This whole week has consisted of people telling me that India has no future and that the cancer has set in too deep and me denying it vehemently.

It started from an old friend of mine visiting from Canada. ( A Muslim friend who was with me during the Mumbai riots and moved there after that saying that a racially charged India had no future for Muslims like him)

We were speaking about how we should be better citizens, and more interactive citizens like knowing about our local areas, knowing about what number to call for what , etc.

He turned around and laughed at me and said, how can you people be so stupid. In Canada we only know one number and that number is 911. Once we dial it, the government takes over and we get a return on the taxes we pay. Only in India are you people so stupid that not only do you pay your taxes, but you also do the governments job for it.

Its like buying a dog and then barking for it. Not only are we paying taxes, we are also doing the govt’s job for it.

==================================

A further jab came when  I spoke to someone else who told me about the hopeless situation of the education system. According to her the new lot of MBAs was a bunch of nincompoops from second rate cities due to the number of colleges being setup, getting approved by a bunch of jokers at the board of education,  and then run slipshod just so that some initials can be attached to the students name.

Running a placement firm, she was interviewing a bunch of candidates from a campus placement. Out of sheer exasperation at the level of dumbness of the supposed Masters of Business Administration (MBAs) she was talking to, she tried a trick question, which was if I was to offer you a job at Satyam right now, would you take it.

She got an overwhelming response saying yes Satyam is an excellent company, beautiful reputation, and we would love it. She walked out and 2 hours later called up the placement co-ordinator at the college and told her ” please ask your students to pick up a newspaper once in a while”.

This, folks is the management corpus of your tomorrows companies. Do we really wonder why corporate governance is going to the dogs ?

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During the week of course we got news of the Satyam (I wont say fraud like most people do) fiasco. I think its been dragged to bits for me to repeat the whole thing, but what my take on the whole issue is,  Mr. Raju said a very interesting thing. He said that he had an over-inflated balance sheet , which my sources tell me is de facto for companies in India for a variety of reasons and he was trying to balance it by buying 2 companies at 6400 Crores which he would never have paid physically, but which would have balanced the books.

Lets understand the move. His asset side has 6400 Crs showing which doesn’t exist, he needs something on the liabilities side to bring it down to zero. So he shows the purchase of 2 companies which does a 6400 Cr on liabilities side.

	Assets	Liabilites
Before purchase	Cash and bank balances worth 6400 Cr	====
After purchase	Cash and bank balances worth 6400 Cr + 2 companies worth 6400 Cr (allegedly)	6400 Cr to be paid for the two companies
Nett Sum	2 Companies worth 6400 Cr (allegedly)	======

Three thoughts come to mind with this:

1) Wasn’t Satyams’ meteoric rise begun with the purchase of IndiaWorld group of companies which was valued at 10 Cr for 500 Cr which kick started the dot com boom. Deja vu, anyone ?

2) How many other companies have tried a similar move and gotten away with it or how many others are in the process of doing similar moves as we speak.

3) Mr. Raju said he would have never paid the 6400 Cr physically for the two companies but just balanced the books. There are 2 fallacies with the logic. One unless he did, how would the 6400 move off Satyams books into the books of the promoters of the 2 companies he was buying and the second is were the companies worth 6400 Cr to begin with or was that also creative accounting.

This kind of creative accounting had my Canadian friend clucking his tongue in disapproval.

To top it off, I saw Mr. Harish Salve our ex solicitor general saying on television when asked if Mr. Raju would go to jail for his actions, “We are gods country, we don’t send anyone to jail”. I love his sense of humour.

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The lowest point of my week was when I had the news that Sunjay Dutt is possibly contesting the elections on a SP ticket. I saw this coming in the second part of my article in July 2007. http://theindipatriot.blogspot.com/2008/07/sarkar-raj.html

Folks, this is a ghastly salt being rubbed into the wounds of Mumbai by the joker Amar Singh. I think people across India have forgotten the real meaning of the word “parliamentarian”. They are behaving as if this is a gala event and the tickets are for the latest potboiler premiere at the local theatre.

JAAGO RE INDIA JAGO !!!!! The tickets are to the parliament. The most august body of a country.

For all those who didnt know, it is a ticket to legislate. To write laws for the common people.

Do we really want Sunju Baba writing laws for us ?  If there was a variety show to be done in parliament, Sunju baba would have my full support for a ticket to it, but to allow a person who has made it a rule to break the law time and again, to write laws ?????????? (the litany of his lawbreaks are endless from drug abuse to firing rounds at Kaka’s bungalow to rash driving ad infinitum)

Problem with India is, we are not looking for legislative people anymore in parliament, we are looking for a tamasha. It is getting to be a joke, the only people in parliament now are people who are used to doing “mandoli” (settlements between people), no wonder we get co-alition governments, its in their blood to make deals.

Lets take our dear Sanju Baba and his “mandoli”, lets see…. his father swore that he was a  Congress-ite. His sister is one, the Shiv Sena fought for his freedom from Jail, has a BJP lawyer defending him, hes standing on a SP ticket.

Now thats what I call Indian politics. 

I heard someone defend him, saying but the SP is an ally of the Congress. I’m scratching my head, didnt the SP threaten to withdraw support from Congress this week. Lets say hes elected and Amar Singh pulls another of his such stunts while Sunju Baba is in power, which way will he go ? Will he side with his sister (his fathers heir according to his statements) or with his new mentor ?

What strange bedfellows politics makes.

I have time and again, fought against the stupidity of mixing Munnabhai with Sanjubaba but it seems the general public is too stupid to even look beyond the 15 mins of celluloid fame. http://theindipatriot.blogspot.com/2007/07/lage-raho-munnabhai.html 

I am amazed that just after the shouts for politicians blood, we are standing around and seeing this happen, have people forgotten the blood of the riots ? I still wake up smelling the blood. Its a stench which never goes away.

The same people who were screaming for the blood of the people associated with terrorism a week ago are now okaying the electing of someone who has been convicted of having an AK47 which was delivered by Dawood’s henchmen who was linked to the arms cache of the  Mumbai blasts ?

I guess we all saw this coming, In Mumbai times this week Zeenat Aman’s comment was very telling where she said that “the perpetrators of this act” must be punished. Lovely !!! 

Its gone from the politicians who allowed this to happen being punished to “the perpetrators” (as in Pakistan, Qasab, the ISI, etc etc anyone third party) .

Guess the fire is cooling faster than I thought.

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Thought for the week:

Till a few weeks ago, I used to get SMS SPAM which said “Make 100% profit in the stock market, money back guarantees…..etc etc”

Yesterday I got a message which had me rolling in laughter ” Recover your stock market losses……”

Everyone knows marketers only push whats in the clients mind, so guess they are now assuming post Satyam almost everyone has made losses so they are now pitching for that. 

Wonder what happened to those money back guarantees. If they ever honored them, these companies should be broke by now.

Folks, I am personally a bit tired of Mumbai bashing. I would like to clarify the residents of Mumbai that despite all its ills, Mumbai as a city is still in a lot better state than the rest of India.

I know my detractors will say I’m the first one who moans and groans about the state Mumbai is in. I would like to correct them, I don’t crib about Mumbai as such, I complain about the quality of its leaders. On the whole I find that the people of Mumbai are willing to do an honest days work except that the system forces them out of the mould.

In a lot of cases, its the leaders we get which are crappy due to the very politics which make them the heads of the bureaucracy. The horse trading which makes them a leader of the organizations they work for ensures that they are impotent when the time comes to perform. How can you get anything done if you have to bow and scrape every few hours to the remote control.

For example, my problem with the 26/7 floods is very simple, its not the BMC but the joker at the top Jhonny Joseph who fiddled while Rome burnt.

What happens a few months after 26/7, he gets a plum post of Maharashtra Chief Secretary instead of a solid thumping.  Certainly makes you think that his remote control was in the right hands for him. Same with 26/11.

What do we see with the real culprits except for the three politicos who got a show execution. NOTHING maybe even promotions very soon. Not even a black mark on their private files.

The fire fighters or the common police constable who had a limited role in 26/11, did it to the best of their ability. Its the jokers at the top who were so muddled that they didn’t know their backside from the front side for at least 5 hours till the shock sank in that the very rooms in which they have taken suitcases from Armani wearing businessmen was no longer a bastion.

When I sit back and ponder, I realise that we Mumbaiites are quite comfortable as compared to the rest of India.  For example, we complain about a few potholes on the roads, but take the example of Himachal Pradesh where I visited recently, the whole state runs on the concept of a single lane. 

I don’t mean one lane for up and one lane for down traffic , I mean a SINGLE lane. If you meet a vehicle coming from the opposite direction, you move into one of the millions of little curves onto the side of the road till the opposite vehicle passes. Its a very courteous system and people are very understanding.

Compare this to Mumbai where despite having 4 lanes, every idiot in a Honda City thinks hes Michael Schumacher’s long lost brother and tries to jam his car into the 3 inches of space between him and the oncoming cars at crossings and you can see where the trouble starts.

Or lets take the example of an 8 hour electricity load shedding at Mahabaleshwar on Christmas day whereas we in Mumbai hit the roof if the lights go off for half an hour and would never tolerate it on Xmas day. That certainly Jingles my bells folks.

I am not of the mindset that one eye is better than none but rather of the “Karo Jyaada Ka Irada” , so I dont condone this mismanagement , all I want to do is give all of us a reality check.

Today, when we see an Electric truck repairing the street lights, instead of accepting it for a fact and pushing it in our minds as a part of the the background scenery, let us stop for a second and thank our stars that someone out there knows the bulb is  busted and is doing their job.

When we see the street swept clean as we wake up in the morning, when we see the cops on a drink drive campaign, when a single woman is able to call a cab at 2 am to drop her home. Lets just look into ourselves, thank our stars for the spirit of the true Mumbaikars who make sure our life is better than any other part of India. 

It may also be the right time at that moment ask ourselves, HOW CAN WE AS CITIZENS CAN MAKE THIS BETTER !!!!!!

When our roads get flooded, do we bother to inform the BMC about the flooding ? No we don’t. We expect them to be clairvoyant enough to know when its flooded. We live our lives in our living rooms and expect the world to revolve around us. It doesn’t, the BMC chap doesn’t know your road is flooded, the electric guys don’t know the street lamp is busted, the cops don’t know that the corner shop is dealing drugs. So, the next time there is flood, report it. The next time a street light is broken on your street, report it and it will get repaired faster.

To expect better services, don’t sit at home cribbing, interact.  Be the eyes ears and nose of your community and the good people of Mumbai will work with you. As Mahatma Gandhi said, “You must be the change you wish to see in the world.”.

A good citizen is not one who has lived for past 15 years in a city but an Interactive citizen who participates in its today.

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One for the road

Yesterday night was 31st and I like a lot of people in Mumbai this year went to one of the three star hotels since the gymkhanas etc were not holding parties. Most of them were advertised with skimply dressed women with suggestive names for the parties like “Miami Grind” to “Playboy Mansion”. 

( I seriously think we’re a frustrated generation where we Indians need a skimply dressed woman to sell everything from a cockroach spray to a mobile…….a far far cry from Khajurao and the openess which was our culture)

The passes were an “X” price per couple , unlimited food, drinks kind of scenario. It was fine for the first few hours , till about 2 am when things started getting a bit hairy. The free flowing booze started to hit a lot of the young crowd who perhaps had their first taste of freedom (and free whisky). Some of them were drinking since it was free and a lot of them since they thought it was the macho thing to do. The girls were doing it perhaps  since they thought it made them look a bit more grown up in the eyes of their escorts who frankly didn’t seem to care a damn what age they were as long as they were available. (some faces didnt look over 14)

All around us, drunken fights started to break out. To add to that, there were young people of both sexes throwing up all over the place.

My mind flashed to something and it scared the hell out of me. It was the idea that there were about 2000 people there at that party. Multiply that by at least 100 hotels across Mumbai with such parties and you have approx 200,000 people drinking the FREE booze. Assuming 4 people to a car and about 33% of them as not drunk and 33% wise  enough to bring chauffeurs or hire cabs.

There would still  be a great number of 16,500 cars with drunk drivers running across Mumbai.

I hate to say this and sound like an old fuddy duddy, but in my days (when I was young and foolish enough to think drinking does not hamper my driving but makes it safer since I drive slower) the dangers were not as much. We didn’t have these morons, sleeping right out in the street in the path of traffic in semi lit streets.

(see picture on right,click on picture to see larger image). 

Today the odds of you doing a Salman are maybe a 100 times more than they were about 10 years ago. Today not only are the fines for drinking and driving upto 6 months imprisonment being enforced, the risks of hitting someone who is sleeping on the streets are many times more due to the sheer brazenness of the slum dwellers due to political nincompoopiness.

So the next time you party, think of two letters DD. Designated Driver. Either one of you doesn’t drink, or you take a cab. Its better than having to spend the next 2 months visiting the courts and another 6 months in jail.

I am disgusted!!

No matter how much things change, they remain the same. First of all we had an eyewash in the form of the replacement of Vilasrao Deshmukh by Ashok Chavan who so obviously is a puppet of the previous CM that I can almost see the hand up his orifice manipulating his mouth.

This was of course backed with a chorus of our new Dept CM, who is perhaps one of the wiliest foxes of the Indian political scene second only to his mentor Mr. Pawar.

He kept quiet, biding his time in absolute anonymity till the scandals surrounding him died a natural death. I had an inkling that something like this was coming when a few months ago I saw hoardings of his face wishing him a happy birthday.

[Found this lovely image of him on the net and couldn't resist reproducing it]

Post 26/11 I heard choruses of never again will we tolerate these kind of politicians, never again will be stand by and see this bumbling. What happened ?

We are tolerating and we are standing by.

I am amazed at our gullibility and how easily we get taken in by sham movements. All the politicians have to do is an eyewash and show some outward signs that hes doing something and we start believing hes the next hope for India.

There is no thought given to how it will happen. Lets take the courts system. Some time ago, there was the introduction of FAST TRACK courts with a great amount of fanfare. Justice was supposed to get speedy. Some kinds of cases like cheque bouncing etc had 6 months time limits.

What happened ? What went wrong ?

The same thing which will happen when the new bulletproof vests are purchased, or when added security is given to 5 star hotels. THERE WILL BE NO APPLICATION OF MIND BY THE ILLETRATES WHO ARE IN CHARGE.

The fast track court’s Achilles heel lies in the fact that it is based upon the same system on which the old system is based.  The judge still hears 40 odd items in a day which means that he has to study 40 cases or so every morning to refresh his memory, then when he gets to court, he forwards the case for a month or so, and the next day he again needs to refresh himself on ANOTHER 40 cases. This is a colossal waste of the tax payers time and money. The only way the fast track courts had a chance of succeeding was if they ripped out the system and rebuilt it again with new rules.

Imagine doing this in everyday life and you will see the absurdity of it. A building collapses due to a faulty foundation design, what do you do, you dont bother to learn from the mistake and redesign the foundations of the next building.

You just use the plans of the the older building but this time you use bamboo supports from inside to ensure the building doesn’t fall. Do you really think this new building will fare any better ?

But this is happening everyday around us. Our politicians in their wiseness have now decided to have a new force called “Force One”. This will be an crack anti terrorist squad meant to handle emergencies. SAY WHAT ???? What are the black cat commandos / the NSG then ? Chopped liver ? The black cats when formed were supposed to be the ultimate fighting force, the creme de la creme of our forces. Their very name was supposed to strike terror into the hearts of villians.

I remember, just after Indira Gandhi’s death, I met a cat commando soldier through a friend. For the next few months, whenever I met him, he was all mysterious and full of about how important they were to the scheme of things to come. I have lost touch with him but I’m sure that the commando is no longer thinking those noble thoughts. Last I heard the black cats have been reduced to a glorified security guards for all and sundry.

We need to seriously ask ourselves, is this Force One being formed because the politician is worried about us or is it being formed since after he has expended the Black Cats / the NSG he is still shit scared that he may be held capitve for 60 hours the next time he dines at a five star hotel so is looking for ways to improve HIS SECURITY GUARDS.

We need to ask ourselves who will look after the equipment needed by this elite force, who will ensure that Kevlar and not iron plate vests are provided to them, who will ensure that the vehicles they need are available to them instead of being sent for Neta Bandobast.

(By the way I heard one of these crap artists talking on telly as to how Hemant Kharkare could not have been saved since no bullet proof vest  protects against AK47 fire. I think he was a top politician if I’m not wrong, so I’m amazed at the lack of his knowledge. NIJ Standard 0101.04 & .05 is the standard for testing and Level III & Level IV jackets provide protection against muzzle velocities upto 800+ mps as against 700 odd mps which is the muzzle velocity of an AK47. My only advise to politicians is next time before you open your mouth to sprout your nonsense, GOOGLE)

Every little bit helps

Folks, just like everyone else, post 26/11 at every gathering I go to, I become a part of the discussions as to how and what should be done. My only issue with this whole thing is its reactionary not proactive.

Let me explain. Last week I was speaking to someone who was a part of a campaign to bring in bullet proof vests for the Mumbai police and distributing it free.

Now this is a very noble thought but my reaction is next time theres a mass muder / stoneman why don’t we go out and buy forensic equipment. Or next time theres a brake fail on a Mumbai local, should we go out and buy local trains ?

The whole premise on which the logic is formed is wonky.

My logic says, kill the disease at the roots. Find out where things are going wrong and what we can do to stop it happening again. Don’t buy vests because you find that the vests worn by the police were inadequate.

Find out what the police station needs on a daily basis. There are a million things which are cheaper and would perhaps help more on a day to day basis, like photocopiers, etc. Lets understand what is missing, what is causing this endemic failure of the police system. If their daily needs are taken care of, the larger needs will start taking care of themselves.

If we address just the reactionary issues, according to me this will never stop all it will do is alleviate the pain. I am not faulting this initiative , but this is my personal view that the vision will be short and therefore will not carry any long term effect. I could be wrong and I wish them all the best in their efforts.

Other initiatives that I can see are things like people are getting together to talk about community issues which they had forgotten post Mumbai riots. I was a part of a meeting on Sunday at 10:30 which lasted post 1:30 and the hall was still full. 500+ people gave up their Sunday. THIS IS A GOOD SIGN.

There is something this morning in the papers about a group going to police stations and fire brigades to give them bouquets and say, thank you for being there. Brilliant !! Till now they were an ignored lot, at least this gives them a sense of having a purpose in life. I would say start a handshake campaign. Shake the hand of every Pandu on the street. Make him proud to be a policeman. All of them are short term but excellent efforts.

As I said every little bit counts. As far as I am concerned, I am a part of a group which is looking at things with a longer viewpoint. Looking at making a change which is systematic and not reactionary. We have a vision that the first real measurable jerk against the British rule was in 1857 and the repercussions were felt almost a 100 years later in 1947. As I said in my last article, something new was born on 3rd Dec 2008 at the gateway and with the advent of technology,we feel that this period should now be no more than 5 years or so but whatever needs to be done needs to be done with a cool mind and systematically.

I will communicate more details on this effort to you as soon as it crystallizes into something. Till then lets keep the fight going in whichever way we can.

As I write this, Mumbai, India and the rest of the world is reeling in shock with the incidents of the last couple of days.

As almost everyone must know by now, Mumbai was attacked by a group of terrorists and two of its landmarks were badly damaged. Almost 300 people were killed and 600 odd injured. As I write this we have just recd. news that Mr. Shivraj “Dandy Jim” Patil has resigned.

Of course we have Mr. “Pay bill in Goa” Rudy from the BJP showing his face on television saying that Mr. Patil’s resignation shows that he was responsible for this mess and ergo this is the failure of the Congress Govt. and the whole Govt should resign.

(Thats funny coming from a party which till yesterday had their guns trained squarely on just S Patil saying that he was guilty and must resign. The moment he has resigned , they are using it for leverage. Do we now understand why no Government ever cracks down on its erring people. Chances are if they do the jokers standing on the sidelines will call it a sign of guilt of them even though they are the ones who initiated the crackdown in the first place.)

Now I hear that BJP is saying that Congress is soft on terrorists and scratch my head. As far as I remember the BJP does not have too good a record with terrorists as the IC 814 incident will testify when the NSG did not ge their act together till the flight had taken off since they were waiting for instructions from the government for HARD action. They then gave a VIP escort to the terrorists under the pretext of freeing hostages. I also remember that it was not the Congress which allowed 5 terrorists free in order to release the daughter of a home minister.

This whole incident has brought to the front a series of shameful incidents which synopsis the whole issue.

One is Mr. R.R. “bar girls are nono” Patil. This joker had the guts to come on television and say” Bade Shaarion mein aise ek addh Hadse hotain rehte hain”. {In big cities 1-2 small incidents happen all the time}. I saw him say this on television and almost hurled my mug of tea at him. I would like him or his family member to have been in one of the hotels so that they could actually face the horror of such a “aam Haadsa”.

Folks, this is the time to stand up and say , we do and will not accept terrorist attacks on our cities as an “aam hadsaa” from politicians like him who are better off chasing bar girl skirts.

Second is the sudden absence of politicians who are talking about Mumbai and their “baap ka maal”, till the third day when the all clear is announced.

Third is the anger of the citizen when he sees A Narendra Modi who till 24 hours previously called Hemant Kharkare al kinds of names for implicating “Sadvhi” now suddenly announce 1 Cr as compensation to him and calling him a “honest man”.

(I would ask for a standing ovation for Mrs. Kharkare who threw the offer of 1 Cr in Modis face thereby showing the world how honest her husband really was and what she thought of politicians who think anyone can be bought with money)

Fourth is Lal Krishna Advani staying away from all party meet called by the Congress to brainstorm saying he is “busy” campaigning. Campaigning for WHAT ??? What is more important than trying to find synergy in this time of grief. This is the person the BJP wants to make our next PM.

(Advani sent Mr. Jaswant Singh, who was sent according to him was the foreign minister at the time of the hijacking of IC 814 to Kandhahar. I am amazed that Advani would think this qualifies him as some kind of authority since we all know how that ended with the Govt at that time kow towing to terrorists by releasing prisoners.

IMPORTANT - This Jaswant Singh is the same person who acted as personal escort to the terrorists on their flight to Kandhahar. Hmmm…….Kandhar the city , Kandhar resturant at Oberoi, hmmm perhaps thats why he thinks Jaswant Sinha has the experience )

Fifth is the posturing by Pranab Mukerjee who blasts the Pakistani Minister at a press conference in Delhi and then today does a volte face saying it never accused Pakistan of being  involved. If that is the case this is the worst case of politics I have seen. There was even talk of SUMMONING the ISI chief to India and we were given the impression that he would be coming soon in the interest of co-operation.

Of course Pakistan did a volte face on that. Guess he didn’t get anticipatory bail like most accused people do before they land in India.

Lastly, with all these antics first blaming Pakistan and then backtracking, I dont know if I’m the only one but I see the war clouds looming and the words of Nostradamus ring in my ear  when he talks of the person behind the third world war:

Folks, my flippancy is a cover for my anger and let me not belittle the horror the hostages went through since there are no words that I can write which will in any way describe the horror and terror they went through.

Let me not belittle the enormous hurdles the cops, then the MARCOS and finally the NSG had to go through keeping in mind the three main agendas they had:

1) There are foreign nationals involved and this could have major repercussions. Make sure the foreign nationals are harmed as little as possible.

2) There are hostages involved, as many of them are to be saved as possible

3) There are landmarks of the city involved, as much as possible these structures should not be damaged.

Keeping this in mind, I think they did a marvelous job. I think the closest we have come to this internationally in my recollection is Operation Entebee. That took almost 7 days and the terrain was less complicated although the location was in an unfriendly state. So 50 odd hours to complete the operation is not so bad in my book.

My biggest agony in this whole issue is the equipment of the anti terrorist squads. Anyone who has seen American serials is familiar with equipment such as gamma ray scanners, thermal imagers, optic fibre cameras, robot cams / radio CC cams , the list is endless.

Had our NSG, our police force or our MARCOS had any of this equipment the fight would have been much much shorter. Now there’s talk of an equipment upgrade for the army / anti terrorist groups and guess who will do the purchasing ? The same people who bought the shitty stuff they have now.

As to planning and co-ordination. We saw the sheer anarchy that happened with each joker wanting his 10 seconds of sound bytes no matter if even whatever he was saying was pure rubbish.

In all this what I found admirable was that the emergence of the real Marathi Manoos. It was not the hooligans but the common man who put his life in danger to man barricades outside the Taj to ensure that the public stayed a safe distance. It was the common man who wiped the blood off the brow of an injured man at Metro cinema. The so called protectors of Marathaism of course stayed a safe distance away.

( I know this is in bad taste but I can’t help but repeat these joke I heard yesterday - Vilasrao Deshmukh is a fool, he didn’t have to even wait for the MARCOS and the NSG, all he had to do was call Raj T and he and his goons would have gone into the Taj and thrown the terrorists out in 5 mins since they are not from Maharashtra.

Second joke I was told when the TV reporters said one of the terrorists spoke to someone at the Cama hospital in Marathi was, See how sucessful Raj T’s movement is, now even Mumbais terrorists cant operate here without being able to speak Marathi)

Under this layer of laughter lies the sheer anger and frustration at the confusion which reigned when first of all the cops came in, followed by the MARCOS who were then replaced by the NSG who were awaiting their C11 Hercules aircraft.

Each of these groups were badly briefed since to date there is no central agency in charge of the briefing in cases such as this. There is a very strong rumor that the NSG were kept waiting for almost 45 mins for their briefing since the people who were supposed to brief the NSG were busy briefing the Chief Minister.

What makes someone in India who achieves any kind of public post think that they are so special ? I hear now from these people is that security must be tightened, and can we guess what happens when a Minister arrives at a 5 star with bags of money. Do you seriously think that those bags will be Xrayed or checked ?

Folks, I think there are far better people than me who have written far more eloquent stuff about what they and I would like to do to the freeloading politicians goolies with a blunt knife. All I can do just reproduce the pictures of the horror hoping that it ignites the spark in someone somewhere to do something about it.

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2008/11/mumbai_under_attack.html

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I have just recd this email which says what i’m feeling much better than I ever could:

Why India ?

* Because we are Gujratis, Marathis, Punjabis, Bengalis, Malyalee….not INDIANS.
* Because our leaders protect themselves with 350 police personnel & 50 cars. Who cares about the common man.
* Because politicians will run to console families of slain terrorists merely to earn some brownie points.
* Because we are scared………..scared to execute one measly convicted terrorist.
* Because we elect a PM who is more of an academician than an administrator.
* Because we believe that social equality can be achieved not by teaching a man how to fish but by providing him fish for days to come.
* Because democracy in India enables us to condemn anything & everything whereas the propounders of the Magna Carta restrict speech against God & the Queen.
* Because for most of us, nation building is restricted to compiling the Indian Cricket team.
* Because we let Mandir & Masjid run our daily lives not roti,kapda or makan.
* Because we let tolerance lead to impotence.
* Because in a nation of a billion people it is difficult now to find a single “man”.

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First of all, let me thank the readers for all the letters they send in. Some of them are very encouraging and the others , oh well , it takes all kinds to make this world.

One of them from a nice little Nair boy in response to my article ” whose land is it anyways ” was so special that I had to reproduce it here to show how well educated and articulate the new youth of today is when they want to be:

“you stupid f**k .. are you trying to improve India ?? forget abt it .. even the british couldnt do anything about it .. you will rott your hair in vain … theres nothing you can do about it .. change the country … rather than cry coz you were born here … thats what i did … get a job … stop crying about some country that doesnt exist on the world map anyways .. who gives a shit about what you go to say … stop cribbing .. change your country .. indias and indians will never improve … so tell me something new … or shut the f**k up you dumb bastard … now get lost and dont bother me again you sad indian chappati boy.”

I am not unhappy with his response, since any response shows that i have hit a vein somewhere, awakened desires which a person like him thought dead. Its mission accomplished.

Its so sad to see the frustration that creeps into the words above hidden behind the facade of hardness with which he is trying to console his decision to compromise with his life.

I guess he too started with a bright future, eyes shining, dreams in his eyes, and life wore him down. Today, he has forgotten his dreams and “GOT A JOB” which I think he feels is a compromise as against all the brilliant things he wanted to do.

Lets not settle for a compromise, you, me, we  are what is required to bring India back on track.

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Folks, we seem to have forgotten the meaning of the word “Swabhiman”.

Swabhiman is basically self respect. Swabhiman is the right to look in the mirror and know that you have done the best you could.

I just saw Jane Goody on the news. It seems she has been invited here for the show “The Big Boss”. For all those who have forgotten what happened (The Indian public memory is short) Jane Goody was outright racial in her slurs against Indians as a whole. (http://uk.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20070118080334AAND5Yo)

A year down the road what happens, she is INVITED to India for a program based upon the same platform she  used to be racially abusive on. All for the sake of TRPs. (http://www.reuters.com/article/entertainmentNews/idUKDEL993420080815).

The official reason given for choosing Jade Goody is “There has been a curiosity factor about Jade Goody ever since her rivalry with Shilpa Shetty in UK last year, and we thought she would make a good participant,” the source told Reuters.

RIVALRY ???? , she was outright racist on not only Shilpa Shetty but the whole of Indian and on Indians as a whole.  Don’t allow the Jade Goodys air time at least in India just for the sake of TRPs.

If we look at the list of the possible participants,it is shocking what we will stand for in the name of entertaiment. The list contains - 2 item girls, One Don’s moll involved in a forged passport case, one has been politician trying to regain his popularity, one politicians’ son supposedly found nude with a male secretary overdosed on drugs, one obscure model, one saas bahu actress, and the list goes on.

This is a very slippery slope we are on. What’s next, public executions for TRPs ? Public stoning of sinners ala Taliban ? Vigilante justice of people being murdered being broadcasted live on TV by reporters and cops are standing around.     Oppsss…the last is already happening.

Where are the moralists, the MNS who are going around bullying shops into having large Marathi signs and threatening small schoolchildren and teachers on the topic of not celebrating Republic day functions. Why are they silent upon this welcoming of a woman who herself being white trailer thrash is an out and out racialist and who thinks she is better than us just because of the colour of her skin.

I just saw her on Big Boss on her first day and she says ” I forgot her surname and therefore called her Shilpa Poppadum”. That dumb F**k Rahul Mahajan started explaining that popadums are an ok term to use. Of course our favourite politician S Nirupam got his 2 bits in saying “popadums” are what papads are called in South India.

( forgive my language but I’m burnt up that Mr. Mahajan who is acting as the sort of informal estate agent [remark by Shilpa Shetty not me] of the house just to endear himself to the viewers, translated Goodys remark as a everyday expression.

I’m sure has person like him who has traveled extensively is familiar with the term, “Poppadum” which is a derogatory word used to abuse people of brown skin in the UK just like the word ” pig eater” is for the Islamic people. I have studied in the UK and have myself have been at the receiving end of poppadom like remarks and believe me its not funny.)

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Swabhiman II

The point is we are namby pambys. We get roggered in the ass and we turn around and say “one more please”. Take the case of George Fernandes’s strip search. (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/3892657.stm)

If this position was reversed and Colin Powell was strip searched or even his jacket removed, every Indian diplomat and emissary down to Peon level would have been bent over and cavity searched in America the next day. Guess what we Indians do, NOTHING. We didnt even stop or even slow down the American Ambassadors’ car for a police check naka forget about teaching the Americans the meaning of the word Diplomatic Passport.

The Americans have the right idea, you take an eye, we not only take your eye, we smash in your face. That is why we have bomb after bomb, whereas Americans have no more attacks after 911. They just went in and smashed a whole Islamic nation. Showed the world that you shake my cradle, I break yours.

Lets get some self respect, some Swabhiman. This of course will never happen till the time we have politicians who just think of who and what will pay them the highest, and of course America as of date is the best paymaster.

  This is why I was appalled with the PMs Republic day speech where all he did for a large majority of his time was justify why the nuclear deal who we all know is ram rodded down our throats by the Americans was good for the nation. I personally felt it was overkill and sort of showed his insecurity over the whole topic.

We all know that the nuclear deal is necessary for our country but has anyone ever analysed why is it? Its due to the sheer idiocity of our politicans not providing enough resources to our budding scientists.

Oh I heard the PM saying . it will help us acquire very necessary nuclear technology and materials. That our Uranium isnt of good enough quality, etc, etc ad nauseum. But is that so? Who made the technology available to the Americans, we did. Most of the scientists behind the so called superior technology developed by America are of Indian origin.

If these scientists had been given a good opportunity in India instead of being treated as second rate citizens, the Americans would never have been in a position to force us over a barrel for treaties like a big school yard monitor. After all , who died and made them boss.

We all seem to have forgotten that the Atomic Bomb that was used to bully Germany into submission in WWII was developed for US by a displaced German (Einstein). What will we have to give up to learn our lessons.

My sincere requests to goons like MNS activists is please please use your muscle to hurt where it helps India. Help us throw the people  who grind our respect into the dirt like Jade Goody out of India.

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On 2nd June 2008, there was an incident in Mumbai which will perhaps be a landmark in Mumbai’s history in so many ways. since it allows me to show so many facets of Mumbai life to you clearly.  This incident was what is now popularly known as the Perriera Wadi incident. ( http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Repository/ml.asp?Ref=VE9JTS8yMDA4LzA2LzA1I0FyMDA1MDE=&Mode=HTML&Locale=english-skin-custom )

 The first view I would like to show you is the bleeding heart journalism which is so commonplace today. -– All I saw for weeks was papers screaming about the builder , politician nexus. All they talked about was how people were dragged out of their traditional homes in the middle of Bandra since the property rates had gone so high. Allegations were bandied and urban legends were born about this politician or that politician standing around with sten guns while the houses were being demolished. It seems like a wonder that no one alleged Sonia Gandhiji or Manmohanji or Vajpayeeji was there.

The second view is that of the average slum dweller — This is the person who comes to Mumbai with a dream in his eye and an optimistic view of the future. Upon landing , he finds that there is not a square foot available for him to sleep. All he knows is that his brother or cousin or whoever has built a shanty on a dark corner of a BMC garden and there is a place available for him next door. He slaps a few tin sheets together and voila, the local politicians man turns up. A few thousand rupees later he has an electric connection. If he’s very lucky , he even gets a water connection from (wait for it) the same BMC whose garden he has encroached.**

Mumbai has a very simple evolutionary cycle. I have defined it in the following drawing for pavement dwellers but it applies to all kinds of slums. ( Please click on picture for a larger image.) As you can see its a never ending cycle, with the slum dwellers who have never been used to paying for taxes, electricity, water and a hundred other things that you and me pay for through our nose.

The third view is of the local youths who jump onto any band wagon without looking too deep at the is sues. These are the people my column every week is actually aimed at. They are the youth of tomorrow who wish to do something but are being misled with improper advice. They are the ones who can perhaps make a better tomorrow if led correctly.

For example the Mount Carmel Youth Movement who has been so voiceferous in this particular case. ( http://mtcarmelyouthmovement.com )

The fourth is the builders lobby, for whom the razing of Perriera wadi was a ray of hope of a possible future course of event. The possibility that one day if a small bunch of residents in a slum ever blackmail them for astronomical sums, the spectre of Perriera Wadi will remain present. The ghost that theres a limit to blackmailing the builders after which they can be thrown on the street from land which never belonged to them in the first place.

The fifth view is the police personnel who are supposed to have been standing around and even participated while the residents were pulled out of the shanties. There’s perhaps no proof that this did happen but if it did its one of the blackest marks on the already black face of Mumbai

The sixth is of the actual owner of the land of Periera wadi. For him, it was land occupied which he inherited from his father but which was land he could never use since it was encroached upon by the slum dwellers. He owned half of Bandra ( All Periera wadis were his) but died with hardly a penny to his name cashwise.  In reality a poor little rich man.

The seventh view is of the BMC. The BMC is made up of babus who move from post to post without any accountability for their previous actions. At most there is a slap on the wrist called a “suspension” which is a euphemism for “pull your head down till the s**t stops flying”.

6 months later they are back to their old tricks.

The image on the left shows the state of a so called garden opposite Bandra (E) station which the BMC has failed to miserably protect and whats more has provided water to the slum dewellers there so that they can continue to encroach.

The eight view is of the politicians. The image shows the BMC garden as a dream of “Shri Sunil Dutt” which his daughter has relagated to the back burner instead of making it come true just for the sake of the masses of votes in the encroachment. 

The ninth view is of you, me and everyone, Mr. Joe Public. The people who pass by large tracts of slums everyday and don’t even wonder who owns the very land which is under it. all we do is pass by and turn the other face since our maids, drivers and sweepers come from them. The picture shows how much of the area around Periera wadi is actually covered with slums and is land not available for Bandra and actual facilities that are desperately needed for Bandraites who have paid something like Rs. 35,000 per sq ft carpet area.

(what drives me up the wall is that these Bandraites are the same people who wrote blogs and blogs asking for support for the very same slum dwellers who are depriving their children of the green space they desperately need).

The whole problem with Periera wadi and the endemic of hundreds of Periera wadis around us lies in our whole attitude towards India and Indians. We have this habit of rewarding crime. Be it amnesty schemes for stamp duty, service tax, income tax or the myriad of other levies we pay to subsidse the other 98% who doesn’t pay anything at all.

In the case of housing the situation is similar, what do we do with the honest house buyer. We allow the garden space around his house to be encroached by the “slum dweller” who when he has captured the space for long enough becomes legitimate and is then REWARDED for his crime of land grabbing by being allocated a flat on the same land.

I know that the right the right to housing is now a fundamental right, but at no point does the right mean the right to own , it basically means right to live in a house. 

We as citizens need not feel sorry for the “residents of Periera wadi” but rather we need to realise that “Periera wadis” will not stop till such time as we  stop rewarding crime, till we stop this nonsensical  scheme of giving away free flats. Under no circumstances should the slum dweller be allowed to own the very place he has grabbed illegally.

What gives the government the right to give away flats built with our taxpaying funds on land on which there was a park to be created for the good of our taxpaying public to people who are to all intents and purposes “land grabbers”. If this land grabbing ever has to stop, the SRA should rather be converted to a rental rather than an ownership scheme.

Dont reward the law breakers by making them property owners.

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** At one time, I owned a “godown” in Periera Wadi. By the way, a lot of the so called residences demolished were godowns and other similar structures. The methodology of transaction was simple. All that was needed was a power of attorney which was handed down from occupant to occupant.

If I remember correctly I was the 5th or 6th owner.  No one questioned it, no one doubted it.

I paid approx 10 lakhs for it, and sold it for almost the same amount in a few months a few years ago, the current occupant I believe asked for 60 lakhs from the slum redevelopment people since by the time of demolition it was a two level structure occupied by a mother and son, who according to them were entitled to two flats. ( ownership not encroached mind you)

Isn’t life fun.

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