PRG's Thoughts

Since this is the first year of my blog, I have never written a year end blog before. I figured why not join the rest of the world and make lists. So here are my awards for 2009... Politician of the Year- Rahul Gandhi I am still at odds on whether I like the man or not, but what can you say, he got it done this year. The Congress dominated the national elections and there is no doubt that Rahul Gandhi's tireless travels played a huge role in their clear cut win. Since the win he has not stopped being in the news either. His "hanging with the people" strategy is interesting and fresh. I still can't tell if it is genuine, political, strategic or actually something revolutionary in our country. Whatever it is, it caught my eye. Will be interesting to see if the current fall out in Andhra Pradesh hurts his party and more interesting to see if he continues to reach out to the people in 2010. Honorable Mention- Kapil Sibal (For the revolution he is starting in education. If...

The Left is gone the Left is gone. My flu is still here but the Left is gone. And if I had to choose between tolerating a fever for a few more days or tolerating the Left for a few more years I would choose the former. Here are some initial thoughts on the results, the winners, losers and the lessons we learned. I would love some comments here, because I could be way off the mark in my assessments and would love to get your perspective. Here we go  Yay for Stability - As I mentioned in my last blog I was alright with either the UPA or NDA coming in to power, but was only concerned about the partners they would have to choose. The Congress' performance took that concern and flung it out of the window. We will now have a stable government. And with no Left holding a gun to their head every time they want to do anything progressive, the UPA will be able to govern freely and hopefully implement some economic policies that the Left would not let them. The Congress - Whether you like the...

As I sit here at home with fever that is always on the move from 102 to 99 and then back up to 102.5, I notice that my fever is as inconsistent as the exit polls that are being shown on the news. UPA with 200+ seats and another channel with NDA with 200+. Then you turn it on a little later and the numbers have been reversed. The seat counting will end tomorrow, as I hope will my battle with the flu.   A lot of scenarios are being presented for what will happen in the next few days. The range of possibilities being shown is so wide that the number of Prime Ministerial candidates is more than the number of different opening batsman that the Mumbai Indians are trying out. Anyone could be PM.  But all said and done, at the moment, most people will say that either the UPA or NDA will form the government NO THIRD FRONT. Thank God for that one. Knowing that the third front will not come in to power is a major relief. And frankly, I am alright with either the UPA or the NDA. Yet, there still i...

Small tidbits of news that kept me entertained the last few days. Slumdog Kids, more election banter, IPL and sports in general. Random thoughts with no real focus. Did you hear about the Slumdog Kids? They excelled in their exams ...YAY!!!....... Frankly, who gives a sh*t. I don't mean to be rude to the kids, they were the best part of the movie, but seriously, I don't care how they scored in their exams. More importantly, by printing the exam results of these kids the press is really invading in to their privacy. Leave them alone guys, its not fair and its quite boring to read too. Let them lead their lives. How would you like it if your kids exam results were printed in the paper? Rahul Gandhi got himself in a nice little soup with the press conference the other day. He managed to offend some of the Congress's allies. Now Congress party members are saying he will not be part of the post-poll alliance discussions. Wow, threw the bugger under the bus right away huh Congr...

The great thing about a democracy is that you get what you vote for. There is no confusion, no way around it, no way to say that this person should not be our leader. You get what you deserve. In India's case this applies as well. We get what we deserve. And with only 41.28% of Mumbai's voters coming out to vote on April 30th, we are going to get what we deserve again. 41.28%? Is that even a number? I was out of town this weekend (I left after voting) when a friend messaged me the turnout. I was disgusted. This is the same city that fed the country bull sh** about how we need change, how it is time for citizens to come out and take a stand, make a difference, be the change...What a crock of nonsense that was from the citizens of Mumbai. You know what the change was? 41.28% voted on April 30th which is less than the 47.15% that voted in 2004.  I am from South Mumbai, born and raised, and I have to say, we Mumbaikars are pathetic. You remember the candle light vigils post 26/11, ...

Read some stories in the paper today found them quite amusing and confusing. Wrote up some random thoughts on them. Hope you find them as amusing and confusing as I did. Karuna's fast Alright this might be mean and silly because it was "supposedly for a good cause", but did anyone else find Karunanidhi's 6 hour fast hilarious? If you see the pictures in the TOI you might see the humor in it. Now, I am not debating whether this fast was for a good cause or whether it was a political move to get votes. What I do think is that it was down right hilarious. Picture this if you will (and read it in a suspense filled tone). It is 6 am, Karunanidhi, a pretty "healthy" man (ok fine he is fat) lays down, as if he is Mahatma Gandhi, on a bed, ready to sacrifice his life for the Tamil's. The tension in the air is sickening. He is surrounded by his family and supporters all hoping that he will break his fast or that the violence in Sri Lanka will be halted, else thi...

While I do admire that Mrs. Meera Sanyal took it upon herself to be an instrument of change, I just wish the instrument was better tuned before it began playing in the orchestra. When it comes to representing south Mumbai and being a member of parliament, I am afraid Meera Sanyal is in unfamiliar waters and it is clear that she has no idea what she is doing. I had the opportunity to hear Mrs. Meera Sanyal, Mr. Milind Deora (Congress), Mr. Mohan Rawale (Shiv Sena), Dr. Mona Shah (Professionals Party of India) and Mr. Bala Nandgaonkar (MNS) speak at an event organized at Altamount Road in South Mumbai this evening. It was a great platform for voters to meet their candidates and get to know what they are all about. I was most curious to see what Meera Sanyal was like. Much has been said about this lady and she seems to be gathering support in some circles. Needless to say she was drastically disappointing.   Five minutes in to her speech it was easy to judge that she was clueless on ...

Dear Friends,   If you are feeling down and depressed and need something to cheer you up, don't bother with re-runs of Friends and Seinfeld. Just pick up a paper and read the great manifesto that the Samajwadi  Party  (SP) has laid out for India. I guarantee that you will laugh till it hurts. As far as howlers go, this one is an all time classic. While most political manifestos and policies aim to move the country forward, this is the first one I remember reading about that aims to move the country backward. To sum it up, the party is against computers and mechanized farming. They want to abolish the use of english in education, administration and the judiciary and my personal favorite abolish stock trading. Computers create unemployment, is the logic of Shri Mulayam Singh Yadav, the party's national president. He said that where computers are not necessary things should be done manually as it would lead to job creation. The party has used the same logic of computers on mechani...

Shouldn't there be a law that traitors are not allowed to run for public office? I certainly think so. We do have laws that criminals are not allowed to run, of course most criminals manage to find their way around that law, so I guess then why not traitors. Former Indian Cricket Captain Mohammed Azharuddin is going to be running on a Congress ticket from Moradabad . This is a man who had sold out India time and time again and he is running to be part of our Government. Not only is he running but he is also going to be traveling the country to ask for votes for his party. This is like Benedict Arnold running for President of the United States. Yes yes, I know, there are plenty of questionable characters already in the political world who have been involved in corruption, inciting violence and sometimes even alleged murders. Parties however see a guaranteed seat victory and so overlook these crimes and field these candidates who eventually do get elected. Let me be clear here (befor...

With BJP losing the South Mumbai seat to Shiv Sena most pundits believed that Milind Deora had locked up his second election. Not so fast though, the South Mumbai race is getting interesting. The Shiv Sena has fielded Mohan Rawale a sitting MP from the South Central Mumbai constituency, part of which has been relocated to be part of South Mumbai. The BSP is also apparently fielding a candidate in South Mumbai who is supposed to eat in to the votes of the sitting MP. Seems like a regular election right? Well all that changed these past few days. Meera Sanyal, the head of ABN Amro Bank, announced her candidacy for the South Mumbai seat. In addition to this Dr. Mona Patel Shah announced her intention to run and she is supported by the Professionals Party of India , a relatively new party that is gaining some momentum with the political unrest in the city post the Mumbai attacks of last November. Few thoughts. Firstly, congratulations to both Mrs. Sanyal and Dr. Shah. A lot of people we...