Bunch of Thoughts

Hampi - a 600 year old ancient city in northern Karnataka means many things to different people. Religious Significance - Hanuman was born and brought up in nearby Kishkindha, the kingdom of Vali and Sughrev. Lord Ram stayed here for 4 months. Lord Vishnu got his Sudarshan Chakra at the Tungabhadra river. Temples around Hampi have scenes from Ramayana sculpted on their walls. There is no better place to live and re-live Ramayana than Hampi.  There were many tourists who come to Hampi to re-trace the steps of Lord Ram.  Historical Significance - Hampi was build and developed by indigenous Indians. Accounts from foreigners such as Fernao Nuniz and Domingo Paes who lived in Hampi at its peak testify to this grandeur and beauty. Hampi was a city like none on the world. Its was centre of global trade and had an abundance of wealth. The people of Hampi were also brave, they successfully fought and held back the Moguls for 350 years.  Art & Architecture - Hampi is...

Bajirao Mastani is a movie like none other. An epic story is one which has all the nine Raas i.e ability to get emotionally connect in nine different ways. I have not seen any piece of art or literature which so magically combines all the nine Raas in such a powerful  way.  1) Love & Devotion - Ones gets to feel the various shades of love and devotion . Bajirao's love for his country, Mastani's love for Bajirao, Kashibai's devotion to her husband. If there is one emotion that stays with you after the movie is over, it is this one.  2) Joy - Beautifully choreographed war scenes will have you rooting for Bajirao. The build up to the war and the way war ends is simply exceptional. One scene where Kashibai celebrates Maratha victory by waving a bhagwa flag and the celebration song 'Malahari' are simply delightful.  3) Wonder - There is a wonderful use of mirror and reflections in many palaces in India. This movie too uses this to good effect. Reflectio...

Last week Aamir Khan shared a rather personal conversation he had with his wife. The conversation reflected the fear, anxiety and in-security his family left after incidents like Dadri. There will be no family in India, which has not experienced similar moments due to events that happen in our community, society and country. Let me share 3 'Aamir Khan Moments' of my life The first moment dates back to 1993. Till then the world had not even heard of a serial bomb blast. Bombay (yes it was called Bombay then) was the first city to experience terror at scale. The blasts targeted all key city transit routes at peak hour traffic. There is no way you could escape. I was with my brother at a coaching class at Tardeo. Our teacher suspended the class mid way and asked us to reach home asap. We had no idea what had happened for there were no mobile phones back then. As we tried to reach home, we found that all public transport was suspended. There was chaos, blood and f...

When you look for a apartment to rent in Bangalore, the most frequently asked question is - " Are you a vegetarian ?"  The most frequently asked question when looking to rent in Patna is "Whats your caste ?" That BJP lost is not a surprise for they suck at playing caste politics. They do not even have local leaders of the right caste to project as leaders. When Lalu and Nitish made it the battle between the forward and backward castes, they knew they had winning formula. The formula for defeating the BJP is fairly simple - consolidate the minority vote and divide the Hindu vote based on caste.  The only choice for the BJP is the consolidate the Hindu vote ( called as polarisation by some). BJP lost as it failed to drive enough consolidation and unity among castes. Lossing a not necessary a bad thing. The BJP has gained much from the Bihar election 1) Expanded Vote Base -  Elections are an opportunity to take your ideas and policies to the people. Every vote...

It took all but a week in Mewar, Rajasthan for me to realise that the history that I had learned in school, from books and from the liberals differs so much from the what the locals believe. My journey began from the birthplace of Maharana Pratap and ended at the place where he was laid to rest.  The first place I visited was Kumbhalgarh fort, a place where Maharana Pratap was born. The fort is so well placed that it is not visible till you reach the gates (called Pol) of the fort. When you reach the first gate of the fort, you do not see the palace. Kumbhalgarh was founded by the grandson of Emperor Ashok but was built by Rana Kumbha. The fort has a 36 km wall which comes second after the Great Wall of China and has 360 temples some of which are thousands of years old.  History taught me that the fort was captured once by the Moguls who could retain it for 2 days. The locals believe otherwise that the fort was never captured. Looking at the condition of...

In the last 6 months no other event has caught the attention of the liberals in India than the Dadri incident. The incident as reported by the media claims that an innocent man was murdered for slaughtering a calf and eating its beef. Despiste a ton of outrage and yelling, it now appears that 1) There is no mention of beef at all in the FIR filed in the case by UP police. You can read the report here . 2) The report sent by the UP government to the Central govt ( which is supposedly secular) also does not mention 'beef' at all. You can read the report from here . So after a week of hue and cry, all we have is that the man was killed on rumours of eating beef. One would expect senior journalists to verify the story before making it a headline. None the less,  that story shaken the political world. One would have expected that the the liberal secular opposition would seize the opportunity to put the BJP on the back foot. But its the secular parties such as SP and RJD th...

Our nation has been left stunned by the sudden rise of a 22 year old kid from Gujarat - Hardik Patel. Hardik launched himself with a rally attended by lakhs in Ahmedabad yesterday So what took the nation by surprise.... 1) Gujarat was also perceived by many Indians as a model state of governance and development. Gujarat bid adieu to caste based politics more than 30 years ago. In a day Hardik Patel changed the image of Gujarat from a model state to a caste ridden state similar to Bihar. The silence of many Gujaratis amplified Hardik's rise. 2) Equally shocking was the demand of reservation. Patels have always been a socially, politically and economically powerful community. It is surprising than an affluent upper caste section of society is demanding reservations.  But there are 3 key factors driving the support that Hardik seems to be getting .. a) Anger of the upper castes - Reservations have been around since 1992. They are now taking a toll on the upper ca...

Even before the monsoon session of the parliament began, Congress had openly declared that they would not allow  the parliament to function ..... with the media on its side, guns were trained on 3 biggies of the BJP - Sushma Swaraj, Vasundhara Raje and Shivraj Chauvan ...... After 3 weeks of relentless disruptions, the Congress thought that its time for put the final nail on the coffin ... they asked for a debate on their terms and got it ... Sushma's fiery defence and an even more fiery attack left them in tatters within minutes .. with her powerful oratory ... Sushma took little time to turn the tables .... desperation was now visible to the extent that Sonia herself got to the well of the house to silence Sushma ... armed with some kindergarten level notes , Rahul baba then charged in with some name calling.... finally Arun Jaitley's defence was so clinical that Rahul baba and the entire party scooted from the parliament .... In the history of democracy, there ...

As one of the greatest Indians to be born is laid to rest, I took a few moments of reflect on how President Kalam changed the course of history for India ........ 1) Pokran Nuclear Test - It was a well known fact that India did possess nuclear capability since the 1970s, however no government had the courage or the conviction to operationalise this capability. Atal Bihar Vajpayee had demonstrated great amount of political courage ... but this brave step was due to confidence of Dr Kalam who managed to execute and complete all test in a highly constrained time frame. Execution was so flawless that not a single intelligence agency in the world had a clue on what India was upto.  2) India's missile program - Post the nuclear test came sanctions. It was believed that with a blanket ban on sale of missile technology to India, our defence program was collapse. The sanctions only encouraged Dr Kalam and team to indigenously build every component ... there cannot be a better post...

Popular author Chetan Bhagat today published a blog analysing the anatomy of a Narendra Modi supporter ... you can read it here According to Chetan, any individual who supports Modi is most likely ... 1) Male 2) Speaks bad English and hence has an inferiority complex 3) Sexually frustrated - cannot make friends with women due it to lack of fluency in English 4) Ashamed of being a Hindu. Lets address this one by one ... 1) Every election that Modi has won from 2002 till date has been on the solid support of women voters. There are more women ministers and chief ministers today than in the last 60 yrs of governance in India. A brief scan on Twitter/FB will indicate support Narendra Modi enjoys across the board 2) Bad English leads to Inferiority Complex - Take any reality show in India ( including the one on which Chetan is a judge). Almost all winners and participants come from small town India. There is no lack of confidence at all .. you hardly find any con...

Opposition parties such as Congress, JDU, AAP  etc have been crying murder over the so called Vyapam scam in Madhya Pradesh. Lets first understand this 'Vyapam scam' .. What is Vyapam Scam ? Vyapam is a local board in Madhya Pradesh that conducts competitive exams. The current scam is about 326 students who got impersonators to take exams in their place. After clearing the exams, they got preferential job allotments. Scam has 2 parts first is impersonation and second is non merit based job allotments ...  Issue #1 - Impersonation ... Impersonation in examination is not limited to Madhya Pradesh ... its a national and an international issue ...Just Google ' Examination Impersonation' and see the results ...  Example - In Bihar 1000 fake candidates were found impersonating during exams a couple of months ago .. you can read the story here There is no state in India where impersonation does not happen. It is estimated that in any competitive exam , 20...

For the last 3 weeks media houses have declared an all out war against the BJP and the Central government. Their goal is to package non-issues as scams so that the Congress can prevent the functioning of parliament. This will hold up legislations which will impact the economy... Before we get into what drives this behaviour .. lets analyse the so called scams ... At the heart of these scams is Lalit Modi. He is portrayed as a fugitive and among India's most wanted. Being seen with Lalit Modi is now tantamount to corruption and even treason... before we get judgemental on Lalit .... here are a few facts Lalit Modi has been served notices by the ED under FEMA. Other folks who received the same notices are BCCI and N Srinivasan Getting a ED notice is like a getting an IT notice. The only difference is that ED looks into foreign currency income. Like IT, ED charges under FEMA attracts a penalty i.e. a fine which needs to be paid up. This is civil case which requires no b...

Working for a corporate, every year we need to take mandatory trainings to identify, report and prevent behaviours which are deemed as 'sexual harassment' at the workplace. Per law, 'sexual innuendos' which make a woman uncomfortable constitute sexual harassment. Despite having taken these trainings, I had never imagined that I would get a witness a prominent minster in the Modi government be 'sexually harassed' on live TV by Aajtak, India's #1 Hindi news channel owned by the India Today Group during a show meant to evaluate the performance of the HRD ministry. Ashok S, an editor of AajTak asks a question loaded with sexual innuendo - watch it here For a moment there was a glee on Ashok's face which soon vanishes. He tried to recover by stating that his reference was only to the fact that Smitri Irani is a college drop out. I wonder if AajTak would treat Sonia Gandhi the same way... for she is only a school dropout.....  Its been 24...

Couple of weeks ago,  a student wing of IIT Madras put up poster and distributed pamphlets calling for discussion on caste related issues. The posters selectively quotes Ambedkar and calls for the death and destruction of Hinduism. The group which calls itself the Ambedkar Perriyar group believes that issues of caste discrimination can only be brought about by the complete destruction of the Hindu religion. Given the inflammatory nature of the content,  complaints were received by the HRD ministry stating that hate against Hindus and Hinduism is being spread and the IIT Madras management has not done anything to stop this behaviour despite repeated complaints. HRD minister the sends the complaint to the Dean of IIT Madras asking for comments. The Dean clearly caught on the wrong foot, announces a suspension of the student group... The incident raises some serious concerns.... Questions for the IIT Madras management Was the Dean and the management aware of...

Ancient Indian rishi's believed that there are 4 levers from which a nation derives its strength from - Knowledge, Trade, Weapons and Land. Any nation that seeks 'world domination' attempts to maximise 2 or more of these 'power levers' Examples America - Knowledge + Trade + Weapons USSR - Land + Weapons Germany during Hitler era - Land + Weapons Japan - Knowledge + Trade China - Land + Trade  India ( pre Mughal invasion) - Knowledge + Trade As @narendramodi completes his first year, i will judge him on these 4 power levers. Lets first evaluate how India did on these power levers under Congress rule of 60 odd years and then contrast this with the policy decisions of the @narendramodi government Knowledge - The goal of the eduction policy of Congress government was to create an army of clerks or government bureaucrats. Hence the only skill needed was 'rote learning'. Within the first year, the @narendramodi government has shifted focus...

First of all, I am a huge fan of Arun Shourie. His work as a journalist and as an author has shaped much of my 'right wing' thinking. Having read much of Arun's work and having followed him at literature fests, I am not at all surprised  by Arun's interview. Arun represents the 'right of right' and is impatience reflects those on the extreme right of the political spectrum. For those who follow Arun's work and the politics of the BJP, Arun's disappointment and criticism is solely directed at one person - Arun Jaitley. It is a well known fact that Arun Shourie was supposed to take oath as the finance minister of India and Arun Jaitley as the defence minister.  Arun Shourie being Arun Shourie spoke to Rajdeep Sardeasai on the 'minimum govt, maximum governance' structure of the cabinet ahead of the swearing in and lost the confidence of the party parliamentary board. He was then dropped and Jaitley got both Finance & Defence.  Coming back...

I write this blog on behalf of my good friend and colleague – Rajamohan K who is just back home from Nepal. Raj went on a pilgrimage trip to Nepal. On the morning of 25 th  April, Raj and his friend passed by the Dharahara tower, decided not to climb the tower but visit the temples first. After visiting the Bholenath and Swayambhunath temple, Raj reached the famous Pashupathinath Temple. With him was a taxi that he had hired for the day. After a peaceful darshan as Raj made way to his taxi …  and then there was a flutter in the air …. hundreds pigeons took off signally something was amiss …. then came the howling of the dogs on the street … within seconds the earth shook…. violently and for time which seemed like eternity …. Raj ran …. and as he ran …. he saw 4-5 storied buildings around him collapse like a pack of cards ……. with a neighborhood reduced to a rubble … Raj found the courage to summon his wits … he asked his taxi driver to head to the airport …. The ...

Terror groups such as ISIS often use death as an ideological tool. The sickening videos that the group puts out are a means to spread their ideology to the believers and warn/shock the non-beleivers. One would never expect a political party to leverage similar means. Hence the alleged 'suicide' of farmer in the presence of thousands of people and barely meters away from stage where the AAP leadership was present has shocked the nation.  Here's how the events unfolded ... Gajendra Singh who comes from a family which owns large tracks of land (more than 25 bigas) was a wannabe politician .... after a brief stint with SP , he joins AAP. According to Gajendra's family, he decided to attend the #AAPKisanRally at the invitation of the Dy. CM of Delhi - Manish Sisodia ..... Next, Gajendra Singh attempts suicide in full public view... at the time speeches from AAP leaders are in progress ... watch Kumar Vishwas's reaction as he is informed of the atte...

This week irony died a million deaths when ... The great grandson of Motilal and Jawaharlal Nehru who used to send their laundry to Paris for dry cleaning called the government 'Suit, Boot ki Sarkar' just after returning from a 55 day boutique holiday The guy for whom Sec 66A was created is batting for net neutrality without having any clue on what it means. A party which took away the 'fundamental right of property' from every Indian during the Emergency is talking about protecting property rights The son-in-law who used to get VVIP treatment at airports for a decade launches a campaign against VVIP culture. A family whose son-in-law was one of the beneficiaries of the taking land from farmers at a pittance is now a torch bearer for land rights A party whose ideology was 'Swaraj' kicks out 2 founder members without a fair hearing. At a political rally called for the benefit of farmers , a farmer attempts to commit suicide and is critical. The meeting c...

Aziz Premji, Chairman of Wipro recently delivered a key note address at a RSS meet. Aziz Premji participated in a forum organised by Seva Bharati - the philanthropic arm of the Sangh Parivar,  active in delivering service to people in need.  Seva Bharati is the largest NGO of its kind in the world with 165,000+ active service programs across India. Its due to the work of Seva Bharati that RSS is known as an organisation which is always " R eady for S elfless S ervice".  While Premji must have had some learnings on how to go about his and Wipro's philanthropic initiatives, there is a lot that corporate CEOs can learn from RSS and its famed 'shakhas'. Here are a few attributes of the RSS's 'Shakha Way' .... 1) People make the organisation (not the other way around) - RSS shakhas focus on the growth and personal development of every individual (called as a Swayamsevak). An organisation can only grow when every individual grows. Programs at t...

Over the last month there was been a world wide condemnation of India over attacks on places of worship belonging to the Christians. India in general and Hindus in particular were blamed by all n sundry. The debate went global and a verdict on India and Hindus was passed even before the investigation was over. Post investigation , here is what was found Then came twin bomb blasts that rocked the prestigious Belur Mutt setup by Swami Vivekananda which is the heart of the Ramkrishna movement.... and there was silence all around. Its surprising that the news did not even feature on TV in India. I believe the 'Business of Victimhood' which drives news is a recession free, multi billion dollar industry ... here are the primary stakeholders in this global business NGOs - To drive top line , NGOs need stories... of victims in duress , in urgent need of monetary support to stand up and fight against the 'evil'. A case against world famous activist Teesta Setelvad ...

Two things unite a nation as diverse as India - culture and cricket. When any nation takes part in a world tournament and does well very in the initial stages, one would expect the people of that nation to back the team .... Over the past few weeks we had many intellectuals and prominent media houses hoping that India looses the semi finals against Australia ... It started with noted sociologist Ashis Nandy .... According to Nandy, India is suffering from too much national pride and winning the world cup will make it worse... This was followed by a national poll by a leading print magazine Outlook which asked .. "Should India win the World Cup ? "  You can take the survey here Outlook not only echoed Nandy's sentiments but went on to add that "winning the world cup might just make India's macho and hyper masculine nationalism more intense. Over the last few months, there seems to have been an effort to make a pluralistic India into a homogeniz...