5 years down the line
This is a common question which someone or the other might have asked you. Where do you see yourself 5 years down the line? Mostly it is an interview question to which we give a parrot reply. Hardly do we give any thought to this in real.
Do one thing. Go back 5 years in time and analyze if you are where you wanted to be 5 years down the line? I predict the standard deviation would be too high. The difference between dream and reality. We can owe it to a lot of factors. Not always is the difference negative. Many chances that you have achieved more than you hoped for. There are chances that you have not achieved as much. We can owe it to lack of foresight or divine powers to look into the future.
How to make things better? I would suggest make 3-4 years goal. And analyze if you are on track regularly. At the end of the period if still you have not achieved what you bid out for, time to either change the goals (as you might not be interested in what you aimed for), or time for serious introspection.
Throwing away the life aimlessly is no good. Have some aim; however stupid or vague. You will feel good working for it. You will feel like getting up in the morning. Else this long life without the answer to, “Why we are here” will be a long slog.
Solution to JNU Crises: Give them degree and kick them out
JNU crises have reached a deadlock. There is a need for smartness on the part of authorities. I read that a committee has recommended expelling the hooligans. Not a smart move. No point giving these people audience and propelling their political careers.
Expelling will lead to unnecessary protests. Not worth it. These hooligans and their ilk, who feed on taxpayers’ money, have nothing to lose and everything to gain. So they will do anything and everything. Smartest solution would be to give them the degree. They way they will have to move out the college. Expedite their exams and kick them out.
They can’t cry that they have been expelled. They won’t get the coziness of college for their nefarious activities. No reason for protests. Don’t fail them, pass them. And show them the door. I admit it’s not an ideal solution, but we don’t live in an ideal society, do we?
This leftist hooliganism is a global phenomenon. Lok what happened to Trump rally in Chicago. These people have nothing to lose. No point fighting them. They thrive on media attention. Time to clean our colleges. Rather than expelling, give them a degree and get them off.
Random Conversations
Random Conversation about nothing at all,
The Fat Cherry: I don’t have a reservation in train. What should I do?
The Constant: Don’t worry; you can still board the train. Pay something.
The Protégé: Take a bike ride.
The Dreamer: Don’t go.
The Constant: My leather shoes are good.
The Fat Cherry: Are you sure they are leather.
The Protégé: Hush Puppies are leather. These are not Hush Puppies.
The Dreamer: No Bro.
The Protégé: Ola has started cheaper ride.
The Constant: Why don’t you buy a car?
The Fat Cherry: You can give me a ride then.
The Dreamer: Hey Bro.
The Dreamer: It’s hot. Did you turn off AC?
The Constant: I didn’t do it (Smiles)
The Protégé: I don’t feel hot.
The Fat Cherry: Someone get it on.
Freedom of Expression, Hate Speech: India is Too Young
The point that I want to address today is Freedom of Expression in India. Under the raging debate lately, this expression has been mixed with Freedom to Hate Speech. People wanting right to hate speech put forward the argument that it is a non violent protest and they have every right to do it. I agree with argument but it not in sync with the stage which it is set in. Let me explain.
Is hate speech non-violent? Yes. Is hate speech allowed in other democracies? Yes. In developed countries it is much worse. So why the issue in India? The issue is, India is not yet ready for this. “Not ready in what sense”, would be the next question. Well in the sense of law enforcement. We are a country still way back in policing and enforcement of the law. Security personnel to population ratio is way too low. Arrest rates, Conviction rates are very less. We as a country are working towards betterment but when compared with developed countries, we have a long way to go.
What happens is, due to shortcomings in law enforcement, people feel free to take matters in their own hands which leads to mob justice and mob violence. It cannot be justified and neither am I trying to do that. But we have accept the sad reality. Thus for the age our country is in, Hate Speech can’t be clubbed with Freedom of Speech. It has and it would lead to friction among groups and eventual violence. Onus is on all of us to keep the fragile peace going.
As the law enforcement, conviction rates and fear of law improves, Freedom of Speech automatically will expand to allow Hate Speech. Just because we are born in globalized age, we should not forget the reality of our Geography. Till then don’t blame the nation for any aggressive reaction against hate speech. You are yourself to be blamed for that.
An Advice to BJP: Congress card works no more
Vijay Mallya left India for London amidst all the hue and cry. His sympathizers in media pointed out that he didn’t do any wrong by going abroad. There was no legal requirement for him to stay. And they are right. He was free to leave. And here lies the problem.
When Govt. of the country is so weak as to not read the writing on the wall, there can hardly be any excuse. Mallya is a Rajya Sabha MP as an Independent. But we all know BJP supported him and propelled him to Rajya Sabha. The fishy loans he got approved were during the UPA decade of shame. Thus both BJP and Congress are in on it. Both favor such crony capitalists and both blame each other.
For BJP this is highly embarrassing as now they are in power. They don’t want to bring Lalit Modi back and now they have let off Mallya. Any guesses how many years will it take to bring him back? I say never. Same for Lalit Modi.
And it’s sad to see BJP playing the Congress card again. “Loans were given during Congress’s regime”, they say. So, What should we people do? Dance?
BJP can silence Congress during debates with this argument. But it can’t fool the people of India anymore. ‘Congress is bad’, argument has started falling flat. You have been in power for around 2 years. And now the blame is on you.
Your crony capitalism has come out in open. Lalit Modi and Vijay Mallya are two shining armors to that effect. I know nothing will change. I am only writing this as I have nothing better to do.
AOL: In India money buys you everything, Even Environment
I just read that after a few days of hullabaloo, NGT has given clearance to Art of Living (AOL) World Culture Festival. Only after imposing 5 crore in fine. This for me is akin to the pollution tax. What NGT is saying to AOL is, please go ahead polluting and breaking environmental norms, just pay us 5 crore in fines.
In essence, if you have money, you are free to pollute. 1000 acres on the bank of Yamuna has been converted into a village. AOL contented it is temporary structure which NGT questioned. Understand the issue here; it is about damage to the Yamuna and the environment.
I understand there are hardcore fans of AOL who want this to happen. But this cannot be the reason alone. There can be fans of ‘N’ number of people. Would we start allowing everyone such privileges? The ‘Guru’ tag associated with Sri Sri, fears the Govt. Sri Sri has always supported BJP and hence this softness on Govt’s part.
I don’t question AOL and its leader. You might be doing well for yourself and your followers. It’s not any of my concern. I won’t come and question you in your ashram. What you do is your individual right.
But such things leave bad taste. NGT has imposed a fine of 5 crore. So if you didn’t have this money, you wouldn’t be allowed this event. Right? Thus it’s all about money. You have bought the Environment. I don’t like it one bit.
What I don’t like is any common citizen of this country wouldn’t be allowed such a privilege. Why should any organization? It’s not about AOL, it’s about cronyism.
Sad reality behind ‘huge’ Arnab Goswami viewership
Whoever has watched Times Now, would be familiar with the Arnab’s rhetoric about Newshour being the most watched News Show. Indeed it is. But there is a sad reality hidden behind.
Newshour is the most watched English News Debate show. However the number the people watching this show is not more than 5-6 lacs in reality. It’s just that out of other such shows this is the most watched. Hindi News shows have more than 10 times viewership. Why is this show hailed then?
For most of the part it is his self advertising, telling about how great the show is. How big the crusader he is. And sad part is the per capita income difference between English speaking and non-English speaking Indian’s is too high. More so with people who have subscribed to such English News Channels.
It’s the per capita of his viewers which is high. Not the number of viewers. The much celebrated status and high advertisement rate of Times Now is much due to the economic divide that India faces today. Less people are More rich. More people are Less rich.
In our society since poor people don’t have much money, they don’t have much purchasing power. Which in turn eliminates them from potential TV viewer list. No TV channel wants people to see their show, if they don’t have money to buy products advertised. It’s the game of money.
Hype of TimesNow and Arnab Goswami is due to the purchasing power of his viewers. Who are less in quantity but more in monetary terms. This should not be much of a surprise given Top 1% owns more than 50% of wealth in India.
Why BJP MP’s are failing PM Modi
Time and again Modi has asked his MP’s to spend time in their constituency when Parliament is not in session. He has asked them to spread the message of the good work Govt. is doing. PM has again asked his MP’s to spread the details of the poor people’s budget. But…there is a BIG but.
MP’s are failing PM Modi. They fail to spread the message. It’s not difficult to understand given that most MP’s didn’t get elected due to own merit. They won on the back of Modi wave. Same people would have lost terribly had they run on Congress ticket in 2014.
If you do a dissection of 282 of them, you will find not many commands that much public following. In fact, I would doubt if many people would voluntarily attend a public gathering called by their MP. I admit I haven’t studied them all. But in the sample I took, the rot was evident.
More so in UP, where people elected Modi with historical majority. Mind you, people here don’t differentiate much between general and state election. For them they have elected Modi, exasperated by SP rule. And they didn’t see the Acche Din.
I don’t want to be too hard on the MP’s here. They fear being asked about Acche Din (at micro level) if they go to the people. Most MP’s are just enjoying the perks while it lasts. I think Modi understands too some extent that his MP’s are not the foot soldiers he can reply on. He knows he needs to go to the public on his own. Mann ki Baat is a good way to do that. There is a need for more such out of the box thinking.
What if Trump behaved civil?
Millionaire media pundits have been going crazy all through the primaries. They wanted/predicted Trump’s downfall but it hasn’t happened till now. They called Trump names. “He is foul mouth. Not very Presidential.” Huffington post ran every article related to Trump with disclaimer that he is a sexist, xenophobic and what not.
Not just media, Democrats hailed their candidates as being civil. Democrat candidates also hailed themselves as being so nice as against the filthy mouth Trump. All those who want Trump to be civil. Let me tell you what would have happened. And why his bad mouth is working.
First of all, if Trump would have been all Mr. Goody, he would not have stood out of the 17 Republican candidates. Mr. Dollar Bush, would have been the frontrunner and eventual US President. Bush would have been nice in his debates and let the Super PAC’s do dirty work by filthy ads. Trump hasn’t spend as much as he does the dirty work himself. Have we forgotten how Dubya destroyed Mccain via vicious phone calls?
Trump was a non-politician. He didn’t have a ready vote bank like others. He created a vote bank for himself. Other have been fooling theirs for long. At least he hasn’t fool his, till now.
All the Democrats who are patting themselves and their candidates. Look what has happened to you. Sanders played gentleman and Hillary is on her way to be the nominee. Hillary who is corrupt, takes money from Banks and will put Bill Clinton again in the White House. Had Sanders played rough, he could have beaten Hillary.
This is why Trump did what he did. To break the dynasties. To change the age old status quo. To clear the filth, he had to be filthy. I am no Trump fan. Hell he wants job back from India, my country. But still I don’t despise him. But for his filthy mouth, it would have been Bush v/s Clinton this November. And I hate dynasties. What about you?
नींद ना आई सारी रात
दीदारे यार कुछ ऐसा हुआ,
फ़िज़ा में छायी कुछ ऐसी बात,
औ चाँद की चांदनी अजीब,
मुझे नींद ना आई सारी रात।
छन छन के रौशनी जो आई,
तेरे मुख को छूकर जाने को,
हिमाकत ये न करी मैंने रास,
मुझे नींद ना आई सारी रात।
भौंरा तभी देखा खिड़की पे,
चीरता हुआ रात का सन्नाटा,
किया रवाना समझाकर उसे,
मुझे नींद ना आई सारी रात।
बिजली चली गयी, हवा बंद,
तेरे माथे पे पसीना आ बैठा,
सिरहाने तेरे करता रहा हवा,
मुझे नींद ना आई सारी रात।
कोशिश सोने की कई बार करी,
पर तुझसे नज़र न मेरी हटी,
देखता रहा तुझे, थाम तेरा हाथ,
मुझे नींद ना आई सारी रात||
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