There
couldn’t be a better poster boy for optimism than yours truly. Me of the
lived-my-school-life-so-democratically-that-I-failed-to-excel-at-any-one-specific-thing
or
aimlessly-picking-up-a-course-I-had-no-interest-in-and-then-sleepwalking-through-college
and what-do-I-need-a-professional-course-for-duh fame who ended up being a
freelance writer who gets paid enough to fuel the passion. For a little over a
decade now I could probably outdo anyone when it comes to enjoying one’s cake
and may I also add, that too with cherry toppings.
Showing posts with label Elections. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Elections. Show all posts
March 24, 2014
June 29, 2007
Oops I Did It Again!
Fame comes at a price but the bigger question is what price glory…!?
Ever since Pratibha Patil’s candidature was announced there seems to be a new worm managing to get out of the can at amazing regularity. First it was the innocuously incorrect statement made by the President designate on the origins of the Purdah system in India. The dust had just about settled on it when she came up with the fact that she speaks to spirits. Some holy baba’s spirit came to her in a woman’s form and communicated with her and blessed her. Well all I could make out of the darn thing was that at least Madame knew to be politically correct, at least she got something right! The spirits had just about set her free when the news that her brother’s involved in some common man’s murder came to become the breaking news on all news channels except India TV who were busy trying to convince a man that the too much of sex can be detrimental.
New shit had hit the proverbial fan and by now the Congress decided that she’s bound to speak her mind so they went in for some tailspin and said that this is an opposition motivated ploy to unearth old skeletons. For they could have told the Lady to keep shut on some issues for she has to speak at certain places-press conferences, etc.- for why else was she chosen in the first place? 
click to enlarge
The latest in the list of the old skeletons coming out of the grave like Michael Jackson’s Thriller video is that there’s been some hanky-panky in the cooperative banks that operate under her name. Well what can I say… things are going to be colorful till the 22nd of July. Once she’s snug as a bug in the state bedroom in the Rashtrapati Bhavan everyone will have something else to crib about. The Congress in the mean time has come out with the most original dumb statement; according to them Patil will speak after the 22nd. OK that’s like what AB Vajpayee said when someone cornered him at a rally and said when will the shortage of power be resolved in India? In between his usual ‘longer than long’ pregnant pauses, ABV at his poetic best mumbled some lines and ended them with “light for everyone by 2012’ ostensibly implying shut the hell up till 2012. That’s what Congress means- she’s the next President people and come July 22nd the only spirits would be the high spirits!
Someone's got it in for me, they're planting stories in the press
Whoever it is I wish they'd cut it out but when they will I can only guess.
They say I shot a man named Gray and took his wife to Italy,
She inherited a million bucks and when she died it came to me.
I can't help it if I'm lucky.
Whoever it is I wish they'd cut it out but when they will I can only guess.
They say I shot a man named Gray and took his wife to Italy,
She inherited a million bucks and when she died it came to me.
I can't help it if I'm lucky.
-Bob Dylan
(Idiot Wind)
(Idiot Wind)
Image Courtesy: David Malki
June 23, 2007
Mama Mia!
Now that President APJ Abdul Kalam has decided to ‘gracefully’ let go of a second term in office things should get easier for the others in the race. Pratiba Patil has emerged from nowhere to become the front-runner for the post of President of India. While the media debates and celebrates a woman occupying the highest post in India, I can’t help but wonder where are things headed? Don’t get me wrong I’m all for women and if I could vote for Mrs. Patil, I’d have gladly done so.
This whole tamasha of selecting the President of India has become so strange that it’s not funny. When someone suggested Abdul Kalam’s name five years ago there was a mixed reaction. I, for one, thought that was the stupidest suggestion someone could come up with. I was thinking that has India lost all the ‘statesmen’ who were supposed to get old and become presidents of the largest democracy of the world? Had things changed so much that barring Dr. Karan Singh there wasn’t anyone who at least looked the part?
Over the last 5 years I might have changed my opinion about Kalam and he might have become the first ‘common man’ President of the country but I still think that the criterion for choosing or nominating a President shouldn’t be confused with petty politics. I may not be saying anything new but think about it- Sonia Gandhi clearly knows her game; not only did she get a Maharashtrian married to a Rajashthani, she got a woman. What a masterstroke, for no one worth his or her salt can’t fight that combo and the only person fit to put up a fight was Rocket Man Kalam but he’s not going to do that.
This time around things are a little different. The politicians smartly use the press to fight it out. Just yesterday some one from Maharashtra has claimed that Pratiba Patil’s brother is guilty of killing her husband and that the President designates power has made sure nothing happens to her brother. The government denied the whole thing as a petty attack by the Opposition while they suggested that India is a free country and the Media is doing a good job! Well more such worms will be leaving the can in the next few days but I don’t think anything’s going to spoil the party for Mrs. Patil-Shekhawat.
This Pratiba Patil looks like someone one who knows that in less than a month she’s going to host a party in the Rashtrapati Bhawan. I like people with confidence, who doesn’t? But the smug look with which she’s operating these days, calling on people, etc is testimony of the fact that Sonia Gandhi is really smart and she now has her ‘men’ in both of the highest offices in India.
Mama mia!
This whole tamasha of selecting the President of India has become so strange that it’s not funny. When someone suggested Abdul Kalam’s name five years ago there was a mixed reaction. I, for one, thought that was the stupidest suggestion someone could come up with. I was thinking that has India lost all the ‘statesmen’ who were supposed to get old and become presidents of the largest democracy of the world? Had things changed so much that barring Dr. Karan Singh there wasn’t anyone who at least looked the part?
Over the last 5 years I might have changed my opinion about Kalam and he might have become the first ‘common man’ President of the country but I still think that the criterion for choosing or nominating a President shouldn’t be confused with petty politics. I may not be saying anything new but think about it- Sonia Gandhi clearly knows her game; not only did she get a Maharashtrian married to a Rajashthani, she got a woman. What a masterstroke, for no one worth his or her salt can’t fight that combo and the only person fit to put up a fight was Rocket Man Kalam but he’s not going to do that.
This time around things are a little different. The politicians smartly use the press to fight it out. Just yesterday some one from Maharashtra has claimed that Pratiba Patil’s brother is guilty of killing her husband and that the President designates power has made sure nothing happens to her brother. The government denied the whole thing as a petty attack by the Opposition while they suggested that India is a free country and the Media is doing a good job! Well more such worms will be leaving the can in the next few days but I don’t think anything’s going to spoil the party for Mrs. Patil-Shekhawat.
This Pratiba Patil looks like someone one who knows that in less than a month she’s going to host a party in the Rashtrapati Bhawan. I like people with confidence, who doesn’t? But the smug look with which she’s operating these days, calling on people, etc is testimony of the fact that Sonia Gandhi is really smart and she now has her ‘men’ in both of the highest offices in India.
Mama mia!
May 19, 2007
White Noise
My resident psychologist, Groucho Marx is of the opinion that television is very educating for every time someone turns it on he’d go to the other room and read a book.
I couldn't agree with him more.
In addition to my radio blues, my TV was out of action for almost two weeks.
Life seemed nice for the two weeks my television was dead; I surfed the Internet more than ever before in addition to almost finishing ICon, the biography of Steve Jobs. But the best thing was, not having to mindlessly surf channels in the pursuit of something half way decent. These days I consider the news channels to be most entertaining.
News is real entertainment for where else can you watch Raju Srivastav's mindless stand up comedy on two channels simultaneously- Star News and Aaj Tak. The dude has his own show on Aaj Tak! Makes me wonder what ever happened to the Sabse Tez channel? Maybe they realized the they were a tad too fast and if they had to continue, they'd have ended up making up news; which they do most of the times- remember the driverless car story in December 2006! Most film channels have taken it upon themselves to recover money for the producers of films like Nayak, Aamdani Athani Kharcha Rupaiya and Lakeer by repeating them week after week either as 'Friday Fury' 'Sunday Mega Movie' or 'Tea Time Treat'!
My mother finally called the Samsung guys to fix the darn machine. The back panel of the TV was unscrewed to reveal five years worth of dirt giving stiff competition to the dirt on TV channels! Tata Sky threatens to make my life jhinga la-la once again!
But did I miss anything while the TV was comatose?
Not really.
After senselessly surfing the only thing that caught my attention were those teleshopping network advertisements featuring a pipe-puffing Sherlock Holmes look alike who insists that English ain’t a language but a lifestyle and convinced me that my lifestyle sucked!
After fifteen days of no TV what do I see when I finally get on- CNN-IBN's promo departments crowing glory proclaiming that they were the only guys who got it right when their exit polls predicted that Mayawati's BSP would sweep the Uttar Pradesh elections. Dream on dudes! You guys were way off the mark on every other prediction and one mistake being turned into a marketing gimmick ain't impressing me.
I like CNN-IBN; I couldn't stand Rajdeep Sardesai till he was with NDTV, why’d I see someone trying to Prannoy Roy when I can see the real McCoy!? But once Rajdeep Sardesai left NDTV and became his own man I started liking his style. When I see him now, I kind of believe what he says to be the ‘news!’ But that advertisement was a little too much to take. Actually with a slogan like theirs, "Whatever It Takes" (freak predictions coming true included!) nothing surprises me anymore.
All hail Bruce Springsteen, the prophet!
I couldn't agree with him more.
In addition to my radio blues, my TV was out of action for almost two weeks.
Life seemed nice for the two weeks my television was dead; I surfed the Internet more than ever before in addition to almost finishing ICon, the biography of Steve Jobs. But the best thing was, not having to mindlessly surf channels in the pursuit of something half way decent. These days I consider the news channels to be most entertaining.
News is real entertainment for where else can you watch Raju Srivastav's mindless stand up comedy on two channels simultaneously- Star News and Aaj Tak. The dude has his own show on Aaj Tak! Makes me wonder what ever happened to the Sabse Tez channel? Maybe they realized the they were a tad too fast and if they had to continue, they'd have ended up making up news; which they do most of the times- remember the driverless car story in December 2006! Most film channels have taken it upon themselves to recover money for the producers of films like Nayak, Aamdani Athani Kharcha Rupaiya and Lakeer by repeating them week after week either as 'Friday Fury' 'Sunday Mega Movie' or 'Tea Time Treat'!
My mother finally called the Samsung guys to fix the darn machine. The back panel of the TV was unscrewed to reveal five years worth of dirt giving stiff competition to the dirt on TV channels! Tata Sky threatens to make my life jhinga la-la once again!
But did I miss anything while the TV was comatose?
Not really.
After senselessly surfing the only thing that caught my attention were those teleshopping network advertisements featuring a pipe-puffing Sherlock Holmes look alike who insists that English ain’t a language but a lifestyle and convinced me that my lifestyle sucked!
After fifteen days of no TV what do I see when I finally get on- CNN-IBN's promo departments crowing glory proclaiming that they were the only guys who got it right when their exit polls predicted that Mayawati's BSP would sweep the Uttar Pradesh elections. Dream on dudes! You guys were way off the mark on every other prediction and one mistake being turned into a marketing gimmick ain't impressing me.
I like CNN-IBN; I couldn't stand Rajdeep Sardesai till he was with NDTV, why’d I see someone trying to Prannoy Roy when I can see the real McCoy!? But once Rajdeep Sardesai left NDTV and became his own man I started liking his style. When I see him now, I kind of believe what he says to be the ‘news!’ But that advertisement was a little too much to take. Actually with a slogan like theirs, "Whatever It Takes" (freak predictions coming true included!) nothing surprises me anymore.
All hail Bruce Springsteen, the prophet!
Man came by to hook up my cable TV
We settled in for the night my baby and me
We switched 'round and 'round 'til half-past dawn
There was fifty-seven channels and nothin' on…
We settled in for the night my baby and me
We switched 'round and 'round 'til half-past dawn
There was fifty-seven channels and nothin' on…
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