Vote!
Posted by a fan as Vote, ads, india
My colleague cum friend came to my desk. She enquired about the form. I replied that it was for Voter ID Card. Then i asked her whether she had a Voter ID Card. She replied,”I don’t believe in this voting and stuff. This is all junk”.
Immediately, i remembered our heated argument about Hindi Language. It was the same person who said that as an Indian one should know the National Language of India. And now as an Indian, she didn’t believe in Voting! I was tempted to question her with this comparison. Didn’t ask her so bluntly because i was sure it would be quite hurtful. Later during lunch,i asked her whether she had casted her vote anytime. And the answer was No. I then told her that even i couldn’t vote last time without Voter ID Card.
Frankly, i had quite a respect for her after she argued so much for National Language (it even prompted me to think about Learning Hindi from a Patriotic perspective :)). And now her reply about Voting did cast a doubt! Ok, it might be wrong on my part to quickly jump to a conclusion. But couldn’t help it!!
Anyway, i am prompted to write this after seeing a celebrity video about “(No) Vote” in US elections in a blog…
Even in India, TataTea has been supporting a similar campaign - Jaago Re! One Billion Votes
I am not sure to what extent this will motivate our fellows to cast their vote. Infact the number of registered users is also only in 5 digits in the site.
The ads are quite inspirational…but it’s not shown in all channels and also it is still not shown in regional languages in regional channels.(or is it shown and i haven’t seen?)
Below are the ads,
A Guy interviews the Politician,
My favourite- To awaken the non sleeping crowd :)
Swarna/ charlie|thotti, this Link, NRI Voting Rights is for you…
hmm…two years ago, i didn’t know that one day Swarna will come under NRI category :)
Hope the inevitable doesn’t happen!
Popularity: 2%
A letter to every Indian
Posted by eskay as APJ, Indian, india, patriotism
A Letter to Every Indian
The Former President of India DR. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam ’s Speech in Hyderabad .
Why is the media here so negative?
Why are we in India so embarrassed to recognize our own strengths, our achievements?
We are such a great nation. We have so many amazing success stories but we refuse to […]
Popularity: 1%
Singh song!
Posted by a fan as Nuclear deal, india, usa
But,i felt more bad after listening to the Lavish praise given by our PM to Mr.Bush.
Firstly, it was uncalled for. Secondly, it is totally untrue. And here is the wonderful satirical article written on this point in TOI - Singh song : Love in the time of crisis.
btw, here is one of the points from Mr.Bush’s reply,
”India is a great country with an incredibly bright future, and it’s in the US interest to have a good, strong strategic relationship with India,”
Eventhough it is already known to everyone, hearing it from the horse’s mouth is quite something!!
I wonder why BJP or Left has not protested over these remarks!
Popularity: 2%
Superfluous Accolades..
Posted by Viswanath Ramanan as india
When I grab the newspaper everyday, I feel a very strong urge to skip to the sports column directly. It happens every single time. How much ever i try not to do, i can’t help it but to get to the penultimate page every time. And every single day, I’m finding some news or other about Abhinav Bindra, the guy who made us proud by clinching Independent India’s first ever gold medal. Its a great achievement, agreed. Its a never-seen-before feat, agreed. He has been diligent and has earned the medal, agreed. He is a treasure for the country, agreed. But why is everyone so keen in getting him cash awards everyday? He has been earning in crores and lakhs. It seems like this is going to be his only Olympic game and as if he is going to retire immediately. If not so, people are making it look so. Some amount of appreciation is absolutely essential to cheer up and encourage the sportsman. But if people are going to keep showering accolades on him, he is eventually going to get smug and not have the urge to work harder and try to sustain the success. This happens in every single sport. If there is a talent, in the pretext of encouraging him, the government is actually making the sportsman feel complacent. I have no idea when this is going to stop. I’m afraid this is going to be his one and only gold medal…
Popularity: 1%
A deal worth what? - I (contd…)
Posted by a fan as Nuclear deal, india, usa
But there is a great breaking news across all channels from 5.30pm regarding Nuke Deal and Mr.Anil Kakodkar has been summoned to Delhi and PM has convened an emergency meeting in his house!
All because of this secret revealed in washington post!
I remember reading in one of the siddharth varadarajan’s post, “In Diplomacy, timing is everything”. So taking that point into consideration, i think US might have concluded that NSG meeting tomm will go nowhere and hence maybe trying to set a direction to NSG.
Here is a good post with full details.
I fully prefer Scenario 2 mentioned in the post, but not sure whether NSG will prefer ;)
And the real nagging question is “Did the government, in particular our PM, knew about this in January itself or not?”
From the PMs call for an immediate meeting, looks like there is some surprise element!
I really hope this whole thing gets clarified by this week rather than waiting for Dr.Manmohan singh to retire from Political life and then wait for his autobiography explaining what they really knew!!!
Popularity: 2%
A deal worth what? - I
Posted by a fan as Nuclear deal, india, usa
Indo- US nuclear deal is one such thing.
I hate being an armchair analyst.But i am going to leave this point aside and write a few posts regarding my thoughts on this deal.
I haven’t completely followed this Nuclear deal in minute detail till last month…Thanks to the fiasco of Left pulling out, PM threatening to resign and the ultimate win of government in Vote of confidence motion that happened in July, i was forced to come out of the comfort zone and take a real look at the happenings of the nuclear deal.
It did take a considerable amount of time to read and understand the stuff.Still, at the end of the day, one’s not sure as whether it’s analyzed from all perspectives. Because, there are not many newspapers/magazines which seem to have the complete coverage of the whole deal events and behind the scene activities. Also, i simply donot seem to possess the complete knowledge of everything related. But then, one has to start somewhere…so here we go, with my 2 cents :)
One blog site had quite a good coverage of the deal. It was a blog, “Reality, one bite at a time”,maintained by Siddharth Varadarajan, Deputy Editor, The Hindu.
So at the end of the day, what is my thought on the deal?
First of all, it is a point of proudness for Indians to realize that there are quite a few countries in the world who consider India as an important power, even if it’s for their selfish reason ;)
As the BBC Correspondent said on Bush’s visit (28 Feb,2006),
The true significance of this visit is not what comes out of it. It’s not even really the deal itself.
So, it is good to realize that we have strived on our own (to a large extent) to reach a point of importance in the world stage. But the thing which we often forget, like how NDA got illusioned and ended up losing the last elections with the logo of “India Shining“,is the fact that we still have a long way to go to become a real developed nation!
From that perspective, I think the time isn’t right for the Nuclear deal with US!!!
No, i didn’t get influenced by any commies books :) Still, i want the deal to fail in NSG next week! Following is the 5 point reasoning behind this conclusion, which i will explain in the next post. (hope i write it this weekend itself)
1. Need to strengthen relations through economic means with neighbours and other asian countries first.
2. Lets look within ourselves.
3. Explore the scope of Thorium.
4. Nuclear Power Generation in US and worldwide
5. Impact or Opportunity for Indian companies.
So, let me finish this post with what Dr.Anil Kakodkar mentioned on India being forced to consider the amendments proposed in NSG.
“Should we allow ourselves to be pushed? Are we not Indians? Are you not proud of yourself and what you are doing?” Kakodkar said.
I only hope the PM and his clan of diplomats remember this while going through the revised draft now!
Just can never fully trust the congress!!
Popularity: 1%
Respect the National Anthem
Posted by as Indian, india, video
Popularity: 2%
The Rain, and the rest of the Yuck!
Posted by Arvind as india, indian railways, suburban railways, unclean india
My thoughts have come out to be true as I saw last sunday, on my way to trichy from chennai. Just a short trip from Chrompet to Tambaram (hardly a 5km trip within south chennai) I went through a lot.
The suburban railway station at chrompet didn’t have proper shelter. There are some gaps in the shelters and some parts of the shelters leak. Come on, so many people commute everyday on local trains and Southern Railways can’t even put up some proper shelter for the money they get?
Since I didn’t get a train I decided to take the bus. I got into a somewhat older bus and couldn’t find a dry place to sit. The reason was because water was coming in from outside (there’s no windows to close in those buses). Half of the seats were wet.I then reached Tambaram by bus. The bus was quite fast, but at Tamabaram the bus took time to get to the bus stop.
Tambaram is the southern most point of Chennai and is one of the bustling places these days. So the Mofussil bus authorities have one of their stops occupying one lane of the 3 lane road. Ok fine if the buses go there. But they don’t. They just stop in the middle of the road blocking all the traffic. This is such nonsense. The stop is also very irritating for walking pedestrians as all of the platforms are taken up by chairs for bus passengers, there are so many bus commuters waiting to board, some state transport staff keeps shouting out announcements that some bus is coming and much more to add to the chaos.
I suggest a simple solution. Just move the whole mofussil bus stop into the railway station where the local bus stop provision has been given. Anyways no local bus goes there and stops.Because of this traffic as I mentioned I got off in the middle of the road (where the traffic started) and decided to walk for a minute or 2 to the station. This was probably one of the most unpleasant walks I’ve had in my life.
As I walked through the platforms and the mofussil bus stop, I spotted garbage everywhere. At least that wasn’t unpleasant to the eyes. There was this smell of urine all over the place which was just SO disgusting that I almost felt like puking (I just had food an hour before i got there). And the rain didn’t help the smell get better either. This says 2 things. One, Indians aren’t going to learn cleanliness anytime soon! and 2, Public toilets are needed! and they need to be maintained properly too.At last I got into the station and walked up the footbridge to the train platform.
I thought all the mess was over but when I got to the train platform, I see a whole bunch of sand spread out and it all stuck to my feet as I walked through it. The railways is putting some kind of flooring for the platforms, but someone please tell them to do it without disturbing the public in these ways!
One thing I would like to reiterate:
Please DON’T URINATE IN AN OPEN AREA IN A BIG CITY. You will realize the effects of it if you go through what i have.
Popularity: 4%
What happens If 1INR = 100USD
Posted by as Articles, My Thoughts, india
Popularity: 2%
Its boring!
Posted by vijay as Design, Fashion, Roads, Technology, automobiles, cars, india, lifestyle
Let us talk about Indian cars. When you look into a buyer’s guide of Indian cars you will come across endless boring shapes those seem to have been designed by a Human relations manager. Just have a look at their interiors, it is pretty much as you would expect, hopeless. We are not talking about luxury cars, sports cars, tidy roadsters, super cars or brilliant cars by any means. This is India. Here all the form follows the function. All the cars here do not perform very well, nor are they well made either. If they add buttocks to a hatch and name it an entry level sedan it will sell well, they say. Or they can even shave an SUV and name it a saloon. A box sitting on a suspension with a stupid engine and good efficiency figures is the best car for people over here. Here number of occupants is of more concern than the engine capacity. They do not worry if a car corners like a hippo. They save some money by getting a variant that is not equipped with ABS and Airbags. As a result the Indian roads look something much worse than mind-numbingly boring. There is an advertisement not to mention the firm; the manufacturer claimed the car had cruise control, ABS, traction control and parking sensors. The car was said to be loaded with technology. Some cars in eighties had these technologies. So is it the manufacturers or the customers those can be blamed? Actually both must be blamed. It is not that the engineers do not have brains, they use it differently rather. All cars sold in India are engineered to be sold at a better price, rather than be sold as a better car. Let us put it this way. If you compare a typical car running on Indian roads and a world class car, the Indian car will be half as good but will cost a third or even less. So, why not sell cars here that are almost as good as the best European cars and cost half as much as per that equation. So you get my point. Indian automobile market is brilliant in its own way. What we need to do is scale up things a bit. The reason why other Asian countries are thriving is they sell better cars than Indian companies that are cheaper than European cars. India being a beautiful country deserves much better cars than it has if not better then Europeans. All we now want is cars that are half as well engineered as the Porsches and Beemers, a third as passionate as Ferraris and Lambos, a fifth as well made as Mercedes and Nissans, a tenth as lovable as Mustangs and Astons and priced as good as the Indians. I will be the happiest man if the Indian roads become what they deserve to be.
Popularity: 4%
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