total timepass...

(I was to write this blogpost 4 months ago, but think it has become more relevant now given the recent ‘floods’ in Gurugram:) ) I don’t think this article is going to come as a surprise to anyone. In fact most reactions would be something like - ‘ yeh to hota hi hai ’ or ‘this is how it happens’. But still given that I have been living out of India for quite some time and before that lived a sheltered live in army cantonments, it is still a surprise to me and I don’t think that’s how it should happen! My parents recently moved to a new place in Gurgaon (as it was called then!) and they realised during monsoons one of the side road gets flooded. It has been happening for years with the other residents, but as usual no one bothered to do anything about it. My father went to the local administration office to complain a couple of times. Accordingly the next year they sanctioned couple of crores to build a rain drain next to the road, and elevate the road so that water does not colle

The day I read this article was a day of deep brooding for me. This is a life I or people around me can never even understand - not being able to feed your cattle, not having water for yourself, not having food for your family, not being able to work and earn, losing your land and crops, and in the end having to give up your life. All this is beyond our comprehension - for the 10% middle class in India who lead a " relatively " comfortable life. This article is not about the story of this farmer (and of so many farmers and other poor people of my country). There is nothing I can say about him. Its sad. Its deplorable that such events happen almost everyday in India. And I don’t know what the governments have done in the last 68 years to change this. None of them have focussed on our villages enough and therefore we are where we are. But my article is not about that. It is about what happened that day after I read this article and how it has changed my perspective on my

The NHS is one of those coffee table topics discussed quite often in the UK. The theme is generally the same - frustration with how inefficient it is, and horror stories that everyone shares on how their experience has been. Till now, I had not had to interact with them, so for a long time I did not hold any view. But now that I have crossed 30, and need to reach out to them more, my view about them has become very consistent with what I had heard till now! To be honest, I think that if its an emergency or a life-threatening situation, their services are still efficient and quick (apparently), but if you are just a little sick, they are terrible. And there are multiple levels of inefficiencies in their processes. The ones I have experienced myself is at the GP level. I think either it was my bad luck with the GP I registered with, or maybe its the norm, but my experience was quite bad. For one, they make it impossible to even meet the doctor! They make you do all kinds of jumps be

I am generally not a fan of self-help kind of books, and a feminist one at that, would definitely be a no-no. At least that's what I always thought. But then there are good self-help books too, so its definitely not right to just discard an entire genre. I have read two such books, which I think at least point out to the right problems, even if they may not be able to give the perfect solution! One of these is, 'Men are from Mars, Women from Venus' and the second one is 'Lean In'. And I just assumed that to be the truth:) But then recently, I realised that Lean In, which to me feels like a good book tends to polarise women a lot. And hence, I thought of submitting my two cents in support of the book. This is not a review, but just my synthesis of what I think Sheryl is saying in the book (or at least what I take away from it, which makes it seem logical to me...) and which answers some of the criticism that comes its way... IF women want to focus on their

It looks like the Bangalore police is on a roll, taking its role in maintaining law and order seriously! First they come up with the Facebook page where people can put in complaints and the police can take action on and even update their actions. And then they come up with this brilliant idea ! Its a great idea and may actually lead to people following the traffic rules more. But how sad is it, that we don't do the right thing unless there is someone to police us? Is there something inherent lacking in us as a country and as a people that we need to be beaten with a stick to do the right thing? Anyways kudos for the police for taking the initiative and it might just work?

Given that my dad was in a transferable job and that we all have a love of travelling, I have visited numerous places across the length and breadth of India. And given my mom's love for reasonably priced and variety shopping, I have been long exposed to the local handicrafts of almost all the places I have traveled to. Whether its silk sarees from Kerala or beautifully crafted Kashmiri antique jewellery or Manipuri sarees or Bhuj printed cotton.. the list goes on. Maybe because of this early exposure to an assortment of handicrafts across the country, I have a deep interest in the local artworks available at all these places (and nowadays a concern that these may not even be produced anymore in a couple of years!). So as expected, on my recent trip to Banaras, (as like last time) I spent a considerable amount of time shopping for Banarsi sarees. And this time again I felt the same dread; these beautiful works of art are on the path of vanishing completely. Already, the current

The issue of 'Reservation' in India has been debated endlessly for years now: in online forums, in social gatherings, in educational institutes.. everywhere. It's pitfalls have been debated, the advantages have been discussed, changes have been advocated to the system and so on. But it has still not been sorted out, it is still a highly inefficient and misused system which is not serving the purpose it was originally introduced for. There are endless stories coming out regularly on how the system doesn't work properly. The latest I read was this article  which shocks you with the fact that you can get an entrance into an engineering or a medical college by scoring a 0 in the exam!! Does this not make you feel frustrated? And shocked? And angry? Is this correct, is this what we want in our future? Don't countries achieve greatness based on merit alone? And we are creating a generation seeing merit give way to other considerations. The reason given for such a sys

Some days back, a Delhi Court passed a judgement saying as per Muslim law, a Muslim girl could be married at 15 if she had attained puberty (as against 18 which is the law for 'other' girls in India).  As expected, there was a lot of hue and cry about this judgement and articles being written about whether this is right or not? I was also expectedly shocked by this judgement. It does not make sense at all. When there is a law in India for the legal age for any girl to get married, how can there be another age for a certain Indian girl? Is she different, is she special or not-so-special? It seemed completely outrageous. My first thought was of the court being incorrect in its judgement. But then as I researched this a little more, I realized that the courts are not to be blamed, they are simply following the law. And the law is the one which is currently faulty. And then I remembered all the articles I had read earlier about the demand for a Uniform Civil Code in India. It

In terms of quantity, Indian TV has grown exponentially in the last 10 years. From 2 channels, DD and DD-Metro in the early 90s to the 100s of channels we have now, there is no disagreement that we have become a more developed nation in terms of media and entertainment access. But have you also (like me) at times felt that inspite of the unlimited channels, many a times you just keep flipping channels but find nothing worthwhile to watch? When we had just two channels, there were always a couple of shows each week that you followed and looked forward to. Is there anything like that on TV anymore? I would have assumed that there should be, but alas we have traded quality for quantity in terms of tv shows. To be fair, there is enough of good quality sports to watch, multiple hindi and english movies running all the time. But what about the fictional TV programming, is there anything on Indian TV that you follow nowadays? I for one haven't found anything worthwhile on TV to watch,

This post is posted in the category of 'News'. Well, it should be, it has become a matter of such national importance, that it hogs enough limelight in the news regularly anyways. "Why is Aishwarya so fat still ?!!" The first time I saw such a headline, I was almost outraged. How and why would anyone even think about somebody else's weight? But I chose to forget about it, assuming it was just one person's random views.  But soon enough I figured out I was wrong, but so wrong?? I had just not expected that. Aishwarya's weight has become a national obsession. And I just cannot understand it! To be honest, I am not an Aishwarya fan. I think she is beautiful but she is quite a terrible actress and given the big movies she gets, its quite a waste to see what she does to those movies. That being said, I still cannot understand why the media writes about her weight. For one, its none of their business. Its her life, she might chose to be fat or slim, its

Ramdev's protest broken up by Delhi Police and the protestors beaten up..        Anna Hazare not allowed to hold a fast at Jantar Mantar.. but at JP Park..              .. and that too, for not more than 3 days and with not more than 5,000 people... What is India coming to? The largest democracy in the world but protests being stifled?? And the PM shirks any responsibility,  saying he cannot be involved.. (and turning a blind eye to things happening in his administration yet again!). Can the head of the government say that this does not fall within his purview? Can the government get away with not allowing a peaceful protest just because the protest is against the government? Such headlines coming in the papers regularly do not paint a positive picture of what des is coming to.. and worries a bit.. Lets see what it leads to?

The list of how we just ignore our soldiers except during war times goes on and on.. its a never-ending list... Here is another to that list ... Does it not hurt to read this?

A lot of us who were in Mumbai during the 26 November events will never forget what all happened. And the people who actually went through the events of course will be haunted by it all for years to come!! But I did not expect someone to be affected by those events in this way ! This is just ridiculous, for someone to be discriminated against for having been a witness to the Mumbai attacks??!! And that too from a prestigious institution like a school!

After the recent attack by the Naxals on civilians, I was eagerly waiting for the comments of the Naxal supporters of our country on the incident. Would they condemn it? Or would they in some warbled way, still support it?? And the answer is here . Arundhati Roy blames the security forces for exposing the civilians to the Naxal threat by using the same public transport as the civilians use!! Well said Ms. Roy, the security forces should not do that at all. They should travel in transport filled 100% with security people, to give the Naxalites the most efficient targets to blow up. Yes, that is what they should do...!!

India is a land of festivals, we've all known that since ages. But the realization that these festivals are celebrated differently in different regions of the country is a completely separate discovery, as I did in my recent stay at Mumbai. Some interesting aspects of this, would like to share with you all.. Janamashtami During Janamashtami, the matkis setup everywhere in the city make for interesting viewing. Somehow I had never ever seen Janamashtami being celebrated before, so it was a new discovery for me anyways...Groups of matki-phods traverse the city in trucks, breaking matkis and pocketing the prize money. The earlier you start, the more matkis you can break and the more you earn:). Also during the day, the unconquered matkis are lowered as the day progresses so that breaking it becomes more achievable. The speed with which the matkis are broken is surprising too, you blink and the matki would be gone. Just as a warning, during the day, be careful of th

Maya never fails to make it to the news on a regular basis.. and all the reasons are mostly the same; more money to her; more statues of her; or just her telling other politicians and the judiciary (and of course the general public) to go to hell!! Anyways here are some more stats on Maya, on how she has worked so hard over the last few years to uplift the weaker sections of society as she had always promised to do...

Read this article on the Samba spy case sometime back and was shocked! Did not know what to say or think.. Justice is delayed and denied often in our country, but for something as serious as spying? And of course, one person falsely implicating 50 other army officers and for 35 years!! It just does not sound right.. feels very sad... Of course, we don't know the genuineness of this claim and there may be more to the story than what meets the eye. Still, its quite a big shocker.... And if its true, is terrible.. Falsely implicating possibly innocent army officers of being spies; of them having served rigorous sentences; of the ignominy they and their families would have suffered for years; and of the damage to the image of the army... Can we ever set it right?

Our soldiers are nowadays busy fighting not just the external aggressors but also internal enemies; the Naxalites. Its a tougher fight for them, as the enemy is not clearly distinguishable from our co-patriots; and the use of power can get the human rights activists up in arms; 'how can we be so barbaric to use force against our own citizens??!!'. The laughability of the situation is ironic. It does not matter how many innocent policemen and their families die due to Naxalite action; it does not matter how much loss to public propert they cause. But it is barbaric to harm them or their supporters!! I find it tough to even try to argue against such statements , it just seems so stupid... Anyways what prompted this article, was this newspaper piece . Don't really think can say much about it, it just hits you so hard, makes you numb and unable to even think of how our defence personnel are doing what they do!!

Ya yeh kehna chahiye, jidhar dekho UP main, Maya hi Maya hai! Either the news she makes regularly or the even bigger statues she has got made! Given how much she loves herself and her publicity, I would also dedicate posts just to her and her claim-to-fame actions!! Lets start here, with two huge garlands made of only Rs. 1000 notes.. Wow it is.. Shows her transformation from 'Dalit ki beti' to 'Daulat ki beti'.. to quote one of her adversaries... News article Video

People who drive in Mumbai have certain reactions when they see a traffic policeman stopping them, a feeling of fear or wonder whether they would be fined today or not or an instinct to just reach for the purse:). The usual tips given by everyone on how to handle the traffic cops when you are stopped go like this: offer money asap (after negotiating on it a bit) and you will be able to get away very cheap that way. And to never argue with them irrespective of whether you committed any offense or not, as he can always book you under some vague rule if you anger him and that will prove costlier than just slipping some notes to him. When anyone sees a traffic policeman on the road, he wonders, is the cop going to pick on me to stop now (irrespective of whether I am breaking a traffic rule or not!) and how cheap will I get away with... Its a bit sad.. This isn't what thoughts a traffic policeman should stir up in anyone, right? It should just make you more aware about how y