A resurgent BJP. Who is responsible??

I am not a political observer or activist, but just a normal citizen who cannot even vote, being a NRI. I have read about the BJP victories in Gujarat and HP elections and also read the comments of Prakash Karat blaming Congress for it. I would like to share my views below.

Around 1 year back, I told my colleagues that BJP is finished as a political force and people will vote for Congress overwhelmingly and they might even get a simple majority in the next Loksabha elections.

I was proven wrong. Why? I believe it is Prakash Karat and his friends to be blamed for this situation. Or may be it is Congress, who could not read the game plan of the left??

Around a year back, Manmohanji and gang were on a home run. Then came the 123 agreement. Prakash Karat and his friends left no stones unturned to show the people of India that they can make Congress crawl at their feet at will. They humiliated the Prime Minister and the Government of India time and again. Of course, Left Parties continuously said that they have no obligation to prop up the Congress. But, they want Congress to defeat BJP at the same time.

How could they imagine that the people of India will vote for such a weak Prime Minister and Congress Party who cannot even stand up against parties which hardly gets 0.5% of the votes like forward block or RSP? Who had to touch the feet of a family enterprises man like Karunanidhi? The writing was on the wall and the responsibility for the BJP wins rests squarely with the left and the other regional barons like Karunanidhi who showed to the Indian Public that the congress lead by Sonia and Government lead by Manmohanji and a few of the very old Gandhi loyalists have no courage to take issues head on.

Karat complains that Congress did not clearly stand on the side of secularism and that is why they lost Gujarat. Even Karat can not be so naive as to believe that in a predominantly conservative Hindu majority state like Gujarat, you can win by bashing Hinduism!

In my belief, Karat was trying to down two birds with one shot. By siding with Congress, he wanted to destroy BJP and at the same time, he wanted to undermine Congress by blackmailing the Government. Now look at what he achieved. He has delivered Gujarat in a plate to BJP and with the HP win too under their belt, we now have a resurgent BJP who sense that people are tired of this hide and seek game between left and the Congress.

In addition to that, Nandigram happened and his own CM in Bengal gives scant respect to their allergy to MNCs and FII investment and is virtually sleeping with the enemies. In Kerala, they have proved once again that they are not capable of running a Government, but only is good at playing Mr. Know it all critics. It is such a pathetic performance and now they have started canvassing in religious tones for survival. The very party who expelled a founder member like Raghavan for saying that if necessary, they should take the help of Muslim League!

Yes, I have to admit that I was wrong or too quick to write off BJP. BJP must thank Karat for all their fortunes they find themselves in today.

As a last observation, I would also like to ask Karat what favors have Iran done to India so that India must support Iran at the expense of US. Have you heard of PL480? When India was starving, it was the US which supplied wheat and Milk Powder. On the other hand, If Iran is indeed making a bomb, whom do you think will be at the receiving end of an Islamic Bomb co-sponsored by Pakistan? And if you do not know, China has commissioned their 26th Nuclear Plant in December in co-operation with US and received the highest amount of FDI in the world! Yes, they can do it because they are strong and they are not subjugating to US!!! I have not seen any other better performing hypocrite than the left party leaders in India. They want all comforts of a capitalist world like cars, lap tops, mobiles, air-conditioning, but hates those who make it! It seems communism means every one equally poor except the leaders.

Life's is an adjustment

Recently, I saw the above line in a young girls profile. I was surprised. Are you resigned at such a young age, my friend? Times have changed. How could you imagine walking into the bedroom of a completely unknown person and start loving him from that moment? I could not imagine that even for a minute. Why is a young girl resigned to her fate? What is wrong with us parents so as to drive them youths to desperation?
Many of my friends often say that it is because I do not have any daughters that I dare think so differently. Is it so? I don't think so. I am convinced that the more we try to stop the boys and girls from knowing each other, the more we are forcing them to do things behind our back and that is more dangerous. They often fall prey to stalkers on the net, porno sites etc...
We (that includes me) always have two standards. One for us and another for them. Hypocrisy? Our society and life has come a long way from the old times. In fact, it was much better before. In my childhood, I used to play with boys and girls of the neighborhood. Our children? School, Tuition, Competitive exam preparation, computer, TV... no time to play around with friends or read or play some physical games...
No wonder that an 18 year old girl is driven to say that life is an adjustment!!!!

Neostar

Today, I will write about the birth of Neostar.
In September 2002, my FDs with HDFC bank was due for renewal. My Personal Banking Manager, Balaram, called me and told me that my FDs which was earning 10.5% interest will now earn only 6% and as a priority Customer, they will give me a rate of 6.25%. I literally fell off from my rocker. Since I came out of India in 1991, I have never thought of any alternative investment opportunities other than bank deposits and was content to have a good interest rate without too much head ache.
Since Balram was a very nice guy and friendly, I asked him if he could suggest me any alternative method of investment. He was very kind to come to my home and explain to me about Mutual Funds. Sensex was @2,650 on that day. I was a little skeptic, but decided to take a calculated risk by starting with a small amount first. I invested 40,000 in spread in 4 mutual fund schemes. Once I invested in Mutual Fund, I started reading about it and that lead me to equities. I understood that MFs invest our money in equities and share the profits generated with us after taking a small commission. I thought, why not directly invest in equities? I went to the friendly neighborhood Geojit (There were not so many brokers available in those days) and opened an account. I invested 60,000 in i 5 shares suggested by the BM.
Then, the sensex started sliding down wards to 2,350! My investment was in big loss. I resisted the temptation to withdraw and kept on bravely and in fact added some money in HDFC Growth fund. I sold of the first investments when these returned to some profit not wanting to take too much chances. I would rather not see the prices of those stocks today :(
I realized that investing in equities without proper advice is worse than gambling. Then I noticed that Capital market was one source used by most financial channels and portals. I wrote to them and took a subscription to telefolio paying Rs10,000 and started investing as per their advise.
My fortunes improved dramatically. Then I wanted to take their full service which was priced at 1 lac. I asked 4 of my friends to join me showing the returns I got and we subscribed to the full service together. Then other friends joined and the circle got bigger. And so did our knowledge. In 2005 January, I went to Geojit and told them that we as a group find it difficult to trade with ease and asked them to give us exclusive access. They suggested that we take a franchisee.
That is how Neostar was born. We expanded the consultation from capital market to 3 more other Equity advisory Services to get have more safety by spreading the risk. Our friends also increased to 50. Initially we used to take contributions from all to pay the consultants. Then, our franchisee started to pay for itself and we stopped such contributions. Now, the equity advise is provided free. We also went one step ahead and reduced the brokerage from 0.675% to 0.5% and also started keeping P/L account for our friends and sending it weekly to them.
I am glad to say that we have created a few millionaires during the past 3 years of operation.
Now we are expanding the circle further with the aim of taking such products to more people so that they also can join the up trend and profit from it even if they are completely ignorant about the equity markets etc... We have profited. We would like more people benefit from such buoyant economy.
We do not want to aggressively market any products for our own profit. Our profits come from our own investments. But we would like to see that more people get to know the choices available and even the poorer section of the people can profit by small amount of investments in Mutual Funds. We will never try to sell a product for our benefit only, but will suggest products that will benefit the investor. That is our motto.
The current bull run started from December 2003 has made millions of people rich. But mainly in Metros and in Gujarat. What I would like to see is that more common people benefit from it like we have benefited. That is our mission.

Religious?? Save Humans, not the Gods!

Someone in Shelfari recently invited me to a group which deals with a particular religion and their holy book. As a courtesy to the friend, I accepted the invitation. In another group, I read that some posts were deleted because the posts were speaking against a particular religion. These two incidents happened in the same day. That triggered a thought process in me.
I always used to think in these lines, but have never expressed it in writing. Though I often talk about it and my wife accuses me of turning my son into a non-believer or atheist!
1. Are there your God and my God and his/her God - means are there many Gods? Can't be, right? If there is God, the God must be just one. So, is it really necessary to fight each other in the name of Gods???
2. If we assume that the human being and all living things are created by God, how could any one take out a life of another living thing or for that matter a fellow human being? Or bode ill against another human being?? Will that not be against God's will???
3. Do you believe the God you believe in is powerful to create the Earth and control the destiny of Earth and everything in it? If yes, then why do you assume that the all powerful God needs your help to propagate his will or his religion on Earth or needs your help to protect his Temples / Mosques / Churches from the other human beings??? Is it not Blasphemy to think that the God is so powerless so as to need your assistance to do something??
4. If God is all powerful and owns the Universe, why would you want to go to a particular Temple / Mosque / Church to pray to him. He is omnipresent. He is in you. Why don't you just pray from wherever you are???
5. In most religions there is a belief that if you do something wrong (sinful) you will be punished or sent to Hell. Then how come that you offer special prayers, or donate something to the Temple / Mosque / Church or do some special poojas or admit your guilt to a priest and that you are free of the guilt? How come you are trying to offer bribes to the Gods through the priests to escape from the repercussions of your wrong doing and go on doing fresh ones? Do you think that Gods can be bought by bribes like you???

Well, I have always been thinking on these lines from when I could remember. May be because my family was not so religious, may be because I started reading from the early ages and it influenced my decisions. Professor A.T Kovoor, a renowned atheist also had some influence on me. In any case I have come to the conclusion that:
a) God is inside one and around one in the nature, one need not go around searching for God
b)God is able to protect himself and does not require our help,
c)It is us human beings who need help to control our greed, our temptations
d) Try not to hurt others for your own benefit, try to be good to others, think positively, treat others as you would expect you to be treated by others, believe in other fellow human beings and try to do whatever you can to help others - you do not need to go to any places of worship, God will smile on you.
And that for me is Religion. It is a private thing, not to be shouted around, not to be forced upon, not to be coerced in to, but it is something you are....
To me all this noise about fighting for the God or religion is just the way some one trying to exploit the masses. I am positive that the God will not give you a golden chair in Heaven just because you killed someone supposedly belittled the God you think you believe in. If you have any sense, you should understand that God is capable of taking care of himself!
We have so many other issues in the world that needs our attention - helping our fellow human beings is much more a Godly act than killing in God's name. Isn't it really a paradox that in many part of the world, the protectors of Gods (in many religions) spent so much money to kill other fellow human beings while so many of our brothers and sisters die of hunger and illness? Just imagine the amount of money spent on arms purchases and manufacturing around the globe. Poverty and illness can be wiped out from the face of Earth if all that money spent on arms and destructive material for one year is spent for removing poverty and illness!
I used to adore Subash Chandra Bose while looking down on Gandhiji. I don't believe Gandhiji was perfect or his methods were perfect or he was flawless. But, his message was right. We do not need arms to achieve any goal. We are the most potent weapon - our brain is the most potent bomb.
So where do I end up? You and I, we need to tell everyone that listens to forget about protecting the Gods, bribing the Gods for small personal favours and become a part of God by doing good.
Sorry, If I bored you, but I am talking to an empty audience!!!! However, I have not finished, not yet. I will return on this subject another day :)

For whom the 123 agreement matters!

I received a forwarded mail this afternoon from my colleague Gajanan and it touched of a chain reaction (not nuclear!) and I wrote the text below, straight from my heart, without consulting any papers / news etc... Straight as it came from within me. I may not have all the facts right and the 123 agreement may be useless to India, ultimately. However, it is the pretentious ideology behind that mail which started me off. Sometimes, I do feel that India is too democratic and we should sometimes be like Iran / Pakistan / Cuba or China.One does not realize the value of freedom unless one sees also the opposite. I have been in Russia, Libya , Middle East, Europe and lived in India. I can and do appreciate the freedom we have in India, though I also see it misused unlike in Europe! I have spent an hour in writing this and most would not have the patience to read it. If you are one of those who read it even partially, leave a comment. Don't worry , if it is against my views, so far as it is logical.

The writer of the appended mail used a PC with electric power to write the article, probably in an air-conditioned multi storied office with lifts and all lights on during day light hours also.

So, to begin with, the writers of so called "don't sell India to US" articles should try not to use power. We can save billions f Rupees and forget about the Nuclear treaty !

Hydro Power: Clean, cheap to produce: To start a Hydel Power project, you have to submerge large areas of forest or land. Authors need not think about the displaced persons or the displaced animals and destroyed biosphere?

Thermal Power Again cheap. Have u ever been around a thermal power plant operated with coal? Have ever been near a coal mine? Is there any pollution around those places? Have you noticed the safety standards of the mines and the health condition of the workers in those two places?

Solar power: Currently almost all producers of photovoltaic cells are in the west, though Moser Baer (Another capitalist MNC in the eyes of liberals in India) and Webel SL energy are trying to manufacture it in India, but the total production can be counted on a single hand.

Wind Energy: Again, clean and nice. To provide for even 1% of Indian energy needs of 2010, we will need windmills all over India!

There are some more: Energy from waves, energy from biofuels etc… as a matter of fact, if India start to produce energy from Cow Dung, that might make more energy than wind, Sun and Waves put together.

Why are we afraid of any International agency or even US looking into our Civilian Nuclear Production facilities??? Are we hiding something the US does not know? Or are we planning to make war heads from those facilities? But I thought we were opposed to nuclear war heads, testing and war etc…? If it is open to Russia or China, will we be happier?

The fact is that Nuclear facilities all around the world are the most closely monitored facilities ever and have the lowest accident rates and best safety records in the industry.

The fact is that China, Pakistan and Iran are the only countries who do not want India to enter into the nuclear era in its full sense. Because, after ratifying the deal, India becomes the youngest member of the elite Nuclear Group of countries. Being the youngest member, we have to learn and we have to have more restraint. Therefore, it is not so unusual to be listening to the senior members. Remember, Russia and France are there too.

Now why are we so friendly with Iran suddenly? What favour has Iran done to India that we should be grateful to Iran? Do you know that Pakistan has contributed to the Iranian Nuclear program heavily so that Pakistan may have a proprietary right Iran's bomb and who will be the target in case of a conflict? (This is not even to suggest that Pakistan and India will go to a war or should. I am against all wars and especially wish to see India and Pakistan living happily together – at least for the beautiful ghazals of Mehdi Hassan and the beautiful actresses Pak has and for their cricketers). So, other than the fact that Iran is anti-US, there is nothing for us to support Iran.

Let us try to learn humility. India is not equal to US (at least, not yet), we would like to be or even want to overtake US one day. Look at Japan. They were decimated by the US. Today, they own the US – financially. Take any major business house in the US. It's majority shares will be with the Japanese! We are also on line to achieving something similar. Our young professionals have almost taken over US IT Majors; they are advancing at a good pace, unless we stop them by rhetoric. Let us be a little accommodative so that our professionals get a chance to take India to the top.

Coming back to the deal: The deal is not about bowing in front of US or any other country. (For that matter many of our liberals want us to bow – in front of China, Russia, all except the US of A)The deal is about opening doors for India and to open doors in India. All those who lecture from the comfort of the AC offices, do they imagine that poverty can be eliminated by preaching or by supporting Iran where there is no freedom of speech even? Do they know how much behind India is in infrastructure and how much Investment India needs to have a good infrastructure? If people still die of poverty, lack of food, clothes medicines and a roof above their heads after 60 years of socialism, something must be wrong, isn't it? If 20 million people were supposed to have died in Russia in the last years of communism, leading way to perestroika, there is something wrong there, isn't it? If after so many years under Communist rule, China had to allow hire and fire labour policy to attract FDI to China and still practice slavery and murder, something should be wrong?

Nuclear deal is about shifting the view point. It is about alignment. India should and will eventually shift from the view that every one equally rich is better than every one equally poor. Look at some of the European Countries ruled by Left Liberals / socialists. A Labour Blair was more supportive of Bush than a Tory Thatcher. A Socialist France want to attack Iran. A left Italy and Spain sided shamelessly with the US. Because, there the labour class is also rich and they did not simply achieve it by stopping all reforms, but using the reforms. Not by always opposing, but by actively participating, criticizing constructively and not by black mailing.

The deal is also about Electric power. I am not an expert about the fine print of the deal and I am not very interested to be one. Nuclear power, with all its negatives is still something we need. Because, we need energy – we do not have enough oil, do not have enough gas, Coal is polluting and killing, water is scarce and fast disappearing, hydel projects disrupt large population and area, solar, wind and wave power is far too insignificant while under international supervision, the nuclear plants are far more efficient and safe than any other industrial plant. As stated above, Electric Power is only one use of the agreement. More cooperation means more investments, more jobs and more development. Sure, it cannot alleviate poverty over night. But, it sure is better than the socialism we practiced for 60 years! There was more development in the last 10 years than the 50 years before that put together! I still remember my 12 year wait for that first Chetak!

Ideally, we should be able to do all these by our self. But, as you know, there is a certain gap between Ideology and Practicality.

China is in the nuclear club. It is only evident that they do not want India there. Pakistan is not there, but through China, they are practically there. So they don't want India to go there. The Middle East countries still do not trust India with a nationalist BJP still having some teeth. (By the way, they all want India to side with Arab World and support their cause. But have you thought of the millions of Indian workers practically doing slavery in these countries? Why don’t our liberals try and preach a little sermon in these parts of the world? And, most of such liberals, once in the Gulf does not mind doing slavery to US MNCs!)

Let us face it friends, Let us be pragmatic. National pride, honour, bowing your head etc… are only in speeches given by the learned politicians with full stomach, enjoying all comforts of a modern life, made often for an audience outside India. The fact is only growth powered by infusion of funds, development of infrastructure can help increase jobs, increase wage levels, increase standards of life to the poor people of India. Earlier, labours from Tamil Nadu used to come to Kerala for work and they were favoured because in Kerala, it was difficult to find manual labour and the daily rate was Rs300 / 8 hr. Tamil Nadu workers charged 200 and they were plenty. Now even they have increased their rates and now it is Bihari / Bangladeshi workers who do manual work in Kerala! Such situation was not brought about by socialism, but petro dollars! Educational and financial empowerment of the common people!

Let us face it friends: There are only four major parties interested in stopping the deal and they are all in India: BJP – though they want it badly themselves, they cannot allow Congress to steal the show and earn the grace marks with Bush. There is the left who has to play to the galleries in India showing them even the mighty Bush could not bend them and to show their masters abroad, There are the trimurthies of Laloo, Karuna and Pawar who cannot allow the government to fall because they will not see the parliament again and loose a lot of moolah. And, sadly enough, there is you, my friend, who with the best motives in your heart playing right into the hands of the above three….

So, please check your premises when making such national issues that would be of the least importance to a man / woman or child who cannot find food, clothes or shelter! Don’t stop yourself from growing up, on pure ideology issues which ultimately is useless, if you do not have the body to take care of the brain. So my message is this: Let us first stand on our feet, we will think of kicking some ass after that J

(And as far as my memory goes, Manmohan Singh did not dream up this entire nuclear issue by himself. The NDA government actually started the ball rolling by declaring the moratorium and being cozy to the US.)

One last note: Recently, there was a big noise from the left that some news papers received aid from US / CIA: Do you know that the communist parties received and are probably receiving large amounts of money from Russia and China???

The mail I received:

Please circulate to your friends & colleagues!...


There are lot of talks about 1 2 3 Agreement between India & USA and
it
almost led to the topple of Central Government. In this mail I am
trying
to explain the commercial & technical aspects relating to this
Agreement
which I have read and sharing with you.

What is 123 Agreement?

This is called 123 Agreement because this comes under USA's Atomic
Power
Act Section 123.
Let's see how India's (Indians?) Sovereinty & Independence are
pledged...

(1) After this Agreement USA will supply all fuel, machinery /
equipment
& technology to India for producing Nuclear Power.

(2) All these days from about 22 Nuclear Power Plants, India is
producing power as well as Atom. It's a high security / secret that
from where which is produced, how much is produced, where it is
supplied, what research is being done with that, etc. to anybody.
But
if we sign this Agreement, we have to disclose these secrets and
also
agree to 14 of our Nuclear Power Plants to be under the scanner of
International Atomic Power Organisation.

(3) The fuel utilised to produce Atomic Power can be recycled for
reuse
and this plant will be under direct supervision of IAPO.

If India does nuclear test, this agreement gets cancelled. But

(1) USA will take back all the machinery / equipments / technology
supplied to India thus far.

(2) Those 14 plants will continue to be under scanner irrespective
of
the status of the agreement.

On the other hand, if any of the commitments given by USA is breached
by
them, then there is no clause for cancelling this agreement.

The agreement is apparently like this... USA can either hug India or
slap India. India will not ask why are we hugged or why are we
slapped.
On the other hand, India cannot hug or slap USA for breach of
agreement.

This is only capsule so that easy to read and digest.

Subject: India Pledged.... Part 2

Requirement of Power

The most important requirement for India's Economic Growth in the
coming
years will be the power & infrastructure. The argument put forth
favouring the 123 Agreement says that we need Nuclear Power
Production
to be increased to meet the demand.

Power Production in India

Presently following are the figures:

Thermal Power 66%

Hydel Power 26%

Solar & Wind Power 5% - Presently Rs.600 Crores are spent for
producing
this power.

Nuclear Power 3% - If this is to be increased to 6%, it
requires additional Rs.50,000 Crores.

Naturally it will be wise to increase other 3 modes of power
production
rather than the expensive & dangerous Nuclear Power. Isn't??

URANIUM

We used to import Uranium from various other countries. After the
Pokran Test, we are not getting it. To augment the supply, we need
to
sign the 123 Agreement to get Uranium from USA. But we will have to
declare to USA from which power plant India takes raw material for
producing Atom Bomb. Why should we disclose our internal secrets to
those rascals ? Will any one allow an outsider to continuously
monitor
what's happening in your Hall & Kitchen of your house? Other study
reveals that Uranium is available in India aplenty. Only hurdle is
the
acquisition of land. To produce Atomic Power & Bomb in the next 40
years, the requirement of Uranium is 25,000 MT whereas the
availability
is 78,000 MT across India.

PLUTONIUM

Presently 35% of Plutonium is used to produce Atomic Bombs. After
signing the Agreement, we will be allowed to use only 10%. Who are
those
rascals to restrict the usage of our natural resource ? That is
though
you are capable of cooking & eating 10 idlis as your breakfast, you
are
allowed only 3 idlis henceforth. How can it be? Why should we
accept
this?

THORIUM

As told by Dr.APJ, we have abundant Thorium. In fact we are the 2nd
largest producer of Thorium next only to Australia. India has to
explore this further for producing power. For your information, in
South India - particularly around Kanyakumari, the availability of
Thorium is abundant.

INDIA-IRAN-CHINA

USA does not like the amicable relationship between India-Iran and
also
India-China. If India-China relationship gets stronger, then both
these
can rule the Eastern Part of the Globe which USA wants to break as
per
their divide & rule.

By signing this agreement, USA wants India to depend on it for
producing
power which is going to be a crucial factor in future. There is a
talk
of bringing Natural Gas from Iran to India with a big pipeline
project.
USA doesn't like this proposal.

Atomic Power Technology

Whether power is produced or Bomb is produced, using Atomic power
without spoiling the infrastructure and without allowing the
radiation
is always under threat. Moreover preserving the wastes coming out of
Atomic Power Plants is expensive & unsafe.

There was an accident in Three Miles Island in USA. To close this
plant
nearly USD 200 Crores spent with tons & tons of concrete but yet to
be
fully closed.

In an another accident at Soviet Union's Serbia Plant, even the next
generation child are affected due to the radiation.

It will be very very expensive to defuse & close down an Atomic
Power
Plant than its construction cost.

France

France has got 56 Nuclear Power stations producing 73% of the
country's
total power requirement. They are catching up the problem of
eliminating the wastes / emissions from out of those plants at the
same
time increase the power production capacity. Government of France
is
now thinking how to reduce the power consumption in the country.

Conclusion

In view of the above danger, rather than signing the agreement and
pledging India to USA, it will be prudent to increase the Solar &
Wind
Energy and more importantly Hyder Power Production can be increased
by
linking all rivers across India and by constructing DAMS. (Ofcourse
Dam
construction projects can be given to L&T's B&F Sector:-)

The whole process of this Agreement started in the year 2005 when
Manmohan visited USA. In a span of just 2 years a major decision of
signing this agreement has taken place with political motive. On
the
contrary, neither this Government nor any other earlier Central
Government could not amend the Constitution thereby nationalise the
rivers across the country thereby effectively utilise the water
resources for both Agriculture purpose and producing Hydel Power.
What
an irony?

Whenever someone is helping the needy, you can't expect the TERMS
AND
CONDITIONS BETWEEN THE needy and the helper to be EQUAL??? BUT

(1) the helper's ulterior motive should be seen with broad eye
because
he is capable of digging a grave behind you and

(2) better to be self-sufficient and explore new avenues with
available
resources.

INDIA-CHINA-USA

India is very rich in Culture, follow Religions, Value Ethics, Level
of
Education is Very Good.

China is also rich in Culture, follow Religion, better disciplined.

USA does not have Culture, does not have Ethics, only want power
over
others. Particularly wants a firm footing in South Asia. Remember
the
introduction EURO by European Countries and it is stronger than
Dollar?
So their "DAL" cannot be boiled at "EUROPE". They are trying in
India
as already Pakistan is in their clutches.

Feedback

Above is only a capsule of information. It will be easy & better to
have an interactive session in a Hall with good auidence on topics
such
as this.

Also look forward to your views on this subject.

Thanks to MR for having posted the article appeared in "The Hindu"
on
4.9.07.

Sithish in Moscow

In 1995, we had a rare guest. Sithish, bored with UAE, came to stay with us for one month.
But all he did in Moscow was to eat lots of sausages, sleep all day, watch movies all night and break our bed! Some days I asked Arun to take him out and show around. But he was not so happy about it. To be honest, he was cooking the sausages himself, often in the odd hours! One day before he was to go back, he went around for a walk and promptly got lost. After 4 hours, he managed to find his way back! We had to buy him new shoes and socks! Here he was the chief guest for Nikhil's birthday bash

Golden Jubilee of WWII in Russia

Moscow 1995: 50th Anniversary of victory in II World War celebrations in Moscow. It was held just outside Moscow where the final war to retake Moscow from the Germans was staged. That was the mother of all celebrations. 50 heads of states including Mr. Clinotn was there and we were there too! Thousands of impeccably dressed armed forces personnel, hard ware, air force jets flying low over head and music and gaiety all around. Except that Mr. Boris Yeltsin was as usual a peg or two more than he could handle! Usha, Bhuvana and Nikhil posing with WWII veterans.


A view of the impressive march past.


Here, Nikhil climbing on top of a WWII tank displayed in an exhibition during the celebration.

Its party time in Moscow

It was party time - every weekend all Kerala students in Moscow used to reach our apartment for an evening of food, drinks and fun. Nikhil, Anil, Jose, Anil, Radhakrishnan, Geetha, Bhuvana, Kavitha, Anil and Arun are visible and busy. Majid and Ismail are also busy, but not in the picture! See below.

If wishes were horses!

I was chatting with a friend of my son tonight. He was a little confused. He was afraid to talk to his parents about his problem in munching entrance study materials etc... I talked to him for some time and I told him all I wanted to tell to my son and never did. I told him that every teenager in Kerala cannot and need not become a doctor or engineer, I told him that it is not important what you do, but how u do it, and he should never be afraid to tell his problems to his parents because they would surely not want him to suffer and be depressed. He was quite nervous, but when he said goodbye, he was practically smiling.
Yes, it seems that I am good with people in general, I can reason with most people... and then why I am not able to do it at home? Why I am not able to relax? Why do I get annoyed even though all I want to do is to embrace him in my arms and tell him that I love you? Or hold my wife in my arms and whisper I love you for a thousand times? Why do I get uptight and serious? Is it because I want to appear important to them as my wife keeps telling me? Or is it because if I also loosen up, we will become a looose family - because they both are never serious? Or because I know that they will immediately give me list of demands ranging from mobile phone to Rolls Royce!
Or could it be that when u r with ur own, u always expect too much???
I will tell you when I crack the puzzle :)

Memories of another day - 1

Place: Moscow
Time: 1994
We were cruising at 140kmph along the ring road around Moscow. Stefano Nardi was driving very slowly compared to his normal speed! Suddenly he asked me. Ajith, is it true that you Indians work all your life and save for your children? I replied, yes, Stefano. That is true. He said, you are all idiots. I work for myself. I will support my daughter for her education and thats it. Then she have to earn her living. I am not going to work like an ass all my life so that she can do nothing and enjoy her life! I said, Stefano, our culture is different. Like our parents did before us, we try to provide for our children what is wrong with it? He said, dear Ajith, you think you are doing a favour to your children. But in fact you are making them lazy and useless. Because if you provide for them, they will not work! Never do that to your son. Let him earn his living with his own efforts and become his own man. Otherwise he will not have any respect for you or for him and nobody will respect him too.
On that morning in Moscow, I did not believe Stefano. But now? I see the truth!
Are you listening my friend? Earn your living and earn your respect! There are no free lunches!

Nardi's in Trichur

Onam 2005. Stefano, Antonella and Alice came all the way from Firence to enjoy two weeks of Kerala charm. Enjoy they did! From Guruvayoor to Trichur, Munnar, Thekkady, Kumarakom, Marari Beach to Cochin - it was a funfilled 2 weeks for them and for us. Nikhil would not join us first. Then he did not want to leave!

Transformation!

This was at Annavaram for Kuttu's choroonu - first solid food in front of the Gods. He was such a cute boy and Usha, Miss Universe!

Moscow 1994 Celebrating Usha's birthday

pooram