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         Vacuum of 10 months.. I have decided not to forget my pal blogger.com :) Decision to blog had always been like the usual new year day pledge. Follow it for a day or week or a month at the most. Well, if I follow it throughout the year what will I do for the next new year?

          Now I am happy that I have given a justification for the 10 months black out. Initially I thought that I will restart blogging on Jan 1st 2010. But after looking back to the history it seemed like the height of laziness. Most of my quarter-year or mid year pledges have been executed almost properly :)

       

         Good luck to myself !

Kerala: Terrorists' Own Country??

Special Correspondent: "Amidst the financial turmoil, plummeting job sector and season of layoffs, Kerala is boasting of unveiling a new horizon of opportunities. Led by LeT, major and minor terrorist outfits (MNCs and Desis) have found fresh talents in Kerala. They have commended the political parties for providing a safe and fertile ground for their requirements"

    The recent developments in Kerala is horrifying. Known as God's own Country and famous for it's natural beauty, serenity and educated people, Kerala, now appears frequently in the Headlines. The media is describing Kerala as the emerging safe haven of  terrorism. All the data so far proves this as right.
   
    It was shocking to hear that there were people from this southernmost state among those killed in Kashmir in an encounter with the army. Their dead bodies were lying side by side with those of some Pakistanis. The evidence of active recruitment for the millitant units is available. The person in charge of the recruitment is under arrest. In spite of all these facts it is unbelievable and appalling to hear the statements by People's Front, a Muslim Organization, that the encounters in Kashmir might be fake and minorities are unnecessarily targeted.

    The political gimmick is indeed funny and the leaders are lying openly which can only help the public feel contempt. The NDF, the main accused party which supported these terrorists, was an ally of the ruling Marxsist party in the elections. Kerala police has got proofs for NDF's involvement. But things have turned around now. The CPM leaders are acting blind and asking childish questions like 'What is NDF?'  :) How innocent!!!
    The opposition Congress party is no less in it's drama compared to the Leftists. Congress' ally Indian Union Muslim League had supported NDF in many ways and this is known to all. (Expediting the release of NDF activists from jail .. for example)

    Therefore, it is very obvious that the soil of Kerala is very fertile for growing the seeds of terrorism. The police is in the hands of ruling party and made impotent. So blaming police does not make sense. Where is the time for the police to catch offenders when ministers and people's representatives need them for personal use and protection?

    It looks like the recent incidents have slightly woken up the parties to act tough against those betraying the nation. More arrests are happening everyday and the rules are going to be more stringent. Let's hope for the best.........

A Diwali without lights......

    There was a time people singing and dancing when they saw the SENSEX breaching the 20000 barrier. Large amount of investments flowed in. Market went through a period of a buying spree. Those who never heard of stocks withdrew their fixed deposits and savings schemes and invested in equities. Some even went a step ahead sourcing the money for equities from bank loans!! And now we hear the screams and cries. If there is no money to buy a piece of rope to hang oneself how can Diwali be celebrated with lights?
   
    All categories of people are affected - Warren Buffet and aspiring Warren Buffets, BIG Ambanis and other top industrialists, entrepreneurs and small industrialists and the common man. I hope there will be lot of people having the similar experience or heard of others talking.

    It's wrong to call people invest in equities greedy. But isn't it overconfidence or greed to expect the index to reach 30000 when it just crossed 20000? US economy has been in downward spiral since 2007 mid. Paul Krugman predicted the current downfall in 2006. The omens and predictions seemingly did not affect all the buyers in early this year. Good for all the lucky people who managed wisely when the index was at the summit!!

    What are the options left now? No one would want to sell at this point unless there is an emergency for cash. The only option is to remain calm and wait for a rise. If there is abundancy of cash this is the good time to invest. There is no doubt that equities will outperform debt funds in the coming decade.

    My hope remains in the fact that Dow was in sixties during the great depression of last century and it managed to cross 10000 points... Good Luck all...Let's dream one more 20k...

Sarah Pa(l)in.......???

There is no doubt that the 2008 election campaign is one of the most remarkable election campaigns of United States. People are craving for a change. The debate is whether to crown the Bush Version 2 or make a difference by choosing Obama who promised to do so. As all movies have someone to entertain viewers with stupidities and so called humorous slangs, here comes Ms. Palin among the 3 other reputable personalities.

      McCain may be repenting now for his decision of including Palin in the race to The White House. I don't know the logic behind for such an action from a veteran candidate supposedly more mature than Obama. How good is it to think that a glamour girl who used to parade in fashion shows and appeared in the cover page of popular fashion magazine can raise the status of McCain campaign to whole new heights?

      It's not a negative point that Palin is glamorous; it is the fact that only beauty and no brains is not an aiding factor to open up the doors of the White House. If we go back to those weeks after Palin was declared as the running mate, it can be seen that the Republican campaign got a great impetus in the forward direction. Glamour helps - this is unquestionable.

      Now where is the fallout? It is not possible to maintain the status in the long run just with lipstick, facial cream and miniskirts :) Citizens need to know that the person they are going to elect is capable of handling the responsibility and deal with adverse situation. Palin is proving again and again that she is just another hockey-mom who can sit and watch doing nothing.

     She can beat any any stand-up comedians with real life stories. The language is so terrible that sometimes people want to be deaf when there is Palin speech. I can't call it as a speech - street talk can be a better word.

     All these can be forgiven if the administrative skills and knowledge are good enough. But she is nowhere compared to McCain, Obama or Biden. McCain has something like "When I was in Waziristhan.... “to say in the debate. Obama is a visionary. Biden is strong and strategic. What is there for the Republican VP to say about the past or future?

     The running mate is becoming a Pain for McCain. The rise in popularity of republicans is declining sharply as more and more Palin-blunders and Palin-scandals are exposed. Glamour has disappeared. Many people are not voting for the republicans not because they are worried about McCain-Palin duo ruling the nation but because they can't think even in their dreams of the distant possiblity of Palin Becoming the president if something bad happens to McCain.

     What does Palin know about Russia? ----" Oh, Russia is just our neighbour. I can see Russia from my house"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=irklZ-iZjhI         

Samarthanam: Empowering India

As we were stepping out from the Samarthanam's hostel in J.P. Nagar, Bangalore, we had a sense of joy and pride: joy of spending some unforgettable time with the people there and pride for the philanthropic works carried out by Samarthanam.

More about Samarthanam: Samarthanam Trust For The Disabled was registered as an NGO on February 26, 1997 . Three visually challenged young graduates started the Trust with the initial objective of providing hostel and education facilities to visually impaired girls pursuing their studies after tenth standard. Over the years the Trust has expanded its horizon to include various projects for the benefit of physically and economically challenged students also. Besides getting them admitted in various prestigious colleges in the city of Bangalore, the trust also provides the visually challenged students with reader and scribe services. (Source: http://www.samarthanam.org/)

What are the people already doing? Commendable voluntary work is poured in for this organization by the people from all walks of life: techies, artists, teachers, doctors and many others. Volunteers come whenever they get free time and teach whatever they know.For example, there are people who teach music, dance computer skills etc. It's amazing to see that students here can learn in the same speed as others do. Talent is everywhere. Our duty is to discover that.

What did we do? My friend Jitesh knew about Samarthanam, collected related information and planned accordingly. The plan was to gather clothes from our friends and distribute it to the org. It was successful as the number of clothes collected was nearly hundred from just a few houses and in a very short span of time.

First, we were shown a video about Samarthanam. We got an overall view of the various activities conducted by Samarthanam. There were comments from CEOs, entrepreneurs and other eminent personalities praising and supporting the good deeds. After this we walked inside the hostel guided by one of the member. We saw some blind people learning computer, one volunteer teaching a group of 4 kids and some kids playing in the terrace. It's difficult to make out that some people are blind. The way some talk looking straight at our eyes and the swiftness with which they move around; unbelievable!!

We met couple of people who support this Mr. Chandrashekhar or Chandru is the heart of that place. His contributions are priceless. He can operate computer very well with the help of software for visually impaired. Another person we met was Mr. Nagesh. I think I don't clearly remember in how many fields he is an expert! Darkness in front of the eyes was never a hurdle for him. He is a vocalist and mimicry artist. He conducts stage shows and works for Kotak Mahindra. We were dumbfound listening to all these. The time spent with him was memorable. His ideas and talks are so fresh and original that the listeners will be captivated. Another inspiring character is Annamma who is serving for the past 7 years. All these people talk good and smile with joy. Isn’t this amazing when many are looking for the source of happiness in this world? Well I am also looking for :)

We spent close to one and half hour and left the place with the promise of revisiting with proper plan to teach the students.

What you can do? I will be more than happy if you had a thought of doing something from your side. You would have thought of spending an hour, helping financially or donating something useful. Whatever be it, the people in the organization will happily accept.

Please feel free to contact Samarthanam or us in case you want some information

Samarthanam: +91-80- 26592999 / 26591488
Jitesh: +91 9980163165
Balu: +91 9886101840
Watch the video http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-9095471016167749125

From Top Left Clockwise: Rahul, Sandeep, Sanoop, Balu, Nagesh, Rahul,Rose,Karthik, Jithesh, Priyanka, Rashmi, Irfaan

http://picasaweb.google.co.in/balu.ss/Samarthanam#

Indian Communism: Are the leaders confused?

Let me state my intentions first. This is not an attempt to sanitize other political parties or defame communism. I just want put forward some facts and my thoughts from those facts.
My dear leftist friends, hope you read this without any preoccupation or biased thoughts.

Starting from the latest Nuke deal and going back to the pages of history, it is vividly visible that the party is unable to modify its stands or principles based on the advance in technology. Also in these days the agenda of the party has become the agenda of a few at the top. Rule of oligarchy?

If you clearly go through the arguments against the deal, no concrete and rational statements can be found. Some are really absurd and might be valid in the stone age!! Some are just to find new markets in the minority vote bank.

• "The nuclear deal will harm small traders and farmers. It will be harmful to workers and sectors like insurance and banks, too. To protect farmers, we have to stop this deal. The nuclear deal is related to globalization and market economy". This is Mr. Karat's opinion. I tried hard to understand this but failed miserably. How can a party with such an ideology be behind the atrocities happened in Nandigram and Singur?
• Second argument was that the deal is against some minorities of India. This is too weak and ridiculous to come out from a national party. Of course the target is to gather more votes in the coming election. Oppose the USA- the new mantra
• We miss you Mr. Harkishan Singh Surjit, the great leader. I strongly believe that this man could have done something radically different at the present situation. The funniest part is that there are leaders within the party who support the deal. Mr. Basu, Mr. Somnath Chatterjee. Does anybody dare to tell that Congress could bribe these veterans to be pro-Deal? The strongest opposition was from Mr. Karat. I am still not clear why.

Revisiting the history.

• Our leaders went to meet the Chinese communist leaders during their India visit. The advice received, " First national development, then ideology." Practical answer. Do ideologies provide food, clothes and shelter?
• Some leaders used to go to China for "Study". Then came back to India and continued to deliver the same old cliches in their speeches.
• There was a time when computers were against left principles. Later it was shamelessly accepted by the party protogonists as the biggest blunder. Later at time the same acceptance may be there regarding N-Deal also :)

There are lot more examples which will bring out such paradoxes. It is a surprise to me that a party, which is an arch rival of Congress in three states, supports Congress in the Central Govt.
Also rules in Kerala and W. Bengal are different eventhough both are led by the left.

Conflict between ideology and pragmatism will continue..........

Best TV Comedy Programme

After a lot of research finally I found the winners: nothing but the news programmes aired by myriad of channels. Much better compared to the terrible PJs and nonsense presented by many of the 'real' comedy shows.

I don't want to make an unreasonable statement by mentioning news as worthless. In a strict sense it mainly 'that' part of the news which is often funny. You might have got the hint what I am thinking. Obviously it is the political news story which hilarious. It looks like the 'laughability factor' of this 'story' is rising these days.
How are you going to react to these?

• After the recent victory in the vote of confidence, SP Gen. Sec. was alleged of bribing some BJP MPs at his house. Here goes the NDTV interview..

NDTV : Have you seen these 3 MPs in the last 48 hours?
Mr. Sec. : Err.. hmmm....(thinking what to say)I... I.. I .. don't remember. See I see 500 people a day. How can you ask such questions? (I thought politicians are experts in lying. I was proved wrong . What a conspicuous lie!!)

• 
  
  Bandhs,Hartals and protests are integral part of life for anyone stays in Kerala. Do you believe this? There is one education department's office where protest march happens everyday and you have to submit a written request to get a slot for your protest. Turn on any mallu channel; at least ten times a day you can see group of people cladded in white, red or saffron clothes marching with placards and banners and shouting at the top of their voices. For whom?

• Recently there was a state-wide agitation in Kerala against the new social science text book of 7th standard. It had some secular statements in a chapter which turned out to be controversial when religious leaders intervened. Books were publicly burned. Only one good thing happened: people who never touched a book while in school read something first time in their life. I could watch people holding these books, tearing into pieces and throwing to fire.

• Some maths. No. of days in a year =365, No. of holidays for a Kerala state owned school=104(Sat and Sun)+60(Summer)+20(Xmas and Onam)+10(Misc), 3 exams a year=30 days. So there are only 141 regular classes(Approx 4.5 months). Now assume 2 protests per month(May not be upto the standards. Sometimes 4 or 5 also). Another month is gone. This is the fate of layman's children. I remember the happy faces of students when the news reader announces that all educational institutes are closed today schools are closed today because of the Bundh protesting the arrest of oppostion party leader's father-in-law. (Looks silly? Belive me ,there sillier issues also)

• Apart from politics, other 'items' include live coverage of Khan Vs. Khan dirty fight and debates over the same for hours during prime time over and again. Still feeling unsatisfied, some channels showed highlights continuously for a week. Remember the Shilpa Shetty-Big Brother controversy? I stopped watching TV for a month that time :)

Thanks to the overwhelming growth of visual media. Is the difference between news channel and entertainment channels becoming narrower?