Horrendous 2008!

By Manish Anand

Finally, horrendous 2008 is few hours away from coming to an end. The year turned out to be a thriller straight out to be from a page turner fiction. The year bids adieu to all with strong warning not to be callous with their fundamentals. It will take a minimum four years to undo the damage done by the year 2008. The only silver lining is the new man in the US, Barrack Hussain Obama, who will take charge of the world's sole superpower, after managing a mandate for change.

The world started shaking with the world wide stock market beginning to tank, while it ended with the world glueing to the television sets to watch the horrendous dance of murderous designs of Pakistan with posh hotels in Mumbai becoming the stage. In between, Bihar saw itself drawning in the mother of all floods with millions turning refugees.



All the crises caught the world with its pants down. The US led to the world economic crisis with its sub-prime crisis, which landed all the economies into the trap of a financial tsunami. Obama holds the promise to bring the world out of the hole that the arrogant financial management of his predecessor led to, though nothing short of a magic will ensure that in a short span of time.



Pakistan had been a blot on the world map, and it continues to be so. The lenient world has been tolerating it for one pretext or the other though its misdemeanour warranted out to smashed out much earlier. Pakistan, the rough baby of the US, is now out to destroy all the advances made by the world thanks to the sanctuary of the bearded and ugly monsters, so called jihadists, that it has nurtured over the decades.



Indian leaders proved to be the shame for the people. Though none to be spineless, the politicians of the country are threatening to drown the country into the Bay of Bengal, if a new breed does not replace them at an earliest time.



Worst had been the electronic channels of the country, who have proved through their deeds that they had been trained at best to play the monkey sports, as they continue with their monkey business with no remorse.

Hope that 2009 does not turn out to be another year of monkey dance.

Cupid stupid !

By Manish Anand

The world dreams of love, as it’s scarce. The government can not ration it, as its beyond rules.

Few days ago one of my friends called me, as he wanted to come to my place. He was at my place before I reached, and was struck to see him.

The face was dull as if being soaked in too much of tears, the eyes swollen as if he had not slept even the bare minimum, and the beard sprouting in wild ways. He presented himself a broke. I did not lose much time to know his trouble. Let’s give him a fictitious name -- Sameer.

After settling down, I asked what the matter is. “Boss, she is not picking up my call. I have not slept for two days, and had been calling her for hours.”

Sameer had always been shy with me. So, it was unexpected that he opened his heart. I was not able to concentrate, as my thoughts were too preoccupied with the losses suffered in the stock market in the day.

“It was she who was desperate to have a relation with me. I did not take initiative. Now, after I spent two years with her she says that she is no more interested in me.”

“She was in Class XI when she started calling me. I always told her that she was 10 years younger, so the relation could not be feasible. Despite that she kept calling me always and at last I said yes.” Sameer taught in a coaching institute, where this girl had studied.

So what went wrong, I ask. “Now, she is in an engineering college, where she is having crushes on a couple of guys. She says she wants to be free from me.”

“Then leave her, as I don’t think you force someone in love,” I gave my wise advice.

“How can I leave her, I have spent two years with her. I fulfilled all her needs. Whenever she asked me to recharge her mobile pre-paid card, I did. I dropped her home, whenever she asked for. She used to call me all evening and I talked to her all night despite having classes in the morning.”

He had lost his father last year, and I had not seen so much of pain in him even at that time. My monosyllabic advices had no takers. Meanwhile, another friend dropped in. Let’s call him Vijay.
Vijay has always been short in having free time, as his girl friend has no other work in the world than to call him. He sensed the matter without wasting much time, and told him that he better get off from all such affairs!

To add strength to his sermons, Vijay told him that he wished his girlfriend left him so that he could be free. “But she says she would commit suicide, if I left her,” Vijay said with his chest curling in an awkward manner.

“I would not leave her,” Sameer repeated.

The dinner in the meantime was ready and after eating my heart out I signed off from the love-gone-haywire story.

The next day was my weekly off from my job. But I was not blessed with my best vocation in the world – sleeping. Sameer had come again. He was fresh and looked energetic. He had a story to tell. Journalists are always interested in a new story, not the old and stale ones.

“I taught her a lesson,” he chukled in with the smoke coming quite forcefully from his rather twisted mouth.

What did you do? I was little concerned. “I went to her college. I asked her to come out, after which she came out with friends.” He was taking too long time to tell the story. “When she came to me I caught hold of her. I started kissing her, while her friends looked on.” Sameer is 32-year-old, and his acts looked too daring for his age.

“She ran away to her friends, protesting my getting close to her. So, I drove near her friends, and again caught hold of her.”

He was breathing too deeply, giving a sense that he had pride in what he did. “She asked me to sit in the car, feeling embarrassed for my acts, promising that she would join me in the car. I obeyed, and she sat in the car, after which I kept roaming on Delhi’s roads.”

Sameer wanted to live his moments and relished his exploits with much heavier puffs.

“I kicked her out of the car right in the middle of the road after an hour of driving here and there, saying the she was free from me now. She started crying how she would go home, after which I threw four five-hundred notes at her. She did not pick the notes, but I kicked her out and sped away.” Baap re, what happened to the man’s chivalry?, I chuckled.

“She had been calling me since then, and now I refuse to pick her calls.”

Why did you throw her out? “She said that she was getting crushes on few guys, and I was too old for her now.” These were the words after which Sameer stopped his car near a flyover.

“Now, I am relived. I have taken my revenge. It was I who said no to her after she said that she could revive the relationship if I granted her the freedom to talk to the college boys and have an affair with one of them.”

Blasts, encounters, arrests and questions...

By Manish Anand

Like a jigsaw puzzle, the questions related to Delhi serial blasts and its consequences seem to have been cracked. An encounter followed by arrests of so many suspects one by one must add to the sheen of the cops, and most importantly to the much battered home minister Shivraj Patil.

If the claim of the police is true of having cracked the case of the Delhi serial blasts and other similar blasts in other cities, the heartiest congratulation goes to the cops. But in a free and democratic society, people have all the right to raise questions, which should not be brushed aside by authorities.

The police must have been forthcoming with the postmortem reports of its officer M C Sharma along with the slain accused of the terror blasts. The ballistic report along with the postmortem reports of all the dead in the Friday encounter at Batla House can put to rest all speculative stories doing rounds in the capital about the way the shoot-out happened.

Why one of the slain accused had more than five bullet marks on skull and top of the shoulder along with how Sharma got the fatal hits are the questions that must be credibly answered to put to rest doubts doing rounds in the narrow lanes of Jamia Nagar. Also, why Sharma had to be helped to walk after being hit, with no back-up force available to reach him to the nearest hospital which is within the radius of one kilometer of the spot of the deadly encounter.

Unauthentic stories will only harm the interests of security agencies, and care must be taken to ensure that non-suspects are not detained as a fallout of collateral damage. The arrests in Mumbai along with raids in Azamgarh, which if the reports are to be believed is turning out to be breeding ground of home-grown terror, have taken place quite fast. The police could be having a water-tight case against the accused, and if it's so all the states should act at the same speed to smash the remaining terror modules in the country.

But if the claims of the cops come untrue at any point of time, the Delhi encounter will become too big a blot to erase.

The cost of being Incredibly callous: Blasts after blasts

By Manish Anand

Delhi saw another macabre dance of deaths on Saturday. The politicos again appealed people to be calm and peaceful. The terror mail sent to media again made fun of Indian intelligence agencies. The incredibly incompetent Home Minister Shivraj Patil visited the blast spots and "reassured" his cops that the incompetency in the system flows from the top. The deaths of the innocents are "learning experiences" for this minister and his callous department. But Patil is too old to learn the siege within the nation.

It was only in 2005 that Delhi was ripped apart with the triple Diwali blasts. Three years later Delhi's pain is shared by Bangalore, Jaipur, Ahmedabad...The 2005 blast case is not yet cracked. The 60,000 strong Delhi Police remains clueless on how to protect the capital city of 17 million. They have to thank the rag-pickers', who found three more live bombs in Delhi, for saving people's lives.

"Right to Life" is a fundamental right under the Constitution of India. It's in the holy book only, to put it straight. The onlookers at the blast spot in the GK's M-Block market said people have started avoiding market places on the weekends for the fear of terror blasts. The people now live in fear. The trust in the security agencies has gone. Though we desist from the blamegame, the "why" can not be ignored. And this "why" can not be answered, because Patil can not own his shameful incompetency.

The siege within the nation is getting more palpable. The muslims have not risen to the challenge to crush the seed of the terror within their community. The primary onus lies with the community to co-ordinate with the local police. No explanations will suffice for them being a mute spectator. Already whispers within the software industry is doing the rounds to curb the entry of muslims, after the suspect mastermind of the terror attacks turned out to be a techie. It must be nipped in the bud before the siege within the nation further deepens.

Mr Patil, can you please make ways for any man worth his salt, as your callousness has already taken too many lives. Thanks very much for your services, now please move out for God's sake.

Now, deliver on dreams

By Manish Anand

So, the deal is done. Now, it's time to deliver on the dreams sold (successfully or unsuccessfully)to the people. The NSG waiver for Indo-US nuclear deal, "snatched" with the Big Brother using arm-twisting to the perfection, gives India the opportunities to source critical nuclear technology from all over the world.

In 20 years time, India's dependence on oil should cease. The largest network of the trains in the world must run on nuclear power. India must contribute significantly in the process of reducing carbon emission, notwithstanding the arguments of the developing world. The industry must get round the clock power at affordable rate. The nuclear power should not come at a price that consumers find hard to buy them, as Rs 16 a unit at the current rate and much higher 20 years down the line would break the bone of the consumers. The nuclear energy must be indigenised at the highest possible level.

I had been critical of the Indo-US nuclear deal in my posts. But I do not hold to the views that with this deal India would not be able to protect Iran from US's bullying tactics. For India, India should be important. The romantic world views of the JL Nehru practiced by the successive governments led India nowhere. The country is badly hemmed in with the hostile neighbours China, Pakistan, Bangladesh which will soon get the company of Nepal also. India must assert itself.

The euphoria of the proponents of the deal that India got it without signing the Non-proliferation treaty (NPT) and Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) is all eyewash. The deal along with its auxiliary appendage has got India to accept both NPT and CTBT. Not much harm in that, by the way.But the nuclear commerce and the resultant strategic relations must be multilateral and should not be just US specific. India is irrevocable integrated with the US economically and it is both ways. The business interests of the two countries will ensure the safety of the deal, but it must be matured at the highest political level. This would come only if India becomes economically, politically and militarily strong.

The fear of India becoming a banana countries was too sadistic but the political sovereignty of the country needs to be redressed and the country must state convincingly that it will not provide help to any of the military pursuits of the US anywhere.The next decade looks too exciting with the country showing signs of growing out of the old fatigues.

Discredited polity !

By Manish Anand

Indian polity stands discredited, with the leakage of the letter of the US President George W Bush to the Congress, which is purportedly in variance with what the Indian Parliament has been told by the Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh on the Indo-US nuclear deal. The Congress led UPA has to face the charge of discrediting the Indian polity. Dr Manmohan Singh had staked his personal prestige to the Indo-US nuclear deal.

Even before the NSG takes a final call in giving the clean waiver to India for nuclear commerce, the Prime Minister faces the threat of misleading tha nation and he must come clean on the damaging reports which have come in the media on the issue.

Is it worth pursuing a multi-billion dollar deal which can be jeopardised at the subjective assessment of the US? Who will take care of the nuclear plants lying idle for want of supply of fuel?

The UPA is falsely boasting the support of the majority of the Indians for the deal by cobbling up more "ayes" than the "nos" during the trust vote on July 22. It "bought" at least a dozen MPs, with its surprising new friend Mulayam Singh Yadav and Amar Singh doing the "dirty" job by buying out the opposition MPs. The world saw that the MPs were on sale but the PM was in all hurry to wrap up the deal.

The madness struck Congress is even making this Indo-US nuclear deal a poll issue in the forthcoming general elections with all disregard to the sanity of the popular elections. Did Congress win a single elections on the basis of Rajiv Gandhi heralding the computer revolution? This government had much bigger crisis to handle than to single-mindedly pursuing this Indo-US nuclear deal, which promises Dr Singh and his coterie a place on the "high table", as told by Bush to Singh.

Every Prime Minister must have a legacy to be remembered is the oft repeated rationale given by the political pundits for the passion of Singh for this deal. He could have left much bigger legacy if he had found a permanent solution to the ravages of the river Kosi which has left 2.5 million people in Bihar homeless. This deal must pass through the objective test of the Parliament, which is definitely not through by winning over Amar Singh and getting the saleable MPs on its side.

The Parliament session must be convened at the earliest to seek a fresh mandate or rather let it wait for the next government to make a call.

Indian polity was never so discredited as it's today. Do we feel more pride after the "cash for vote" scandal and brandishing of green notes embossed with Mahatma Gandhi's picture on them in the Parliament. Certainly not!

When govts fails, people keep hope afloat

By Manish Anand

Resilience is the word. This makes the people of Bihar a class apart. An unmeasurable human crisis is looking straight into the eyes of more than 2.5 million people in the state. But when the government fails to keep the promises, the people keep the hope afloat. This is the state of the affairs of the state facing the wrath of the turbulent river Kosi.

Nepal has reportedly acknowledged its laxity in keeping the Indian side posted with the state of the embankment on Kosi. This nation was too busy with the guerrilla Maoists just recently fighting the nation taking command of its government. It did not bother the implications of its criminal laxity.

People in Bihar are turning out quite large-hearted. Even the poor are contributing in their own manners for the relief of the affected. The gates of Dharamshalas have been thrown open at most of the places. The divide of the religion and caste has been breached, at least for the moment.

The Rashtriya Sevak Sangh (RSS), always the whipping boy of the "secularists", has come out to provide succor to the people in distress ably. Its front, Seva Bharti, which is manned by the foot-soldiers of the RSS is keeping the hope of the battered people afloat with its relief camps across the state. It's heartening to know that other voluntary organisations are flocking to it in their bits to share the sorrow of the millions of the distressed.

However, the current of the river Kosi is too strong to lift the gloomy picture. It's flowing at a much alarming speed, with the heavy rains set to cast a pall of gloom not only on the state machinery but also to the people who are looking into bleak future.

The government's response has been too inadequate and too late. The official figure of the death toll though is in double digit, the talk in the state is of thousands of deaths. If that was not enough, the epidemic, with the carcass of human and animal bodies floating in the river, is threatening to inflict its own toll.

The government both at the Centre and state must match the resilience of the people, lest their credibilty shoud take the sever beating.

(The picture is of The Action Aid, an NGO.)

Know Kosi, know Bihar, know its curse

By Manish Anand

The truth of the damage of Bihar flood will take long time to come in the public domain. Flood is inundation of the human habitats, and people of Bihar grow with this experience. The outsiders can not understand it, as they do not know the pain and agony of being homeless and without food for days. Unfortunately, the people of Bihar, particularly of the districts affected in the current "catastrophic" flood, have always lived with the curse of the river Kosi, which has lived to its epithet of the sorrow of the state.

Thanks to The Times of India the nation came to know of the disasters in Bihar, as it dedicated a full page on the river Kosi which has reportedly left more than 25 lakh people homeless and without food as well. That's a hard thing to happen, anywhere in the world without a shred of doubt.

A non-journalist friend called and asked what the media is doing that there is no coverage at all in Delhi's paper. A real shame ! It reacted too late only when the state chief minister Nitish Kumar came to Delhi to explain the gravity of the situation. Poor chap, he was referring to the satellite images of 2004 pointing major breach in the embankment on the river Kosi on the Nepal side. The Central government had no time to take corrective measures.

The people outside Delhi always abuse Biharis for crowding their cities. They should rather blame the river kosi which every year inundates the parts of the state from where people leave to other parts of the country to earn their bread and butter.

A Bihar minister told me that people in hundreds are taking refuge on the rooftop of any pucca building. The areas with acute poverty have mostly mud-thatched homes which easily wash away in floods. Even the state government is not aware of the number of people having been washed away. Add to that the warning that in the next three months the situation will only aggravate as more than 20 lakh cusecs of water will be released compared to the current 1.46 lakh cusecs of water.

The Indian government had been busy pushing through its Indo-US nuclear deal, while the river Kosi was preparing to spell a pall of doom on Bihar. The nuclear deal is important as India needs more sources of power. It's a different story that it could never think of tapping the hydro power that the rivers originating from Nepal have the potential of. Despite the floods being an annual feature, the Indian government remains clueless to solve the perennial problem. It's a criminal negligence on the part of the Indian government that more than 25 lakh people in Bihar look into a dark future, plagued with water borne diseases, hunger, deaths, destruction of livelihood, and everything that life is all about.

The scale of rehabilitation once the relief and rescue operations are completed will be too monumental for the state government to undertake. As the course of the river Kosi has changed which now takes away the hundred years of human habitats, there will be need to develop new villages altogether. That will easily break the bone of any of the state government.

After a month the people outside the state will forget the curse of Bihar. The poor state will be left to its fate. And another 20 lakh people will head to other states in search of livelihood and safe shelters. That's the story of hundreds of years which took the Biharis away from the state.

(The photograph is of Aftab Alam Siddiqui/Associated Press. Apology for using the photograph without permission.)

Auto, bus, maan...behan...: ye hai meri Dilli !!!

By Manish Anand

To know Delhi, you must travel in an auto or a blueline bus. Radio-cab or a taxi wont be of much help. A city like Delhi always invites you to know her more. It hardly matters if you have been here for a decade, like me. And Saturdays are something different, I presume.

Part of Mayawati's weekend "fanda", this Saturday too, I had to be at her function for the whole day and to check for the political ramifications of her nuances. Her staff were take the journalists from Connaught Place to Greater Noida, hence I did not have to take my vehicle.

In Green Park, an autowalla agreed to ply on meter. As I was smoking (I really want to quit it. It's terrible and the most horrible thing one can lay hand on.), the autowallah also slipped out to buy a cigarette. No problem. When asked, why the meter was showing Rs 10, a blunt poser came. Are you boarding an auto for the first time? A real stunner!

When did I board an auto last time? I could not recall. But yes, I vividly recalled, a six-year-old incident when going to see off my father one fine morning in an auto the sleepy driver had hit the road divider near the Dilli Gate, with the three-wheeler turning off and my father sustaining an internal fracture.

I think too much and, sometimes, I get really tired of it. The auto left me to go on a thought hunt. My autowallah was fully charged up in the meantime and his maan... behan... had started shooting off at any vehicle daring to kiss her green sawari.

I laid my eyes on a couple buying tickets for entry into Safdarjung Madrassa, old women idling away their time on the pavements, the new red-colour AC buses full of advertisements, the roads threatening to cave in, cameras installed to zoom in on red-light breaker and many others.

However, the auto had started jurking. The autowallha had nearly hit a car or the four-wheeler would have hit him to which he had all the maan...behan... shooting off like the war cries. He would have hit at least four to five vehicles but he manouvered safely.

On weekend, India Gate has all the charms. A group of foreigners relishing the monument, while one of them was heading to drop the used water bottle in the waste-bin. The CPWD had once shown us the visuals of the littering done by the visitors at the India Gate. It was terrible.

Journalists have interesting things to talk about. A conversation with a fellow journalist drifted towards JNU, the pride of Delhi, a world in itself. My refrain was that its products are something different! It led to a story about a JNU product with a PhD degree joining a news-agency. On a night duty, while his boss went to sleep in the office, he was asked to check for the developments and if something big, like the US President resigned, happened he should wake up his superior.

At the dead night, he woke up his boss. Irritated he asked what! "I have to go to the loo." Too much. "You want me to accompany you to the loo, you bloody." Maan...behan...were profusely offered to him!

Sardars are the pride of Delhi. A senior Sardar journalist had gone to Pakistan to cover an event. In Pakistan, an ISI agent is set after an Indian journalist once lands there. Our Sardarji came to know that he was being followed. He stopped his taxi, and went to the car chasing him and told them: "I am an Indian journalist. This is my I-card. I am not paid much, and since you want to follow me I would rather be with you in your car and save my money." He got the best treatment free that a VVIP could have got there.

Not interested to board the auto again and the bus definitely not though I have travelled in them extensively. They show the worst of Delhi. It's better to see the better side then get pissed of with the worst part when that is incorrigible


But yes Delhi's chief minister Sheila Dikshit is everywhere in the city to tell people that the place has improved. She has got all the cheerful people to pose for her campaign. May be Delhi has changed for better or worse...

Wailing woman

By Manish Anand

On an evening full of frenetic work, a sight of a wailing woman could have been avoided. But the woman had stunned the whole of the Green Market on Saturday evening near my office place that it was hard to ignore her. Her male companion (boy friend!) was running after, while she, a young woman in her 20s, was simply running here and there with all her screams. First impulse was to ignore and get back to calling the politicians for my story, but even from a distant she was all wailing.

At last, I took a break and went after to know what was the matter. There she was pleading with folded hands to the parking attendant with a motley crowd in tow: "I already have big burglary at my house. I cant afford theft of my car now. Please return my car."

Her car was stolen from the parking lot. Her male companion now was shouting at her to calm down. My journalistic instinct now called for an intervention. I asked the lady to calm down. Asked whether she had the parking slip, she flashed one. I asked her to preserve that carefully.

A cop was part of a crowd at a distance and seemed not interested to help the lady in the distress. I summoned him and asked him to help the lady. "Get in touch with the parking manager and find out her car," I really gave the direction to which he instantly complied and I left for my work.

A wailing woman is a terrible sight. You must see to it to know this.

In the book of history, the story of Kannagi is very powerful. If i remember it correctly, she had gone out in the Cholan city, cursing the king after he had falsely implicated her husband in a case of theft, and later the curse had fallen on the king. She is still worshipped, i suppose.

I dont know whether the lady got her car back or not. But she must get it or her heart would really be broken.

From Jai Shri Ram to Har Har Mahadev !!

By Manish Anand

India is abuzz with the chant of Har Har Mahadev, after a break of more than a decade when the country feverishly chanted Jai Shri Ram. The credit singularly goes to the Congress, which for an unexplained magnanimity galvanised the directionless saffron party (BJP) ahead of the general elections.


The home minister Shivraj Patil has got too many eggs on his face to done the high office. He along with his party has taken Kashmir back to the time of 1990s, when the then J&K governor Jagmohan had literally handed over Kashmir to Pakistan with his whims and fancies.


Jammu and Kashmir both are simmering with anger. In Jammu the Congress at the behest of the blatant separatist party PDP hurt the religious sentiments of the millions of Hindus on the Amarnath issue. The Congress played into the hands of the PDP ostensibly to save its prospects in the looming Assembly elections there. The party is known for its timidity from the days of Shah Bano case.


What happens from here. The answer lies in the background chant of Har Har Mahadev heard when I called a youth BJP activist in Patna few days back. Hindus have deep emotional attachment with Baba Bhole whose worship dates back to the Harappan time. Hindus love Him, known as Nilkanth, after he took the poison to let others enjoy the nectar, for thousands of years of attachment with Him in all walks of life. No other God could be so widely and emotionally worshipped as He is.


The valley is donned with the Pakistani flags. It does not serve the purpose of the Kashmiris at all. The time has passed when a region seceded on the basis of violence, as was the case with Pakistan. Thousand times more people have been killed in Sri Lanka in the Tamilian rebellion. But the world just can not tolerate any more division of land on the basis of religion.


Also, the Congress can be taught lessons by the people, as done in the recent times. Now, the people can stop the madness of few people of this grand old party whose romantic ideologue (JLN Nehru) left the legacy of violence in the country, thanks to his idiotic world views.


It was the saffron party's grand old man (AB Vajpayee) who heralded peace in Kashmir, which followed with peace with Pakistan. He took bold initiatives and they had paid dividends. Interestingly, he destroyed his party in J&K but won the elusive peace there. Contrast this to what Congress did, as it destroyed the Peace of the state to save the party there.


As peace in the valley, the leadership too is elusive in the country. Dr Manmohan Singh and the disastrous Shivraj Patil just shame the very spirit of leadership at the cost of the nation.

Yatha praja tatha raja !!

BY MANISH ANAND

Yatha praja tatha raja!! It's no more yatha raja tatha praja. It's the refrain when you talk to politicos on questions of ambitious party workers are doling out big booty to get party tickets ahead of the Delhi Assembly polls.

"It's a changed time. Now, people elect goons with 50 and more murder scalps on their heads. Even our security deposits in Lok Sabha elections get forfeited," says a Congress veteran of two decades of active politics and having been in Lok Sabha on a number of occasions from UP.


He recalls the time when it was "yatha raja tatha praja (as the king so the people)". "But, now, it's just "yatha praja tatha raja (as the people so the king)"," he adds with much remorse.



Does it mean that the people at large are also like those having more than 50 murder scalps on their heads ? Probably not! But the nice people in politics in their hinterlands have just lost the power to read the pulse of their audience and have been left behind in the cutting age politics.



But may be the case is different.


"The time was different two decades back. Good people used to be picked up by the high-ups in the politics," says another Congress veteran of three decades of Lok Sabha stint from the Punjab region.


It makes us curious to enquire about their backgrounds. The self-effacing Punjabi politician says he was a Professor, then the pro-Vice Chancellor of the Punjab University and had taught in a top US university. He was picked up by the top Congress leadership when he was in his hey-days.

His colleague's eyes lit, as he too recalls being the student leader in the Banaras Hindu University, then doing his B. Tech in Chemical Engineering and then heading to the US for professorship. He too was "picked up" by the top leadership in his heydays.

But the time has changed for them, as they interview hundreds of rustic party workers with no decent education behind them. They have no other option, as they say they live with the humiliation of losing the political turf like UP to ruffians who should have been behind the bar.


But who will take the blame for the rot and who will take the corrective measures. No answers though big yawns.

No surprises!

By Manish Anand


The hard-nosed observers are hardly getting surprised nowadays. Mayawati now wants to be the Prime Minister, no joke. So what, anyone can become a Prime Minister in India. Delhi's marketplaces are fast becoming stages for catwalk. Girls are now fed up with having mehandi on their palm or back of it and are having it from toes till high up. Men are wearing skinny clothes and walk like women. So what, time is changing and so are the patterns.

Mayawati is a popular politician and the chief minister of the most populous state of India. She came close to staging the coup in bringing down the World bank careerist Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. She has almost tasted blood and must be hungry enough to devour the whole delicacy. The next six months are set for exciting political churning.

Did you give hard look to the girls having rolled up their jeans high up for putting up mehandi in delicate designs? The sight is too irresistable. Just heard that tatoos are going out of fashion and probably our desi mehandiwallas sitting on the pavement are redifining the fashion trends in their own ways.

And yes, Mayawati's heir is not from her family. Is it another statement on the family run parties like the Congress. She has enriched the Hindi vocabulary as well with the word "sarvjan (all castes)".

My colleague was stunned when he saw a man in skinny vest doing a catwalk in the marketplace. My commiseration for him "he has biceps, triceps and all the muscles to show off, so why are you getting jealous, anyways you are not his target at least".

The best sight, however, was two love birds getting lip-locked in the crowded market place, with the girl glowing in the irresistable love that she was struggling to shower on his man, while he was all blushing with pride. It's the best thing to happen: the public expression of affection, it ensures that people do live in love.

Last but not the least, the city though is fast maddening it still has resilience to outpace the negative vibes in plenty.

Lotus bloom

By Manish Anand


Finally, the lotus has bloomed south of the Vidhyanchal. After five decades of supplying the hardcore grassroot workers to the Rashtriya Swayam Sewak Sangh (RSS), its political baby, the BJP, would now form the state government in Karnatka. It's pregnant with significant political implications and it marks paradigm shift to the national politics.

The chattering class on television sets have exhausted much of their analytical skills. However, the political pundits sound too predictible that one can safely mute the news channels now. It's time that the news channels voluntarily shun all exit polls for just two reasons. First, it's not needed at all, and secondly for it prejudicing the electorates.

In another decade, the RSS would hand over the political tonic to the BJP in Kerala too. Just watch out for that, the social churning has been taking place almost for a decade now. The social undercurrents there would crystalise in another decade to hand over the BJP another hunting ground in the South India.

Arrogance is the hallmark of the Congress. For it the price rise of the essential commodities had just been the natural by-product of the high economic growth. It was nver seen being identified with the people bearing the brunt of the price rise. The JD (S) has proved a party which cheats the people's mandate. It's so called maveric patriarch H D Devgowda, who is known to keep the rupees in sacks and for distributing them in the same manner, could not find another way to fool the electorate. Good for the people.

The parliamentary elections would now not be preponed. However, the Congress has too less time for the damage control. It could now bank on its principal opponent the BJP to commit the political suicide in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar which it's hell-bent to commit.
The BJP in all likelihood would wrest Delhi Assembly from the Congress and could retain Chattisgarh and Rajsthan while losing Madhya Pradesh to the Congress in the winter this year. The BJP would go to the parliamentary elections with the winning momentum, while praying that the Congress looks at the common man with an impaired eyesight.

L. K. Advani could step into the shoes of A. B. Vajpayee but Bihar and UP could just prove to play the spoiler.

Man & animal conflict

By Manish Anand

Few years ago, giving the Civil Services Examinations, I along with many others were foxed by a short answer question on man and animal conflict. All did the guess works which turned out to be off the mark by quite a margin. In the evening, restless minds searched for the right answer and it turned out to be the Orissa farmers in conflict with elephants raiding their rice fields, as men had destroyed their natural habitat, thus forcing them to go into unknown territory in search of food. Our answers were just rubbish.

Reflecting on the issue, it seems that the phrasing of the question was just incorrect. Why call it man and animal conflict when man is just an animal; no better in any ways and rather far worse.

Few days back at a market place, one man was facing a group of people out to lynch him. His fault was that out of anger, as his vehicle was caught in the parking lot, he probably let his angst go on the window glass of the blocking car and which brought a dozen of people out to lynch him. Nerved at the size of the opposing party, he relished all the abuses and pushes and shoves offered to him. His plea to call the police to settle the issue had no takers. After an hour long ordeal, he was sent away.

But the show was not over, as one of his foe delivered another chaste abuse to him when he came back to the market after sometimes. Fed up with enough abuses, he barged into his foes' office and started abusing all, with even women getting no reprieve.

Take the fight into enemy's camp, you will either emerge victorious or will die with pride. And so he did. His foes had to do the explanings, with the issue looking too trivial for such a grand show. The man walked away having humbled his foes, with even onlookers remarking "bande me dam hai" even if he had committed any mistake. All the whiles, few dogs kept dozzing off and showed no interest at all in the show. Some had mocking smiles on their funny mouth.

In the HT City, which I rarely read, I found a piece which informed that lots of men come to Delhi from Mumbai and also go to Thailand for sex hunting, where they easily catch hold of college and other young girls in pubs and on dance floors for a one night stand. Nothing startling though, it also contradicts the phrasing of the question.

In a party in a five-star hotel, which I had a rare chance to attend, the liquor had made the base animal instincts of the people too explicit to take refuse in the man's dignity. Few were falling on a girl, who had committed the mistake of sitting a bit away from her friends, and were imploring her for dance, though their eyes were demanding much more. Liquor should not be blamed as it makes you just what you are. Though under heavy influence of liquor myself, I could not stop my critical faculties from obesrving people and their behaviour and keeping their records as well. I can not write more on this because of obvious reasons.

Dogs are really intelligent. They know that the UPSC had wrongly phrased the question. They mock at the man with all humility. It's no man, animal conflict, as it's all animals here.

City angst

By Manish Anand

Is Delhi a dying city? Certainly it's and in few years it's set to be condemned to the fate as that of Mumbai. The soul of Delhi is already dead and its body is just being dragged by millions of people slogging their days and nights out.

Few days back, dogs and a rag picker presented an interesting spectacle. In the morning, the rag picker, merely a boy, was collecting his cache. The nearby dogs, who must have been owning the place as their territory, did not like the intrusion of the rag picker. A group of dogs, all ferocious looking, had a go at the boy with all the shrillness of their barkings. Around half a dozen dogs were there.

The rag picker was not impressed with the daredevilry of the dogs and he just ignored them and continued with his job. The dogs lept further towards him and here our rag picker, incensed at the nuisance caused by the dogs, took a stone in hand and lept at them with all ferocity. The daring dogs beat a hasty retreat and when the boy got busied with his work they came a little near him, maintaining a safe distance, and continued with their barking business.

A couple of dogs were watching this spectacle from a distance with all the attention. For sometimes they might have weighed the option of joining the barking brigade, but eventually they chose the option of rather watching from a distance than joining the milieu.

In an afternoon in a restaurant in South Delhi, the owner, who is an old man, was losing the peace of his mind. Everything was wrong for him and he just had to shout at anybody. His staff bore the maximum brunt. A woman had a plate of "chaat" taken from outside and had come into the restaurant to taste the delicacy in the cool environment as her companion was busy buying something from the shop attached to the restaurant.

The old man did not like this and coming down from his seat he literally threw her out. Of course, the action came with verbal volley from the old man at the woman. In the meantime, his son came to take over the charge from him and very soon an old woman barged into the restaurant and just blasted him off. The reason was that nobody outside was telling her the ways to the restaurant! The son profusely apologised and immediately brought "lassi" as a complementary to pacify her. Later, when the things cooled down the woman politely refused the "lassi" saying that she was suffering from diabetes.

I too stay in a posh locality of South Delhi and mostly the flats here are owned by the "senior citizens". Recently, the PWD's work on roadside had damaged the water pipelines and one of the pipeline had been leaking, thus muddying the front of the entry gate.

A co-resident, who is in his 70s, pressed the bell of my flat in a manner as if some calamity had come. When I answered, he was shouting at his peak of the voice, saying that it was my pipeline. I said with all respect to him that I am unaware which pipe is mine here but anyways whosoever it was it would be rectified as a plumber had to come to my place. This was nothing for the next two days, I got visitors from all the flats all shooting off their anger at me.

When the last gentleman came, who is also in his 70s, I had enough and after giving him a patient hearing I said: "Look, first and foremost this is not my pipeline as i have found out but my plumber would rectify it tomorrow nonetheless. Secondly, you tell me you people have been so disturbed at one leaking pipeline which would be rectified, how did you people permit the installation of a mobile phone tower at the roof of the building and do not tell me that you people are unaware of the mental health hazard that it poses to the people residing here."

The old gentleman was left speechless as according to him a "rogue" top-floor flat owner had got the tower installed despite their protest, letting them know how impotent they were. Now, he was begging me for help in removing the tower. He left after offering his apology for disturbing me anyways. Yes, that leaking pipeline turned out to be that of my neighbour!

Yesterday, a two-wheeler hit the front of the auto-rickshaw on a busy road. The bike driver seemed in great hurry and after the collission he did not waste a single moment in emptying all the anger that he was carrying. However, the auto-rickshaw hit him back in equal manner. In another auto, as my friend said that the fault was of the bikeer, our auto-man said it's not about fault but that of "aukat" (the sujective value) and the "autowallhas do not have aukat in the city".