Under a Lock and Key

This particular blog is at the behest of a friend and is in accordance with a whole set of prerequisites stated by her. Before I start with the anecdote, i would introduce you briefly with the protagonists and other peripheral characters of this narrative.

Priya: the female protagonist who also happens to be my room mate.
Abhishek: the male protagonist and Priya's boyfriend of four years.
Zoya Jain: Our room mate
Myself ; the blogger
Dhiren: Priya's colleague
Oliver: My Colleague
Aviral: Priya and Zoya's good friend.

Preface : we three friends have been staying together for the last four years, and in all these four years the enduring topic of discourse has been as to who amongst us is the czarina of melodramatics. After a lot of resilience posed by us, (many will be flabbergasted to know)  the tiara was worn this July by none other than Priya, but  of course she had an ace up her sleeve( read boyfriend ) which we two lacked.

Act One : To be or not to be
Madame Priya, is in a league of her own,  though she has known Abhishek for the last four years but it was after a lot meandering and flirting around with the idea,  she decided this January that Abhishek is the one and the wedding was fixed for December 2010. Parents gave their blessings, congratulations flowed in and we booked our calenders for December 2010. Mr. Abhishek who has been working with Accenture in Czech Republic all this while, had a sudden,  very avant - garde and an extravagant brain wave. "If the wedding bells are to ring in December by the time Visa formalities are completed it would be March and his sojurn in Europe would be complete, why not enjoy a paid holiday in Europe while it lasts". So on 30th June we are informed that he would fly to Bangalore on the 3rd of July and that we should arrange for a wedding to take place on Sunday, the 4th of July 2010. Court marriage was out of question as it requires a month's buffer time and we did not have even a week at our disposal, so an Arya Samaj wedding was our only alternative.

Act Two: My Best Friend's Wedding !
Indian Society can hardly be called secretive, we all have our share of good natured gossiping acquaintances and so having a hurried wedding in Calcutta from where both Priya and Abhishek hail was also not a feasible idea.  Since I happen to be an Arya Samajist Priya requested me to check our options in Bangalore itself. Arya Samaj unfortunately enjoys a very notorious reputation among common men: An institution where an eloped couple gets married, that month the Arya Samaj was on a cleansing reputation spree.
Priya's and Abhishek's parents were not in a position to come for the wedding as one parent was in the US and the other engaged in the preparation for the formal "roka" cremony. the onus was on us to formalise the wedding.


To be Contd........


Liebe Grüße
Suyasha

It Happens Only in India..... contd.

Coming back to Arjun Singh's celebrated silence: He had two alternatives, one that he had the prerogative to take Foreign Policy decisions or that he was issued a directive from the Centre. Digvijay Singh says that it was not Arjun Singh's call and the Centre says no such Directive was issued.

Here we have to keep the ruling legacy of India in mind, we are a nation where the subordinates are programmed to take orders, it would be very very audacious of someone to act on his own accord in such a vital matter.

What the whole episode as a synopsis implies: Neither Arjun Singh nor Rajiv Gandhi released Anderson, so either the District Collector, the Police Superintendent or the pilot hatched a conspiracy to get Anderson out? If that was the case,  then Gentlemen, Why are you in the first place sitting here as rulers and why did we choose such impotent weaklings?
Thank God we are done with the election of the President of India, otherwise Arjun Singh would have emerged as the most appropriate candidate for his disposition in the present situation !


Now that we are done with the Legislature and the Executive, we turn towards the judiciary, that put an American before hundreds of Indians. How does one explain this, love for dollar or the white skin? If the Supreme Court of a country fails to deliver justice then there is hardly a choice left for its citizens to go anywhere.

Why blame the then Government alone, the following governments of the Centre and the state be it that of BJP or any other, had equally insensitive roles to play.  The Vajpayee Government in fact awarded President's medal to the official of Union Carbide.

My conclusion from the episode:

First I am corrupt who elects such people to power, the next level is the administration and the police, then the Prime Minister and his Council of Ministers we are all a Team, a team of mercenaries.


Liebe Grüße
Suyasha

It Happens Only in India !

I happen to have a very unfortunate habit, I write on topics after they have faded away from the headlines. As usual I am starting with a disclaimer: though I am writing on the Bhopal Gas Incident but have tried to refrain from writing what has already been written, and secondly the ideas expressed through this Blog are not entirely my own, they are slightly abridged but i am quite rest assured that there would be no accusation of plagiarism here :)

there is a famous adage that says " A society of sheep gets in time a Government of wolves" How astute does it sound in today's context ! Three  facets emerge from the Union carbide Tragedy : the role of the Legislature, Executive and the Judiciary. I have spent the entire Primary School and the Middle School learning how they co ordinate to run the country. for the first time I discerned that they co ordinate, to run the country NO ! For this particular incident, they were in complete sync with each other, all three lacked sensitivity, they all lacked allegiance to their duty, honesty and resolve, they just didn't feel the need for it, they are not accountable to this country or its people.
The Information Media provided a platform to awaken and instigate the "civil " society, and what came out was a brazen display of swindling, infidelity and treachery. All efforts were made to defer the the fingers pointing to the obvious miscreant. By doing so they are only demonstrating their adherence to the ruling lady and her family. The kind of arguments that have come in support are incongruous, outlandish and repugnant all at the same time.
Lets go through them for a good laugh and my apologies if you are disgusted simultaneously !
Arun Nehru : Rajiv Gandhi cannot be involved, his expression at the press conference didn't look like those of a guilty man ! Incredulous !!!
Another Politician: Rajiv Gandhi was barely in power for two months when the aforesaid incident happened, he didn't know much about the country, he was guided by others on the incident.
Mr. Dhavan, the loyalist says : That Mr. P C Alexander at the PMO  was responsible as he was antagonized for not being made the president.

What gives me some food for thought here is that Government of India has rendered Union carbide Inculpable, here we are assuming that someone did that without consulting the then foreign Minister or the Prime Minister, well iff thats true " It Happens only in India".

Now coming to the then Chief Minister Arjun Singh.: his silence to this incident is of significance, here the comment of the Finance Minister is noteable: to prevent the situation from becoming bad to worse Waren Anderson was allowed to leave the State. One wonders which situation is being referred to here: Country's/Anderson's/or Arjun Singh's.

Well this begs the question why are we trying Kasab here, he should have also been sent to Pakistan for a trial.

to be continued.......

My pet Dog Sheru

The furlough from blogging this time was exceptionally long, and now I am facing what we define as a writer's inertia, not that i am a writer, but having an inertia nevertheless.

I have decided to write on a very simple topic, a topic that kids learn to write and speak on in kindergarten, that was in my times, now they know it  may be even as they learn to speak.

During my brief tarriance in New Delhi this week,  I was fascinated by the antics of our farm dog, Sheru.
My parents are very fond of traveling so we could never afford the luxury of having an animal as a pet, but when they started living in Delhi, they found a pup who had come wandering to the farm, it was super cute and looked of a good breed so we got it home, it has grown into a handsome dog now, every time i see this dog, i get a feeling that dogs have been created to be domesticated, you don't have to train them to be faithful to you, a loving glance with a small of glass of milk is all it takes to earn the loyalty of a life time.Irrespective how tired one is from the day's work, regardless of how late one comes back home, there is this fellow waiting to greet you with a wagging tail, running after your car, and waiting till you get out, escorting you till your room and then relaxing that you are back.

When my mother goes and feeds  the cows, it is jealous that they are also getting a part of her attention, and barks at each and every cow, it drives the monkeys that eat away the fruits, reports its success and also waits for a nod of approval. it has recently learned  that it is photogenic too, now every time it sees any of us with the camera hanging down our necks, it makes a point to follow us. this time my flight from Delhi was at six in the morning, so we had to leave from home as early as 0330 and I had Sheru there to wish me good bye !
 There is not a minute of loneliness with it around,  i don't know how do animals realize what you expect of them.

i don't know if all the dog owners feel the same, but I have come to realise how good it is to have a pet at home.

Liebe Grüße
Suyasha

A tale of two cities

Johannesberg VS New Delhi                               

I am fond of comparisons, and the events around the world keep providing me the fodder to continue drawing parallels. And as the appellation very much indicates this blog is also not going to be any different.

All the sport aficionados would be quite familiar with the two mascots that are motifs of  the two major sports events for the year 2010.
If you are acquainted with Zakumi and are clueless about Shera, it is slightly flustering but predictable.
Zakumi is a cheerful and sporty leopard who is official Mascot of the 2010 FIFA World Cup,  and Shera is our very own Royal Bengal Tiger, it is the embodiment of everything that is royal, brave and fierce. If Shera is not as popular as Zakumi, its not the fault of the royalty but the Government of India which has not done enough to make it the face of India for Commonwealth Games 2010.

What I have found quite interesting here is that both the countries are a part of commonwealth, they both have their official mascots from the cat family, but the analogy culminates here. Johannesberg has put up a world class show, it is the first African country to have hosted it, and is apparently doing quite some justice to it. If one goes through the website of the hosting city , one cannot help being impressed with the painstaking, diligent and ostentatious preparations. The so called third world never ceases to bewilder the west on and off the field, be it beijing or johannesberg.

But as always there are exceptions to the rules : New Delhi, If one stays in the capital one can see witness it for self, its a lot of brouhaha and no real action, news feeds are awash with their aspersion of the substructure and arrangements. For a city that has an additional responsibility of averting all possible terror attacks it is obviously not doing the needful.

As i write this post, there still remain ninety seven days for the show down, lets see if the sorcerers of Delhi can give us a spectacle.

I remain, India's sincerely
Suyasha

A fine beer may be judged with only one sip, but it's better to be thoroughly sure

My allegiance to beer is complete, I was myself not conscious of this till the last weekend. The whole of Friday, Saturday and Sunday were invested to the service of the drink which is a bliss to so many. I have come so far as to believe that fermentation might have been even a greater discovery than fire. Here goes the chronicle :

For Germans football and beer are conjoined, its impossible to imagine a football match without beer mugs to give it company, so when the FIFA world cup time table came up,  with it also emanated the arrangements for viewing the match on a big screen with big beer mugs. All the quotas were checked and rechecked and finally 900 litres of beer was secured to be imported from Germany... I know its..... WOW !!!

But as always there was a Caveat...as I am a widely acknowledged proverbial Pech Vogel, the import was hardly going to be a smooth affair. i completed the formalities of a duty free import and was fervently awaiting the cargo arrival notice. The ship was caught in the "Doldrums" i should have apprehended that (with the kind of jeopardizes and contingencies I am accustomed to, this should not have ideally come as a surprise). So the task which normally takes four working days to complete was to be accomplished in 12 hours. It took every iota of patience at my disposal, and every good word in my limited vocabulary to get the barrels delivered at my door step ( Please read door step as Office), @ 12:30 in the night.
I am no alcohol drinker, and have never been inclined to try it either, but when the barrels were being transported to the storage, one of them developed a leak, and spill on my hands, as a reflex I wiped it off my shirt, and LO !!! I was actually stinking of beer, it took a lot of washing and cleaning to get the rid off the odor. Finally I retired home with the satisfaction of a job well done.

The next day I was ostensibly dozing off in my German class, the overcast sky was not helping the situation either, when I got an invitation to attend a party of a youth brigade, it was one of those situation where saying no is impolite, so I agreed, which further extended my stint with beer.

Sunday was the Day of the Germany Vs Australia match, for which I had undertaken so much of theatrics, I thought I very much deserved to be there, and spent the final evening of my weekend yet again surrounded by "beer mugs and Prosts and Saluds".

For a person who doesn't drink beer I apparently contribute a lot to the Beer Industry.......just to give you all an idea, have attached a pic with the barrels :)

For the love of beer I have attached a small proverb, its from Russia with love:

the Church is near,
but the road is icy,
The bar is far away,
but i will walk carefully.

Cheers !
Suyasha

Tale of a God bestriding like a colossus and of a guilty ferret with shifty beady eyes

I had taken a sabbatical from blogging for quite some time, due to work related commitments, and it was indeed very gratifying when a lot of people asked me when was i going to write next :)

Two things caught my attention over the last fortnight, both different contexts but deploring a common thing - A weak national leadership. The first was the press conference held by the Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh and the second was the comment made by Gujarat Chief Minister, Narendra Modi on the former Prime Minister Jawahar Lal Nehru. From the first PM to this one nothing has changed much for India. My corollary is that both of these men have constantly been described in pejorative terms as meek , timid and myopic and quixotic respectively.

Since there is nothing that we can do about the past, lets take up the present.

Dr. Manmohan singh's conference was one befalling which he could have used to silence his censurers. But instead of quelling the irksome correspondents, he continued his monotonous speech and abstained from answering tough questions, the ones that he answered were of course brimming with over used hackneyed phrases.

I bore the torture as much as my patience would allow, and then my thoughts drifted to an interview that I had read a couple of years ago. It was published in the TIME magazine with the then Russian President, Vladimir Putin, the impression of the journalists was quite a read, the gaze described was that of a man who says i am in command, talking to him is chilling as if the Russian winters are not enough for the foreign press. He gives an evident impression of a man who effortlessly exudes power. He is petite but that factor is easily overcome by his consummate confidence. and makes no effort to placate the press.

I find the comparison between the two premiers quite relevant: both the nations are vast ( russia expands over 11 time zones)they both have their respective share of problems, both have to be most of the time at the receiving end of world politics, but the Russian premier knows the rules of the game better and refuses to be auxiallary subject to the powers at home or abroad, and the less said about the Indian PM, the better. In the whole press conference the only time he appeared chirpy was when the subject of Rahul Gandhi being made the Prime Minister came up,he is a man who is a pawn in his own country and is only making his stature ludicrous abroad.

I am only hoping for a day when the TIME magazine publishes such an article about an Indian Prime Minister.

I also came across a widely popular joke, which summarizes the entire article:

Putin and Bush are fishing on the Volga River. After half an hour Bush complains, "Vladimir, I'm getting bitten like crazy by mosquitoes, but I haven't seen a single one bothering you."
Putin: "They know better than that."

Liebe Grüße
Suyasha