now what will he be saying up there "Let those who dont urinate against a wall, smash my skull", and he will not find a single man in India, high or low. Anyway what is a wall for, if you cant piss against it?)

"A woman died on the way to a cemetery when a traffic accident hurled her husband’s coffin against the back of her neck" - (The husband must be humming,"Ta ra Ta ra, what I couldn't do alive(or didnt have the guts to), I achieved when dead". May his soul Rest In Peace)

"Monkeys ransack police officer's office in Agra" - ( The reporter surely got his lines mixed up. It HAS TO be 'Police officers ransacked Monkey's office'. Anyway, I was wondering what the monkeys would have obtained from ransacking the office! Couple of bottles of run, beedi bits?)

"First portable toilet for Everest" - (Now, now. Why do Everest want a toilet? Does Everest shit?)

These are the kinds of things our newspapers are made of. All the above appeared on a single day. No wonder newspapers are lamenting fall in readership. Who wants to read the above 's**t'?

Of dreams, imaginations and childhood

There is something mystical and enchanting about the unknown. Sometimes I wish we are not in the Information era, where you have a logical reason (well millions in fact, if one were to search Google), for everything.

What triggered this thought was the news report that Chandrayan 1 has reached the lunar orbit and planted Indian Tri Colour on the lunar surface. A very credible achievement by ISRO, considering the state they were in the 1970's, when they were the butt of every second mimicry troupe. (For eg: The American saying that he will send another rocket to destroy the rocket he has sent before to space so that the debris doesnt fall on earth, Russian saying he will send another rocket to retrieve the one he sent earlier, while the contemplative ISRO scientist saying quietly that he will send divers to retrieve the rocket he has fired, for almost all of them ended up under the sea near Sriharikota).

Chandrayan 1, for me totally demystifies the moon. I know man first landed on Moon in 1969. But hey! that was by the US Astronauts, not Indians. Now the reality has come closer to home.

There are two things one was never tired of watching for hours - Full Moon and a fully grown majestic male Elephant. Even today, I love to watch the full moon in all its glory.

Contrary to its link with romanticism, Full moon evokes a melancholy feeling in me - for it was on a full moon day that I lost my father, with whom I was very close. It is almost as if he looks down on me from the moon on those days. Sounds absurd, but strage are the associations formed by the mind.

One needs mystic objects and abstract unknowns to dream. I don't know what children of these days dream of. I am sure they have their own dream world.

Is it about Full moon, elephants, or mythical animals?. Pegasus, the white flying horse from the greek mythology, was a favourite of mine. Bellerophon, taming Pegasus, to fight the triple headed monster Chimera was rivetting to me as a child. Imagining sitting on a flying horse made many of my childhood days. In the story, there is a young Greek boy who helps Bellerophon to capture Pegasus and bridle him. I always put me in that young boys place in my imagination.

Would really love to know what today's kids dream of. Can someone enlighten me?

Till then let me black out my mind about Chandrayaan 1 and the controversy surrounding elephants in captivity in Kerala. Let me be the child that I always was.

Allow me to look up and speak to the rabbit hidden in the full moon!