Why?

Your options are:

1. Because the Mahatma said so?
2. Because our own leaders are too busy with their own election campaigns?
3. Because we don’t know what to do?
4. All of the above?

Most probably you’d say 4.

Pakistan is a certified rogue nation. I still dont understand why our own leaders are still in ‘dialogue’ mode with them. Pakistani leaders are just taking India for a ride, what with their constantly changing statements and all. Why cant we just shut them up once and for all? Why so much ‘baatcheet‘?

Ever since i am stepped into this world, Pakistan has meant nothing but trouble. Constant infiltration into Kashmir, rising number of terror camps, continuously increasing political instability, and an economy gone to the dogs because of the dogs.

The Mumbai attacks and now, the attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team. How much longer before someone starts shouting and getting Pakistan to get their act together? I for one feel, that the trouble is just around the corner for India. Lahore is about an hour away from Amritsar. What stops these gun totting Quran preaching jerks to jump the border into our country. Many already have.

Why are we as a nation entertaining anything Pakistani? Till a few years ago, we tried opening up relations with Pakistan, in hope that one day things will turn around. We gave space to their musicians, artists, comedians, actors, cricketers and everyone in between. But to what avail? I think we should stop all of this now. Enough of having any sorts of Pakistanis in India. Send back Adnan Sami, Shakeel, Atif Aslam and the rest of the jing bang.

What, you may ask is their fault? What, i will counter, was the fault of the people who died in Mumbai? What was the fault of the children of the folks who died in the attacks? What was Karamveer Kang’s fault?

The thing about terrorism is, it is everyone’s, and no one’s fault. The people in position to do something, are either to scared to ruin their images or they haven’t a clue as to what to do.

Who suffers? It is people like you and me, you face the misdirected bullets.

Like i predicted more than a year ago here, the realty rates are going South. And boy am i glad.

DLF’s move to cut prices by upto 30% will definitely see some positive feedback from the market. Some say this as a bodl move from DLF. I say it is a necessity if they want to survive. A lot of big builders have defaulted on their EMIs to banks, Unitech being one the big ones. Till August 2008, people were buying because they thought that the rates would only go up. This was further aided by the fact that the global recession was not any where on the horizon, atleast what we could see of the horizon.

Now people dont want to buy, thinking the rates will further go down. And mark my words, the rates WILL go down. Atleast another 10-15% correction is still left. The banks have reduced lending rate, the builders have reduced property rates. As far as buying opportunities for first timers go, i think they have ample reason to celebrate.

The market outlook for employment may look bleak, and Obama’s announcement yesterday of No Tax SOPs for firms that Outsource has not done anything for the moral of the massive IT workforce in India. This announcement will further cut spending on major stuff like realty since the majority of buyers are from IT. So all in all i think the realty sector is far from recovering yet. Though Obama’s announcement may seem like a lot of bold talk, but who wants to risk it. American companies today are in no position to not outsource, considering the major financial crisis everything American is in. It may be a long time before the implementation of this “No Tax SOPs” comes into play.

Till then, all we can do is wait and watch.

Phew. Relief.

That is all that I feel right now. After a year and a half of running around, inquiring with the PROs, my wife has finally received her passport. The tall claims of the government that a passport is delivered with 45 days is pure non-sense. That much i am damn sure of. I had blogged about that pain earlier here.

Our passport saga goes something like this…

We had applied for her passport in Sep 07, and till Dec 07 we heard nothing. So we went to the passport office at Senapati Bapat Road, Pune every other day to find out what the status was. And every time we were told that the passport was stuck in Mumbai. For what reason, no one was able to tell us. Prior to coming to Pune, we were based in Mumbai, and as an honest citizen we had mentioned that in the application form the first time around since we had not completed 1 year in Pune at that time. So probably (and probably not) the Mumbai cops were unhappy that we had not ‘met’ them.

So finally after months of wait and agonizing anticipation, we met the PRO, who as luck would have it, seemed totally insensitive to our problems. He was very rude, to the point of being ill mannered. Needless to say, I lost my cool, and gave it back to him. After all he was not doing me a favor, he was just not doing his job properly. We closed the file, and decided to re-apply. Continue Reading »

As if the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks were not enough, Satyam top boss has gone and done a whammy for the Indian IT industry. As the fate of the behemoth (whatever!) lies in a delicate balance, so does the future of its 50000 plus associates, partners and needless to say, clients.

What is all the more surprising is that Satyam had received the Golden Peacock award for Corporate Governance. Now Satyam has been stripped of this accolade.

What came as even more of a shock rather than a surprise, was that Satyam’s auditors are the much revered PricewaterhouseCoopers(PwC) and boy, are they going down too! and where was Satyam’s CFO all this while?

What I cannot understand is, even after Enron/Anderson fiasco, did these behemoths not learn? As a fallout, Enron was wiped of from the face of corporate America, and Arthur Anderson was dissolved into tier 2 accounting firms. But who was it that lost most in the bigger picture? The employees and share holders.

In Satyam’ case too, the employees and share holders will be suffering for no fault of their own. Most of the employees would have financial liabilities to take care of and families to support. While most analysts suggest that The CEO will be in the dock, and the company will continue business as usual, some are of the opinion that no sane company would even touch a loss making entity like Satyam with a barge pole. Considering the current market scenario, I too agree with the latter school of thought. Continue Reading »

Taking a cue from the residents of Mumbai, the citizens of Pune have now decided to take to the streets.

Radio Mirchi has organized a “Youth to Youth’ Peace procession in Pune. Originally planned for the 7th December, the rally had to be rescheduled for the 5th. Reason for preponing the rally “President” Pratibha Patil is s going to be in Pune, hence no rallies. Peaceful or otherwise.

The rally will kick start at 6 pm from Symbiosis’ Common Statue, traverse through  Senapati Bapat Road and culminate at the Pune University.

Those who missed the rally in Mumbai and Delhi, can now be a part of this movement in Pune.

Green 2.0, Internet 2.0 and now Terrorism 2.0. The last one is the evolution that Darwin had not thought of. With the recent attacks on Mumbai, terrorism has been taken a whole new dimension. This is a complete makeover.

Gone out are the beards, pathanis, affiliated color and other associated characteristics. In come the Terrorist 2.0. Young, smart, educated and Sassy. He is as comfortable loading a gun as he is in routing his email via Russia. He plays with technology with ease. He kills with pleasure. He could be the guy sitting next to you on the air plane. Or the guy who just rented the flat above yours. Or the guy you share your train ride with. He has no religion. He has no emotion. And he is not afraid of dying.

Not surprisingly, our authorities, and by that I mean the politicians, who actually control the decision making for our armed forces, police and intelligence wings, refuse to learn. Blast happen out of the blue. And in comes ‘condemnations’. Promises of investigations, the quest for the truth, promises of compensation to the kin of victims have all become standard statements. The meanings have been removed and they are just stats. Period.

All our so called leaders do is ‘condemn’ the attack on phone from their holiday homes, or in person attired in the best Armani or Cavalli has to offer. Our leaders have proved time and again to be helpless and useless. While India grows , Indians are becoming more and more insecure. As far as I am concerned, that means negative growth. Sufficient attention has not been given to our ability to tackle terror. We still want to go the judicial book rule way of handling the terrorist. Capture and file a case. And wait. And the wait turns anger into faded memories of the past. Dates are etched in history books for our next generations to know about and write a paper on. And then another attack happens.

Sometimes I miss TADA. Sometimes I feel like crying. And sometimes I do.

In all this evolution, all that remains the same is the fate of the common man. He still suffers. I think it the time for us to act has come. It is time for “A Wednesday”.

“We’ve got to hold on ready or not
You live for the fight when it’s all that you’ve got.”

These lines from a cult Bon Jovi song have never been truer. The times we live in have become more unpredictable than ever before. All of a sudden, the variables in my life seem to have multiplied a hundred times over. Suddenly tomorrow looks so far away.

Continue Reading »

Finally Mr. Anbumani has had his way. No Smoking in Public places from October 2^nd onwards. The directive goes on further to define what Public places constitute exactly. According to Ibnlive.com

“Starting October 2, 2008, there will be a countrywide ban on smoking in public places like offices, restaurants, pubs, bars, railway stations, airports and bus stops.”

And what is more surprising is that companies will no longer be permitted to have smoking zones in their campuses. If you need that drag, go on the road, as the damage to passive smokers is minimal there. The fines for breaking this law are Rs 200 initially, and may be extended to Rs 1000/- per offense in public spaces, and Rs 5000/- per employee caught smoking in a private company premise!

Now, I am not okay with this sort of a ban. My house is an employee premise. I have maids, drivers, gardeners, whom I employ for my look after. So if I smoke at home, and my helpers complain, will I be fined too? That effectively means that every place will become non-smoking. What about smoking in my car, in the presence of my driver? Can I smoke if the car is in motion and I am not driving? Or does it mean that I can smoke only when my car is parked in the garage?

So technically, I can think of a few places where I can smoke- the loo, where I am alone, and I don’t have to fear the maids or the driver walking in unannounced? Or maybe I can give each of my helpers a whistle that they can use to warn me of their approach?

Whatever happened to the democracy that we fought for so hard 60 years ago? I agree that the harm to passive smokers is great, but that is why the concept of smoking zones was introduced in the first place? Is that not correct? We have smoking zones virtually everywhere- Airports, offices, airplanes. And clearly, I require a lot of clarifications from his highness of bans, Sir Ramdoss. For now, I think, I am going to create a smoking zone in my house, where only valiant smokers will dare to venture. No entry for maids, drivers, and other helpers. Period.

I don’t get frustrated very often, ok, I do get frustrated time and again, but not to this extent.

The Passport office at Pune has tested my patience beyond my control. And i am angry. Very very angry.

We had applied for my wife’s passport in September of 2007. At that time she had not completed 1 year in Pune. So being the law abiding (almost) citizens that we were, we went ahead and gave proof of her earlier residence in Mumbai for verification. Now the deal is, her folks have left that place and shifted to Nashik. Talk about bad timing.

As of now, we have not received her passport. Enquiries at the local passport office tell us that address verification report has not been received from Mumbai, and that the Pune office cannot do anything about it.

Really?? Then who can? May be a 1000 buck note will give them inspiration to do it.

Today, i went to the passport office to meet the Asst. P.R.O. (all enquiries to the PRO get redirected to his asst.) This man, who was supposed to be in office at 10 am, came at 10:30 am. When we got our turn to see him, both me and my wife, tried to explain to him our predicament. This guy tells me, to get one more person so that all three of us could talk together!! This ‘government servant’ has the audacity to tell me that he won’t do it, and i should approach another P.R.O. if i was in a hurry. Isn’t 11 months already a long time to wait for once passport, especially when the Passport office claims to deliver a fresh passport in 45 working days! Tall claims?? I say very tall claims. The worst part is that there is no official grievance redressal forum.

I sometimes feel that we are paying a penalty for doing things the right way. I should have just lied in the beginning about her length of residence in Pune, and all would have been well. I am so pissed.

This makes me wonder…who is the public servant here? And what has become of the so called public servant. Isn’t he supposed to help people?

I was so angry at that man in the office, that I gave him good. Left right and center. Thankfully, my wife was there to control me, else I would have made him regret that he ever chose this (or was dumped into) line of work.

I finally had to ask them to close my file so that I can re-apply. Hopefully this time it won’t take so long for her passport.

So who is this trust vote for? The common man? What a joke?

Who is representing the common man in the trust vote? Certainly not our so called elected leaders. I generally avoid writing about Indian politics, because I don’t think that i am well versed with this aspect of my Indianess. This time, however, I cannot but help comment.

Continue Reading »