From My Diary - Terror stricken Mumabi

Addendum on Nov 30 th . I sent a mail to ndtv after watching the Barakha Dutt Show.

I am just watching the TV show now " Enough Is Enough " . People are talking about the spirit of Mumabi, Passiveness in our approach etc etc. I have a question to Barakha and people like her, who are asking Where is Raj Thakrey ? And that is : Where were you all TV & Media People , when bomb blast took place through out the country in last two decades ?? Is it simply because the terror has struck the Icons of Mumbai and the elites of Mumbai & foreign conutries ?? Where were you all when the common man was hit time and again ?? Are you not ashamed of bashing the police and blaming them for communilazing the police actions ?? Any way !! let us stop at that. I have put my views and recommendations, in my blog http://nerdynadu.blogspot.com/ , for bringing about systamic changes to ensure that such things do not happen again. Then only we can proudly say We are safe now. But the big question is Will any of these recommendations from a common man be taken seriously and taken cogingence of. These are as under:

The old posting was :

Mumabi has been struck again by terror , and with much more devastating effect. The CST Station, CAMA Hospital, The Taj & Oberoi Hotels and The Nariman House were chosen to impart the maximum impact on life and the economy of the city. Mumbai the nerve centre of financial happenings in the country was crippled for almost 72 hours. Many ( around 200 as of now ) Innocent have lost their lives, many are injured.

What was their mistake or crime ??

Many policemen, NSG commandos and the Marcos ( Marine Commandos ), paramilitary forces and the fire brigadiers had to put their skills and lives on test to save the hostages and the property to the maximum extent possible. Few brave and bright people from the saviors had to give their lives.

What was their mistake or crime ??

None at all.

Is some one responsible and accountable ??

Yes. It is the politicians in power and out side power. They have been callous and indifferent to all such issues : terror, floods, riots, violence etc. We do not have a system to fight any of these calamities hitting us time and and again. Our emergency preparedness and policies are very shoddy and poorly thought out and on top of it highly neglected and un - implemented.

What can or should be done ??

1. All our politicians should take an oath " Yes !! We can and we will " 2. The government should take is to bring all these calamities in the purview of " CENTRE " and should not wait for the respective states to request for assistance. 3. The security cover should only be given to the PM and the President. Then it would make things a little simple to tackle. 4. Make all the paramilitary forces, ATS, NSGs, and MACROS etc completely autonomous and bring then under the ministry of defence. 5. Make two wings in defense : Internal Security and External Security. The Internal security should also have all the three wings - army, air force and navy. The heads of these wings should deploy personnel based on the requirements in each state, depending on the demographic situations, population, area , forests, sea coasts etc. Besides, there should be a central pool of these wings which could be used to augment the needs. 6. They should be given completely free hands to deal with a situation. A proper law should be in place to support them and take corrective actions in case of excesses and unjust acts. 7. They should be allowed to take terminal actions , if and when required. They should also be given a freedom to kill all the terrorists, who are caught alive , after all the interrogations are over . 8. Our intelligence system also should be centralized and the state and central intelligence agencies should be brought under a common body, again responsible to the Ministry of Defence. 9. The media should be banned from making live coverage of such incidences and encounters. A common agency should give information to all the channels and news agencies. this is to avoid confusion, chaos and also to avoid the information passing on to the terrorists. 10. The Internal security persons of all the three wings should be given the latest tools and weapons to deal with any situation. 11. Every security person, the ATS & Police personnel should necessarily wear personnel protective gears in all emergencies. 12. The salaries of all armed forces, police , NSGs etc should be the best in the country. They should have extensive insurance coverage, very attractive pension schemes, housing etc. This will help in attracting the best in the country. Their family persons should be given a fixed amount per month , almost equivalent to their last drawn salary, as pension in case the person lays down his / her life while serving the country for such a cause. 13. Make the military training compulsory, for two years , for all countrymen above the age of 16, be he in the college or not. 14. Above all !! engage the best from amongst the retired army / police / paramilitary forces to draft a policy a law and a system. 15. Hire people from abroad like ex FBI , Scotland Police , CBI etc , as consultants, to recommend a policy to fight terror. 16. Implement the policy at the earliest. If Dr. Amedkar could draft a well made Constitution 6 decades back , why can it not be done now ?? Basically , I feel we and our politicians are lacking the will to tackle this issue.

From My Diary - Talent Hunt

This is a message for the organisers of Sa Re Ga Ma Pa shows conducted for adults and L' ll champs, on the zee marathi channel. In the recent on going show for the l'll champs we saw some good singers getting edged out because of the poor SMS s in their kitty. This is really absurd and criminal injustice. I hope you are not trying to locate a popular singer but a singer who has a great voice and can probably fill up the vacuum when legends like Lata Didi, Asha Didi, Suresh Wadkar etc retire from their active singing career. Zee Marathi talent hunt shows should be different then others for sure. So my humble request is not to fall in to traps of commercialism. I have following suggestions to make : Initial screening and knock out rounds should be decided by the panel of judges only. The process of considering the SMS votes should start when the singers left are 36. The next reduction from 36 to 24 should be decided by judges and SMS in 6 steps. In each step the weightage of SMS should increase by 5 % , starting from 0 % at 36. The shortlisting of 24 best singers should be done by the judges and the SMS based voting in the ratio of 70 : 30 percent The next reduction from 24 to 12 should be done again in 6 steps, but only by judges. The next short listing of 12 singers should be done only by judges on the panel. These are 12 Ratnas. This group of 12 ratnas should have 6 male singers and 6 female singers. We surely need a male and a female singer every year for next decade or so to fill up the vacuum. At this stage you should call Legends in the field of SINGING : Lata, Asha , Hridyanath, Suresh Wadkar, Sonu Nigam, Shakar Mahadevan, Pandit Jasraj, Kisori Amonkar, Ustad Amjad Ali Khan, Abhijeet, Alka Yagnik, Khayam, Kalyanji etc etc. From this stage on every round should have a fixed format first a Hindi Song of singer's choice and then a Marathi song. Marathi Song in a should have only bhav geet, lavni, abhang, natya sangeet, rock or pop, bhajan etc etc in each round. This will ensure that all the singers are prepared for the National Stage which is primarily Hindi - Bollywood and also give an level playing ground because every one will be judged on their exposure and merit in each of the format. When all the forms of Marathi Singing are over, the numbers scored by each singer in all the rounds put together should be arrived at in two categories - marks given by teh regular panel of judges and the marks given by the legends. The weightage should be now 30 % for the regular judges and 70 % for the legends. Based on this pattern top 3 male and top 3 female singers should be short listed. Then there should 3 MEGA Final Rounds - To consider 2 best performances out of 3 for the final selection of a MAHA GAYAK and a MAHA GAYIKA. In these 3 mega final rounds only the marks given by the external judges should be counted. Does it sound complicated ?? If yes, there would be many like me to fix a great format, which would be path breaking and unique. Let others follow us. I think if you follow some pattern like this there would not be any regional bias, commercialism over taking merit etc etc. And we will get a REAL MAHA NAYAK and a MAHA NAYIKA. Thank you, Yours truly, A G Ganu An Avid Marathi Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Fan from Hyderabad Mobile - 9849029904

From My Diary - Regionalism

Today a new dimension , that of regionalism , is set to divide the country. Earlier only the cards of cast and community were being played by the politicians to mislead the common man and garner votes. Now the card of regionalism is making waves. Lalu, Paswan & Nitish kumar who could not see eye to eye have joined hands to fight the problems faced by the North Indians in Mumbai.

No doubt Raj and like minded people erred by raking up this issue and by taking up law in their hands. They could very well have brought a stay either on the way the railway exams were being given preferential treatment or by citing the prevalent rules for recruitment in Maharashtra. They could have done their home work by giving examples of percentage recruitment of people from UP and Bihar in Railways in last 8 / 10 years. Sadly no one is looking at the problem with a right perceptive. As stated in my earlier blog, the government should fix the percentage of people to be recruited from each state on the basis of the population. This bench mark could be reviewed every five years or so and revised if found necessary. Then this problem of Bhai - Bhatijawad or Regional Bias would not have aroused at all.

The more disturbing issue is the fact that this decease is spreading like cancer in all other walks of life too. Take for example sports first. The selectors and the federations in Cricket / Hockey / Badminton etc are biased in their selection. They want to push sports persons from their region. That should , in fact be done if at all , if all shortlisted sportsmen are equal in calibre.

Recruitment in jobs even in private sector gets biased. you would see this kind of a trend in professionally managed companies also like Ranbaxy, Dr. Reddy's , Tatas, Birlas etc.

More recently you see this disturbing trend playing a big role in almost all reality shows. Take for instance any dance or music show on any of the channels. Whenever the SMS based judgment starts , you see the merit getting sidelined and pushed out. Because the Region based SMS do play a bigger role.

I can not understand why some one , who has the conscious and the money , does not file a writ in the courts and brings a BAN on all this non - sense ??

This is certainly dividing us, our minds and our country, step by step.

Addendum: as on Nov 27 th

Now we hear a congressman saying that the potato in the shiv vada - paav ( Shiv Sena's ) is from UP / Bhihar where as their Kanda - Poha , again a marathi dish is purely with maharshtrian ingredients. What level these politicians can stoop to ??

From My Diary - Yes, we can chant

This one is a very good piece . must read for all . it is written by Balbir K. Punj , M P . Did anyone in India hear Isro’s ‘Yes, we can’ chant? The very fortnight when America elected the first African-American as its 44th President, India successfully put a moon probe into orbit and landed a working package on moon. And as President-elect Barack Obama was working on taking over from the incumbent President in Washington, the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) chairman, Dr Madhavan Nair, was displaying to the media pictures of the moon’s surface taken by the Indian package. The media was naturally going all gaga over Isro’s achievement. India is the fourth country in the world to have reached the moon and got back moon’s close-ups. Not just that, the India-designed and constructed launch vehicle that carried the moon package also carried several instrumentation from other countries. This is an international recognition of our space capabilities. We now not only have outer space capabilities but our rockets can also place heavier satellites into precise, pre-determined orbits beyond the earth’s gravity. When we recall that only five years ago we were struggling with our launch vehicles that could not lift off satellites weighing over a ton, Chandrayaan-I marks a quantum jump. Last week, the Obama chant "Yes, we can" was widely quoted in the media as an American affirmation of its people’s self-confidence. But I wonder why the Indian media failed to point out that the success of Chandrayaan-I was an even bigger assertion of India’s self-confidence. The achievement has to be seen in the context of almost four decades of technology denial by the developed world to us. This denial meant that Isro had to develop its own solution to every problem it faced. Even commonly-available components like space grade solar panels, liquid propellants etc were on the banned list for India. For instance, after America imposed strict technology denial regime on India, France withdrew from its earlier commitment to provide a key liquid propellant for the PSLV rocket that Isro was then developing. But Isro scientists didn’t get depressed. They developed their own propellant and came out with an even better and safer method of manufacturing that propellant, though it meant a certain delay in the test flights of PSLV. Now PSLV has become an Indian achievement so much so that various countries, including France, Germany and Italy are entrusting their satellites and instruments for pace journey to India. The slogan "Yes, we can" has reverberated through India’s atomic energy and space establishments for decades. The atomic energy establishment developed India’s own nuclear reactors that have proved to be safer than those in the West, engineered to perfection research reactors like Dhruva that became the envy of the West, innovated new processes of making heavy water and nuclear fuel and even demonstrated a wholly India designed and made second-generation fast breeder reactor. Many in the establishment who were justifiably proud of this string of achievements were sorry that the UPA government changed track and went for western assistance, surrendering our sovereignty in this sensitive area. Space research was another area of demonstration of Indian capabilities. But self-deprecation seems to be a disease with us Bharatiyas. It may be a hangover from the centuries of suppression under foreign invasions. But if this tendency has continued half-a-century after Independence, the blame should rest with the leadership we have had in these decades. The comments after America elected a black man as President reflects this lack of pride in one’s own country and its abilities — especially questions like when will we have an Obama-like leader that are being posed in the media repeatedly. American democracy may be over 200 years old, but much of its shine is of recent origin. Great minds like Jefferson who drafted the Declaration of Independence document, however, ignored the hordes of slaves and them being given the same rights as the whites. It took another 100 years to free them from bondage and almost another 100 years to give them real voting rights. In our country, the Independence movement brought a declaration of equality before law for all, including women and the so-called scheduled castes. Voting rights to women was a 20th century development in western Europe. When the leaders of India’s Independence movement started drafting the Constitution they elected the brilliant B.R. Ambedkar to chair the drafting committee despite his caste background — thereby declaring the end of discrimination based on caste. Despite the ringing declaration of human rights in the Jefferson Document, Protestant America continued to exclude people from minority white groups like Catholics from its highest office. It was only in 1960 that a Catholic John F. Kennedy dared to contest and win the highest office of the land. America is secular but even today it would not dare to elect a non-Christian to any high office. Contrast this with what our own democracy has achieved within the first 60 years of its inception: Women as chief ministers, and even Prime Minister. Muslim as President, thrice, and chief ministers in several Hindu-majority states, a Sikh as Prime Minister — the demonstration of empowerment of people belonging to minority groups, women and scheduled castes and tribes, all within such a short time after a liberal Constitution was adopted reflect not only a legal loyalty to its guiding principles but also the Hindu mindset that accepts these basic principles as sacred. This larger acceptance, of course, does not necessarily mean the end of discrimination or caste and gender oppression. But just think of any Islamic country electing a non-Muslim to the highest office! Areas of darkness notwithstanding, India’s overall record is one of principles of liberalism in action. To ignore such a shining record of political achievement would only increase gloom and is basically wrong. Amidst so much self-deprecation after the Obama effect, one TV advertisement is worth mentioning. It reminds us that we as a people were the first to teach the world how to count (Aryabhatta), first to come out with a textbook on surgery (Susruta), first to demonstrate wireless communication (Jagdish Bose) and the first to develop non-violence as a political weapon (Mahatma Gandhi). This ad is a warm and commendable affirmation of our national ethos and justifiable pride as an ancient nation reborn in a young democracy. Millions of hard-working Indians are busy building a new India, declaring at the top of their voice India’s new found confidence that "Yes, we will". And much before Mr Obama and American said that.

मेरा भी टी वी पर इंटरव्यू - एक ख्वाब

टी वी पर अरुनव - सौरव गांगुली का इंटरव्यू देखते देखते सो गया। फिर ख्वाब देखा । अरुनव गोस्वामी ने मेरा इंटरव्यू लिया । कुछ इस तरह रहा : प्र : तीन दशकों से ज्यादा काम करने के बाद कुछ थकान ?? ऊ : बिल्कुल भी नही । प्र : कैसा रहा आप का सफर ?? ऊ : काफ़ी उतार चढाव देखे । प्र : कुछ ख़ास अनुभव ?? ऊ : नौकरी में आप नौकर ही रहते हैं , वही रहिये , मालिकों की तरह मत सोचिये । प्र : पर कहा जाता है की यदि आप मालिकों की तरह सोचेंगे , काम करेंगे तो ही शत प्रतिशत या ज्यादा योगदान कर पाएंगे । आप को क्या लगता है ?? ऊ : आप को वही और उतना ही करना चाहिए , जिसकी आप को तनख्वाह मिलती है । प्र : ऐसा नकारात्मक रवैया ?? ऊ : ज्यादा करके कोई तमगे भी तो नही मिले मुझे ?? प्र : कोई कटु अनुभव ?? ऊ : बहुत । हर नौकरी के बाद यही लगा कि मुझे इस्तमाल किया गया । प्र : कोई सीख ?? ऊ : हाँ । जिंदगी भर बेवकूफी की , अब तो सुधरो , गानू । प्र : सब से सुनहरे क्षण ?? ऊ : रेनबेक्सी और बी ई का सफर । प्र : कुछ विस्तार से बताएँगे ?? ऊ : रेनबेक्सी ने मुझे एक पहचान दी और बी ई ने उसे मजबूती दी । प्र : छोड़ते वक्त कैसा लगता है ?? ऊ : बहुत शांत । प्र : आगे क्या ?? ऊ : मंजिले औ र्भी हैं । प्र : मसलन ?? ऊ : परिवार के लिए क्वालिटी टाइम , वाचन, भारत दर्शन, चित्र कला , लेखन और जीविका के लिए थोड़ा सा काम और शिक्षण । प्र : लेखन ?? ऊ : प्रोजक्ट मैनेजमेंट पर लिखना है । प्र : शिक्षण ?? ऊ : हाँ । बहुत शौक है पढाने का । अपने अनुभव बाटने हैं । प्र: रवि के हाथों में बागडोर देख कैसा लगा । ऊ : बी ई प्रोजेक्ट्स का भविष्य सुरक्षित है । अरुनव ने अपना इंटरव्यू इधर ही खत्म किया । और एक आखिरी सवाल किया । प्र : इस तस्वीर में आप को आप के साथी कंधे पर उठाकर ले जा रहे हैं । ऊ : अरे क्यों मजाक कर रहे हो भाई। वह तो गांगुली है । देखो । यह कह कर मैंने अरुनव का मुह टी वी की तरफ फेरने की कोशिश की । इसी समय मेरी पलक खुली । पता लगा ये तो एक ख्वाब था।

PAWAN KHIND, Karde & Keshavraj Temple – Travelogue

PAWAN KHIND, Karde & Keshavraj Temple – Travelogue This time we invited Nandana's newly formed family members ( her husband - Naveen and her in - laws - Mrs. & Mr. Narayanan Iyer ) to Pune. It was Nandana's first Diwalsan. We all started from Hyderabad on October 24th and reached Pune in the morning on Oct 25th. Next day, we all went to Kalyan to Meena's ( my Wife's ) Maaher, as her aging mother and maushi wanted to meet the family and bless the newly weds on the occasion of Diwali. We returned back to Pune on the same day. We then celebrated Diwali at Pune. We started our Konkan Yatra on October 28th. We spent our next two days at Amba Ghat, at Pawan Khind Resort owned by Mr. Prakash Shirgaonkar. He is an IIT Grad, and his wife ( Mrs. Madhuri ) is an architect. I must say that they are doing a fabulous job. Their meticulous planning and organizing capabilities is simply awesome. We reached there at about 1 in the afternoon. So their well trained people asked us to freshen up and join others for a sumptuous hot lunch. We obeyed them because it suited us too. In the meanwhile their people shifted our luggage in the rooms. We had an afternoon siesta for an hour or so. They gave us a guide to take us to a nearby stop dam. We all had great fun. We jumped in the water body with our pants, as we had not planned swimming. Baban ( my elder brother ) who is known for his heroics, jumped in with his mobile in the pocket. Poor thing ( the mobile ) drowned, so to say. Luckily it could be brought back to life by heating up in the sun in the next couple of days. They organize evening get together in their amphitheatre from 7.30 PM onwards, till the dinner time. It was really nice to see un known people mingling and making newer friendships. A girl performed a dance to the tune ( radha hi bawari hari chi ). Anupama ( my younger daughter sang a Hindi and a Marathi song. There were skits too, poem recital and what not. In the end they put on the item numbers and almost all joined the dance party. In fact that break way from the inhibitions helped us come closer and also increased our appetite. Next day we had a guided tour of Pawan Khind, in their modified jeeps, which had roof tops built on top. The Gen - Next with few of us from the Gen – Previous grabbed the vintage seats on the top. This was a unique safari type of an experience. The experience at Pawan Khind was overwhelming, just to visualize how Bajiprabhu Deshpande could have fought the enemy ( 1000 or so horse ridden soldiers ) with only 300 Maratha soldiers and ensured that Shivaji reached the Viajaygadh fort safely. We were all gasping for breath to walk down and come up and there these people fought battle with arms and ammunitions and ensured that the king was allowed safe passage to Viajaygadh. Geographically the fort must be about 5 / 6 kms crow flying distance away from this place, and that too in the mountain ghats, with no roads, in the month of June - July when we have heavy rains in the region even now. So imagine those days, around 300 odd years ago. I salute them all and say “ Hats off ” to the valor of Shivaji and his men. Not for nothing Shivaji and all his committed soldiers are worshiped even today. We all had a bath under the water fall at Pawan Khind. We stopped on the way back in thick forest for a jungle lunch with barbeque starters. There too we could see the stamp of their organizing capabilities. There were tarpaulin sheets spread in plain areas for each group. All the arrangements were made. Placards with leader surnames in each family / group were displayed to avoid confusion and chaos. We started with barbequed potatoes, capsicum, corn , onions etc as starters, and ended up with a sumptuous lunch with sweets and taak ( butter milk ). It goes with out saying that a siesta followed. Our resort was about 6 kms from there. Few of the daredevils and calorie conscious people from all the generations and groups , who had probably a little too heavy lunch and wanted to burn a few calories, decided to walk down. In fact they did not want to miss out on dinner too. Others got in and on the jeeps and returned. We again had a great evening at the open air theatre. Luckily we had a group ( Mr. Joshis’ ) who had shubhada ( saa re ga ma little champ fame ) and her brother. They both enthralled every one with their sweet melodies. Neela Tai ( Meena’s Eldest Sister ) and Anupama also gave brilliant performances. A sumptuous dinner was waiting for all of us. We all, who had burnt our calories and who had not, just cut loose and had a feast. Marathit mantat na tase agdi tutun padlo. Next day, after break fast, we started on our next leg of the trip, to Karde. It took us about 4 hours to reach. We checked in the resort on the sea beach, freshened up and had lunch. We walked out of our rooms after a nap at about fivish, in the evening. The beach was calling us all. We had a good time in the sea. Samudraat Mansokt khel lo. Some of the women folk in the group were happy watching, giving instructions, cautioning and shouting and preventing us to go deeper inside the sea. Next day again we started on our last leg of the trip. On the way, We covered Kadya Varcha Ganapati, Ganus’ Kul Dev ( Narsimha Temple ) at Sangamshwar, lord Shiva’s & Kartikey’s temple on the sangam of river Varuna and Alaknanda at Sagameshwar, Kul Devi ( Durga Temple ) at Murud, and the famous Kehsav Raj Temple. We had lovely home made lunch at Mr. Vaidya’s place near Dapoli on the way. We started our return at about 4 in the evening and touched Pune at about 10 in the night. The road through the tamhani ghat was horrible ( to put it mildly ). Thus a nice short trip was over in no time. It was all together a different experience for the Iyers. He was full of praise for the Shirgaonkar hospitality, arrangements, food quality etc. He liked the Konkan area, its food, the kokum sarbat, the mango juice at Keshav Raj and almost every thing. Nandana’s father in law gave a finishing line by saying that he had not enjoyed so much in his 61 years of experience. That sums up all.