The "Soft" Power

A party that swept the polls with a vast majority just half a year back now faces deposition from its very own stronghold of votes. Parties today seem to be making a habit of buckling under pressure from regional elements. Be it the BJP which gave in to the demand of the Reddy brothers, albeit not wholeheartedly, or the ruling Congress which has lost its sheen after declaring that a separate Telangana state would be formed, money, power and influence are ruling over rationalism, secularism and unity of the nation as a whole. If the nation is secular, inclusive and does not tolerate regional/caste-based politics, the Shiv Sena should have been banned long ago and the MNS should have been nipped at the bud by a strong ban after the outrageous attack on innocent Railway Employment Applicants.
India is not as strong as she should be. A soft power, it sure is. Quoting Mr. Shashi Tharoor's wonderful speech at TED'09, India as a soft power can attract other nations with its values, ethics and technologically strong youth power. But it is too soft for its own well being. The vibrations of Mr.Chidambaram's microphone (after his declaration of the intention of forming a separate Telengana region) would have hardly died down before the Gorkhas started demanding a separate Gorkhaland. If this is satisfied too, then our Marathi Manoos will start fasting-unto-death. Then maybe Mr. Karunanidhi will fast (with three air-coolers focussed on him, lying in a comfortable bed, in a shaded spot) approximately between breakfast and lunch times one fine day, asking for a Tamil State where only Tamil is taught to all the commoners' children(while the children from rich and powerful families are sent abroad to study at Cambridge, Oxford, Harvard or Yale).
And here comes the worst part of this separation fiasco. The kids will then have a lot more states with their capitals to be remembered, their climatic variations and agricultural patterns to be studied in detail, in Geography! I pity my one-year old nephew who is happily dismantling things and uttering nonsensical words without any clue as to how these images he sees in the TV are going to make him carry a heavier Geography book in future.

The Perfect Government- Non-Existent.

It has been 17 years since the Babri Masjid demolition and we now know for sure what we knew already, thanks to Justice Manmohan Singh Liberhan. The key leaders of the BJP and RSS have been indicted for inciting the flame of communal violence which then spread throughout the nation which, according to the Constitution and our school Civics textbooks, is secular. We cringe when we think back to the time when the persons, who face criminal charges now, had been elected by us to rule the country for 5 years at the Centre. We are happy that the BJP was not able to win the latest Lok Sabha elections.
While all this is true, also equally veracious is the fact that the party which is ruling the nation currently is nowhere near being described as honest and righteous. A quarter of a century ago, the nation witnessed the largest ever Genocide since Independence. The assassination of Indira Gandhi by her Sikh bodyguards (who were allegedly enraged at her having triggered a rampage at their holy shrine), did not in any way call for a massacre of all Sikhs in India. The incident is and will for ever be a horrible scar on any secular face that the Congress tries to put up. Jagdish Tytler may have been barred from contesting the polls and a Sikh may have been appointed the Prime Minister, but these will do nothing to replace the lost loved ones from the many Sikh families, run and brought up by a single parent (mother), if any, in most cases.
This brings to mind the discussion of the possible stability and goodness of a government that could probably have been formed by the recently created (and soon disoriented) Third Front. That event can only be described by a Poisson Distribution of probability, for it was known to be very much impossible right from the very beginning. Well, assuming that the impossible had somehow occurred, there would have been a certain consequence- the rapid breaking up of the disparate parties in the coalition.
I don't even want to discuss the comical "Fourth Front" formed by Lalu Prasad and Ram Vilas Paswan! Another Poisson must be born to invent a probability distribution for such an occurrence!
So, this brings me to the title of this post- a perfect government. Does such a thing ever exist?
Mani Ratnam may have portrayed youth entering the Parliament to bring in reforms and a breath of fresh air in 'Ayutha Ezhuthu'/'Yuva'. But I feel that there is a significance in the movie ending even as the young guys enter the Parliament after being elected. There is no assurance of a honest government even then. After all, human beings do tend to get corrupted by the attraction of money and power. Even if one single person tries to be proper, the environment simply doesn't let him/her to be so. Movies like 'Mudhalvan' can only be movies. Not reality.
Asking for an impeccable governance and honest rulers (though this might not be a valid generalization, I take the liberty of considering a majority who are not) or claiming to be able to provide one is pure Hypocrisy! Let's avoid it and try to be pragmatic and elect whichever government provides us an optimum amount of benefits, after all the trade-offs involved.

The fog has cleared!

All other options have been positively ruled out. Belling the CAT will be my first and foremost goal.

While I had realized that I am no scientist-material after attending a workshop on Research last weekend, a sudden clarity of thought came about two days ago in a post-lunch DSP class and that was when it dawned upon me that I had fallen for a managing-related career somewhere along the tumultuous path of frustrating indecision that I had been traversing, for the past several months. Now that I see the light at the end of the tunnel, I must make out my path (which by the way is pretty tortuous and not as straight as it seems) to reach it, overcoming distracting obstacles and learning (by practice) the art of multi-tasking.

This is what happens if Goons are Elected into the Assembly.

Awesome!!

The genius behind the work, Pranav Mistry, is an Indian who did his schooling in Gujarati Medium!
Proud of my fellow Indian!

The Festival of Sound and Smoke...

Here they come- again.

To these I’m used.

Acts of ingratitude-

May I call them?

I shower them

With the purest of waters;

Choking smoke they return.

My children they are!

My duty it is- to cover them,

To protect them and

Not expect returns.

But, warn them, I must,

For my tunic won’t last long

Over their smug heads.

Wear and tear- have reached

This poor old covering-

The only one I have and offer-

They call it Ozone.

Time is running out.

Celebrating their way

To the End,

Some reach early via

The gruesome route of mishaps;

The rest take the slow route.

Will realization dawn soon?

Where are We?

A sadhu immolates himself to attain eternal bliss or some such thing in the hands of the Holy Lord.. A group of Indian Policemen, the so-called Government Servants and Commoners' Friends, sit with folded hands and piously watch the gross act!! One policeman even takes a pic of the burnt body like one would take the pic of an unforgettable treasured scene with his mobile.. A boy who looked like he should have been in school studying or playing with friends vigorously plays the drum-like instrument after the sadhu's death..
And we call ourselves A Developing Nation!
Kudos to the MP Police force for making our country "Proud"!!!