R.I.P Hamara Bajaj

Last Friday when I was pillion riding with my colleague Sarath on his Pulsar to reach a restaurant for a treat from another colleague , it so happened that we stopped at a signal and I happened to see a Bajaj scooter among the vast plethora of vehicles on the road. And that was the moment I decided to write this as my tribute to one of the signpost of the India’s journey towards growth modernization and liberalization.

Bajaj scooters, one of the aspirations of the Indian middle class for decades, will soon be part of history. Bajaj Auto announced on Wednesday that it is exiting the scooter segment altogether, bringing the curtains down on its iconic product line. The company had stopped making the Chetak, once the world’s largest selling scooter, almost three years ago, and according to its MD Rajeev Bajaj, it will stop production of its non-starter Kristal series by end of the current fiscal. Rajiv Bajaj, great-grandson of a man who founded his industrial empire making light bulbs, announced the decision to stop producing scooters at the same time China said its people were buying a million cars a month. Indians bought 133,687 cars in November. With China opening its lead over the US as the world’s biggest market, the centre of gravity in the automobile industry has decidedly moved to Asia. The scooter is an unfortunate casualty of this shift. It is no coincidence that the largest manufacturers of scooters — and bicycles — have at different points in time been Indian companies. The rest of the world had simply stopped using them on a grand scale.

Post-independence era for India started with cycles thronging the road alongwith Ambassadors for the VIP movement. People who have seen the decades of 70’s and mid 80’s will have abiding memories of a family perched precariously on a scooter and that scooter would been 9 out of 10 times a Bajaj. There was a time when Chetak commanded premium in the market and after booking, people used to wait for months to get the scooter. Infact many elders have told me that the Bajaj Scooter was one of those things which had to be a part of dowry in those days. People had amazing trust on the Bajaj brand.In the mid 90’s Bajaj came up with an ad campaign titled ‘Hamara Bajaj’ which eventually became a kind of anthem and the sale of Bajaj Scooters roared. In 1995 Bajaj sold close to 1 million scooters.

 
Earlier logo of Bajaj

 As a mode of transportation, shopkeepers, SME owners ferried and marketed their goods on Bajaj scooter. Bikes are incapable to perform such onerous tasks of carrying goods. Bajaj ruled the roost with the carriages and boxes can be piled on any side of this scooter, front, back, side, between the legs. At times, the driver would be seen driving with his leg dangling in the air, folded and piled on top of the box, stretching the leg on top of the boxes with the little space to apply brakes on the right side. It was a truly Indian scooter designed for use for an Indian family unlike Vespa or Lambretta. Bajaj had a carriage in the front, storage side on the left rear, a stepny on the back for holding the family onto the scooter.

If I may say so, I have witnesses the most interesting time period in lifecycle of Bajaj scooters. While I was growing up, all the kids with cycles always looked for a chance to get their first hang of how a automobile work. I am quite sure that many of us have learnt to ride two wheelers on Bajaj. Getting to ride
the scooter was the elevation every kid with cycle was looking for. All those boys who had got the promotion from cycle to scooter were the ‘Guys’ whom girls will pay attention( though scant I must say, school girls were still very shy in those days). And guys like me who were still on their Hero Ranger cycles
will be just left fuming. I am pretty sure that many of us would have gone through these scenes.There was a time, when your scooter becomes a car. You don’t even remember how many times only you or two had taken ride on it. At least three or at times four. You approach your first love with Bajaj scooter by your side. Standing at the other end of the narrow bylane of the girl’s house and waiting for the girl you wish to propose or your girlfriend, only Bajaj scooter was the partner in so many’s tryst of destiny.


Besides making love stories successful, Bajaj helped and contributed immensely towards building homes. It helped people move across their daily needs on this scooter. Carrying and dropping their loved ones from one part to other part of the city. Driving Bajaj was fun and everybody who owned a scooter had a smile on his/her face.



Riding with the family on scooter. Man, wife and their two/three kids.


Cut to 1991 Indian economy opens it’s door to liberalization and urban India started witnessing a more robust and a flashy two wheeler ‘Motorbike’ on it’s roads. Within a couple of years the Hero Hondas, the Kawasaki, the TVSs started pushing the scooters to a corner. It didn’t help that the Bajaj never paid attention to product development. For instance Kinetic came up with a gearless and a self start model primararily focused on female drivers. Similarly Vespa ventured into scooter market with some smarter designs. So now if a boy was still chasing a girl on his Bajaj Super or Chetak he was labeled as BTG (Bhaiyya Types Guy). What a transformation I must say. Scooter was still the preferred choice but only for Uncles ( Even I am one now courtesy all kids in my apt block). Their grown up sons wanted to ride only bikes. They will prefer to walk over riding an old fashioned scooter.

Time to move on. A new generation is at helm in Bajaj to look after the affairs of the company. And this new generation certainly thinks that manufacturing scooters is not to look forward. Bajaj has seen a turnaround in it’s fortunes with Pulsar brand. Yesterday’s people mover is bowing out when tomorrow’s mass carrier is rolling out of Tata plants. And the difference is not merely about purchasing power. The Nano is a product created for the Indian reality in the same way that Bajaj scooter was in the past. Even Bajaj’s logo has gone for complete overhaul with the younger generation taking charge of the company and the market.
It’s time for a new Sun to rise as as the Hamara Bajaj is riding into sunset.
The new logo.

Please feel free to put your comments here on how did you liked what I have written.

Love,
Saket.

Let’s Remember our Real Heroes

Captain Vikram Batra, Major Saravanan, Captain Manoj Pandey ,Sqn. Ldr Ajay Ahuja, Captain Kieshing Nongrum, Lt. Saurabh Kalia, Lt. Col. Vishwanathan, Sepoy Lal Singh, Sepoy Rakesh Kumar, Sepoy Rakesh Kumar, Sepoy Raswinder Singh, Sepoy Bir Singh……..

Do these names ring a bell? I am sure not.
These names don’t mean anything to this Facebook, MTV, Orkut Crazy generation.
Ask them to name the reckless, useless winner of a reckless, useless show in MTV Roadies and you will get a prompt answer.

Well these were among the thousands brave hearts who fended off evil Pakistani army goons who had infiltrated our side of LOC in the guise of mujahideen. Ten years after India fought the most televised battle in the history of warfare in the subcontinent, Indians seemed to have moved on.

At 11.30 past night I messaged some friends ‘Happy Vijay Divas’ and ‘Kargil Forgotten’.
Some of these friends were happily and heavily drunk at a reataurant called ‘It’s Greek to Me’ and the text perhaps seemed all too Latin to them.

A Google Search cleared the haze next morning in .17 secs.

Well these very dear friends of mine actually reflects the times we are living in,that tells me that an ungrateful nation had forgotten to salute a famous victory against Pakistan.

A victory in achieving which 562 soldiers had bravely, selflessly, unquestioningly laid down their lives for their country and countrymen, i.e. us, in the cold heights of Kargil.The present generation takes lot of pride in calling themselves as ‘Liberal’ and broad minded. But even for a "liberal" nation with an equally ‘liberal’ generation which has scarcely any militaristic sentiments, it seemed too obvious an event to miss, especially given the rap the nation had received for their disgraceful send off to Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw in June.But the Sunday papers provided little proof that old habits die hard. It again reminded me that we as a nation are hardly proud of our history, culture and legacy.

The largest selling newspaper in the world ‘The Times of India’ didn’t think that Vijay Divas demanded any special mention. After all there are other important strategic issues to be covered such as Gay rights etc.

But I must say that Electronic Media proved me wrong. Almost all the prominent news channels covered it extensively. A lot of them stressed upon the history involved, reasons behind the war and aftermath.
Highly appreciated.

Ten years have passed by. But have we learnt our lessons. I regret that the answer is no.
I am not going into why Kargil happened and what could have been done 10years ago
As there is no point in crying over spilt milk. But every war teaches a lesson to the countries involved. The lessons can be categorized in some broad categories :
Political,Social,Militarily,Intelligence and Strategic.

I again regret that we have hardly learnt any lesson.

Political lessons are to be taken by the most worthless citizens in our country, the politicians. I was mad with anger over how they are scrambling to make a political issue out of this too. Congress govt not showing much enthusiasm in celebrating Vijay Divas
as according to some of them the victory came under NDA.

Those who cover the defence beat say the Kargil victory is now viewed as "an NDA/BJP victory" with which the UPA/Congress wants to have no part. "The Congress has its 1971, the BJP has its 1999," says one award-winning reporter.(That the Congress which does not want to remember 1999 could not even remember the hero of the 1971 victory(to Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw )properly tells its own story.But if true, how pathetic as a people can we be getting, that we view the triumph of the nation, the sacrifice of our soldiers, not through a wide, collective prism, but through a narrow, constricted aperture of the government of the day?Certainly, critics, skeptics and cynics in the military, media and polity have plenty of questions over how the Kargil victory was achieved: The intelligence and strategic failures, the antiquated techniques in capturing Tiger Hill (the site of most of the casualties), etc.Plus, there is the coffin scam over which the Congress walked out of the House each time then defense minister George Fernandes got up to speak.Much as those questions may be important and need to be answered, how do they take the gloss away from a great victory? And how do they make a meaningful observance meaningless?What kind of signal is such peevishness sending to the jawan in the field, and to potential recruits? What kind of impact does it have on their morale and motivation to be reminded that they are not fighting for the nation at large but for the coalition in power?Is this something over which our parties should try to score silly points?Is this how we show how much we value the armed forces?This is not to suggest that the President and prime minister and defense minister and Congress president must drop everything and break out into a bhangra every July 26 for the benefit of the television cameras. But what do they lose by gracefully acknowledging Kargil's place in our contemporary history?

This was for political class.

There are some lessons to be learned after every war which are very Militarist in nature.
Just a day before I read a report which reports that ‘CAG’ has termed the Gorshkov defense deal as totally useless. Almost all the defense deals happening are shady.
Army is equipped with sub standard weapons. Are we ready for another Kargil?

There are still so many families who have not got their due from governments.The government and the system continues to treat them shabbily. My heart goes out for them.

And now the baiton passes to us. Are we as a citizen even aware of our Army and the great role it plays in safeguarding our interests. Aren’t we so engrossed with our own busy lives and selfish dreams that we don’t even know that there is a Vijay Divas today and it needs to be celebrated.
I wish the Media plays a more proactive role in guiding the citizens towards this. e.g instead of beaming useless Reality TV programmes as ‘Rakhi Ka Swanyvar’ why not
beam a programme on War Heroes.Take some creative liberty to make it sellable. Add some fiction to the real life stories and present it to audience. Well it’s just a small idea.

I am actually quite anguished and emotional today as I write this and I might sound over the top in what I have written but am not apologetic for the same. And as I am writing this I have just watched news on TV which says that Defense Minister and Prime Minister have stayed away from the celebrations. There must be reasons for this.
And I remember a famous Urdu couplet written for freedom fighters.

शहीदो क़ी य़ाद मे लगेंगे हर बरस मेले
वतन पे मिटने वालों का बाकी यही ऩिशान होगा

Times have changed and the poor martyrs won’t know that there won’t be any ‘Mela’
for their remembrance now. The nation has forgotten them.



I will close this post with a request to have a glance at the below mentioned links.
They carry some info of my favorite heroes from Kargil War,
Captain Vikram Batra and Captain Manoj Pandey.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vikram_Batra
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manoj_Pandey
http://captainmanojpandey.tripod.com/


Also try to watch a movie called ‘1971’.One of the rare hindi movies made on POWs
(Prisoner of Wars).

And with a request to observe a silence for a minute in memory of these brave men.
That’s the least we could do.


Jai Hind.

Love,
Saket.

Travelogue of a journey from India to Bharat

The journey was truly from India to Bharat. The occasion was Wedding Ceremony
of a friend and colleague. The Wedding was to be held at Jhansi. The name Jhansi
evokes such a great sense of history as we all have grown up on great patriotic stories
of Rani Laxmibai of Jhansi. Now we all know how hazardous it is to apply for leave
in these troublesome times but a mandatory week off forced by client on our team allowed us to go for the wedding. Now since the trip was planned on a very short notice affordability of air tickets went beyond our finance. So we all planned to take the service of Indian Railways to travel. But even here we could manage a Sleeper Tier ticket that too not all of us got confirmed seats.
Travelling in Sleeper class to north India in mid July will give scare to anyone who has faced the fury of summers in that part of India. That I have been in Bangalore for last 5 years in the most beautiful weather has made me even more skeptic about travelling.But the feeling of going to land where you have been brought up and where your roots lie will overcome all these apprehensions.
The train leaves Bangalore at 19:35.Now Bangalore railway station is not the perfect example of how a Railway station of a leading metropolitan should be but it is just enough clean and tidy enough that if your train is late you can comfortably wait at
the platform.
Indian Railways sleeper class coaches can be perfect classrooms for the course in
Hospitality management. All the leading institutes around the globe should make it sure that the students enrolling in this course should be given a trip in the sleeper class and it will be even better if the trip involves travelling across any north Indian town.Anyone who boards the train at any station boards the train with an assurance that irrespective of whether he has a reservation or not, he is entitled to sit or sleep at any seat he wish to. The boarder enters the compartment and if he has the seat he will take the seat quite assertively and if he doesn’t have a seat he will ask the already seated people to just push a bit so that he too can have a seat. The one who has the seat reserved is expected to be hospitable enough to accommodate any no of people who comes through. Will you get a better example of sense of hospitality anywhere else !.
This is Indian Railways for you.
There are huge distances to be covered. So there are various means of passing time.
People make friends, they discuss politics,cricket. These days they carry laptops too
so have the luxury of watching movies, listening music. And then we have the ubiquitous ‘Chai wala’ without whose ‘Chai’ no journey is any Indian train is complete.
So one ends up gulping 10-15 tea cups during the journey.
In my compartment I was accompanied by 4 engineering graduates who are pursuing
engineering in Bangalore and were retuning home to Lucknow via Jhansi after finishing their semesters.As usual they had just one seat between them and I readily became a
‘bhaiya’ for them. Now the term ‘bhaiya’ if used in Maharashtra evoke such a fear
in north Indians(courtesy Mr Raj Thakeray) but when used in Trains,such a perfect platform for forging relationships. In the same compartment another student studying Pharma was travelling to his home in Rajasthan.He readily became another bhai for the eng. Grads. So at 11 pm me and the pharma student were sharing the berth so that we all can sleep tight in night.

The next day was spent with these guys narrating how enjoyable their first 2 years have been far away from watchful eyes of parents. They will narrate their dare devil acts and one fellow in our compartment who must be in late 30’s had it enough and sarcastically asks them ‘Are they right in doing all this? Was this the reason their parents have sent them here? Moments ago this man was being offered wafers, soft drinks and what not by these guys but now he was an Uncle. I tell you, this generation hates being preached.

The day passed by. The night too. The train reaches Jhansi at 3.30 A.M. The train reached at the right time. We got down. And what was to be seen was a huge sea of humanity sleeping on the floor as if we have reached some Military dormitory just that the amount of dirt and filth lying around the area the people were sleeping would shoo away all notions of this being a Military camp. Welcome to Bharat.

62 years of freedom from Gora Sahib’s rule but when our Railways Minister talked of
Creating 50 'World Class Railways stations' and 375 ‘Adarsh Railway Stations’ Mr Lalu Prasad says that is not feasible.Now these ‘Adarsh Railway Stations’ will have all basic amenities like clean water,waiting rooms, clean platforms etc etc. This is ‘Adarsh Railway Station’ for you. 62 years and we are still struggling to have ‘bijli, paani’ and having these will make a station ‘Adarsh’.These are basic amenities in other world though.
.
We got out from the Railway station. It appeared that we are in some Red Country.
Walls, floors ,streets almost everything seems red. Red by expectoration from Pan chewing people, from Gutka eating people , from people eating Pan Masala etc.
Communists from China would have been so happy to know that in remote corner of UP a town is so dedicated to their dying theory .The Red Revolution.

The wedding went fine. It was such fun attending the marriage in old traditional fashion
again though I restricted myself to just helping myself with unlimited variety of delicacies. How badly I love the Shadi ka khana.

After the wedding I thought of visting my Parents in Lucknow as Lucknow is not very far off from Jhansi. And Indian railways has made sure that there is a train from everywhere
To everywhere. So here I was again in a Inter City Express between Jhansi and Lucknow.
The train pass through the town of Kanpur and as the train left the station what one sees
is a such a huge conglomerate of slums that one will be forced to think that are we passing through Dharavi?. No problem I said to myself.Let the train get past another town and the same visual will repeat.I wonder is there some term called ‘Fourth World Country’? If not then why not coin it and get it patented .This is Bharat. I left India the moment the train went past Bengaluru.

The train reached Lucknow in another hour and a half. Same visuals repeating themselves but who cares now.The smell of your own land taking over all your feelings.
Maa has cooked Kadhi at home and I can smell that from light year apart.

I call for a auto and this ends the travelogue.Please feel free to comment on this.

Arey Auto wale Bhaiya , chaloge.

Love,
Saket.

Why The T-20 WC debacle happened and why is it’s good that it happened?

Now as the dust has settled after India’s shocking exit in T-20 World Cup and we prepare
ourself for a mouth watering clash between two underrated Asian giants, I wonder why all these physio reports find a favor with media only when the team fails? Like a billion
other countrymen of mine, I am also an expert in analyzing Indian cricket and with this post I will like to analyze this debacle, the reasons and the aftermath.

Before I begin I will like to state that I firmly believe that the blame for this shocking exit
should be shared between BCCI, Team, Media and us the audience. You may ask why audience? But aren’t we the one who just embrace whatever is served to us in the name
of cricket.

Here’s how I summarise my analysis. Please excuse me for being so unimaginatgive
so as to always put my analysis in points as below but then I am a Software Engineer
and the community was never known for it’s imaginary skills.

1. Dhoni wake up and face the heat: Last 2 years have been anything but a fairy tale for the so called Captain Cool. It all began with a surprise T-20 WC title
After which he was catapulted to such a pedestrian by Indian media which has
a never ending hunger for sensationalism. For last 2 years he was Media’s darling. Captain Cool, Dasher Dhoni, Captain Marvel blah blah .So many titles, so many endorsements. Life was so good. And the Captain Cool lost his cool first time he was put on a burner. So much for his cool attitude. There is no doubt that he came out with some wonderful and some never achieved results, but it was more of due to a great 10 men he has at his helm. If you analyze all the good results that came under his leadership there is hardly anything which you will find we achieved due to his skills. I for one believe he was massively helped by Sachin, Sehwag, Yuvraj and some good bowling talent. His leadership which was so bandied around in Indian media was never amazing to me. E.g. his decision to bowl Joginder Sharma in lst T-20 WC final was a horrendous decision to me and it almost gave Pak the trophy. Yeah he keeps his cool in tough situations and that’s the decisive factor in crunch situations and makes him the only contender to this post. But keeping cool is not all you want. His batting skills were never great but he was termed as the ‘One of the greatest finisher we ever had’. Aah. Just have a look at the stats and you will come to know that the last match in which he really showed his ‘great finishing’ skills was in Mar 2006 in Lahore against Pak which he won with some great help from Yuvi and Sachin. A lot of water has passed under the bridge after that. In last 2 years I don’t recall a single match which he has won for us in tough demanding situations. I can vouch for this. If the team needs a run rate for 7 or more while chasing and you are backing on Dhoni you are in for disappointment. I am not writing this without analyzing stats. Teams have read him well. He has lost his fourth gear in last couple of years. This drubbing will make him think hopefully. Hew will realize that his aggressive skills are needed more on ground than in Media interactions.

2. BCCI’s arrogance should be tamed now: BCCI is by far the richest cricket body amongst all cricket playing nations in the world. Money speaks the most powerful language. BCCI through it’s monetary power has twisted so many rules,
all to satiate it’s greed for money. And it has placed one of the biggest thugs
a certain Lalit Modi to indulge in loot. This guy went on to US to get a degree
in management, got arrested there for some drug trafficking, got a bail and came back to India realizing that only this country will provide thugs like him to don the role of Commissioner of a money spinning tournament in IPL. We all know the Team was full of injured players and IPL actually contributed a lot to it. Kirsten tried pointing out this and while I am writing this I am also reading on news channel that he has slapped with a gag order. And I am not
surprised by this. BCCI is run by thugs and goons none of whom would have
picked a bat in their life. So any guy who points a finger towards the mechanism
of earning money will be shown the door. Mr Kirsten beware.

Just look at the men there : Mr Pawar,Mr Modi, Mr N Srinivasan,Mr Shukla.
Will someone take pain to tell these bosses that only by sitting in spanky offices and by wearing some nice suits don’t count for professionalism? Any criticism is just so blatantly swept aside. Just spare a thought on this. In IPL they had on their payroll men as distinguished as Sunil Gavaskar and Ravi Shastri to voice all goodies about IPL. It was such a disgusting display. Cameras used to focus atleast 5 times a match on Modi and the men behind mikes will start to dwell on how great the man is. Shame on BCCI.

3. India is not the best T-20 team contrary to the popular belief: After the
T-20 triumph India have always been touted as best T-20 side. But this surprises me. After the famous World Cup win India have played 5 T-20 internationals. Out of these 5 India has lost 3. All out of India. I believe since all Indians are involved with IPL there goes a feeling that Indians are the best in the business. And IPL did more harm than good to us. It was a tired jaded team devoid of any hunger to win.I don’t blame the men in blue for this. They have been treated as
cows by BCCI to milk as much money as possible.

4. Bad on-field performance coupled with some strategic blunders: Indian
Stars in IPL were considered to be the ones who will take India through. Raina for example was in good nick in IPL but in WC he was pounded by short balls and the chinks in the armour were visible to one and all. Once it was known almost all the batters were subject to shot balls and no one played them well with exception of Yuvi. Infact he was the only one who lived upto his reputation. IPL sensations such as Jadeja were such huge failures again proving that IPL succeeded in just making BCCI richer. Indian team was a complete loser in this circus.
Also strategies were not in sync with the playing conditions. When none of our batting power houses were able to hit big atleast they could have tried something different. As the runs were dried up, a slog was the only imaginative thing this new age Youngistan team could think of, over the plebian single. I will justify what I have just written. Against WI in crucial super 8 match Indian innings had 51 dot balls, 34 against England and then 44 against SA. In a 120 ball match these numbers make or break.
The fiddling of batting order also didn’t help. Already Sehwag’s absence was hurting us badly. Dhoni came in at 3 and never accelerated and then all of a sudden asked Raina to come in that no in Super8.Jadeja was sent before Yuvi and to me that cost us the berth in semis .Huge blunder. And how many times have we done well while chasing. So asking England to bat first after winning the toss too didn’t made any sense.
And what happened to the fielding? So much for Youngistan. Success has gone to the head of this youth brigade. The team seemed to be obstinate in not seeing what is written on the wall. After the loss against England I don’t think there was any need to repeat the same squad though the match was of no consequence. But they played the same team and failed even more badly. This drubbing will help in a way that it will help the team realize that International Cricket is a different ball game than IPL where you play against teams which have only a limited good players.

5. Media plummeted to a new low in it’s search for masala: Indian media
touched a new low during the tussle with Dhoni on fitness issue. Agreed the fault was with the team itself. Sehwag could have been more transparent about his injury and Dhoni and team management could have handled it better. But it didn’t help that the media just went berserk in crtiticisizing Dhoni as if he was the one who injured Sehwag. The team was burdened with a need to show unity drama and it clearly would have been a deterrent in preparation. I wonder now will the Indian media ever be sensible in reporting. Can it act as a medium to provide news rather than create news?

6. India playing too much cricket: This has been widely debated but no one can deny this that India is playing cricket incessantly. Thanks to mindless planning
70% of the year they are on road. Indian players are playing so much cricket that
I believe that if you sum up the cricketing calendar of Kiwis, Pak and Bangladesh
you will still find that we play more than that. But BCCI is again so adamant on that. Can BCCI do any wrong I wonder? The team clearly lacked passion and energy in it’s defense of title.

While I am finishing writing this Pakistan have won the T-20 WC. What an achievement for a team which was completely written off. But the team looked hungry, energetic and motivated as if to prove a point. My Congratulations to them And yaa they didn’t participated in IPL. Oh how did they win then !. Mr. Modi plan two IPL’s a year and make sure that we don’t win it next year too. How does it matter to you and BCCI till your coffers get stuffed with cash? Also the IPL next year too comes very close to T-20 WC happening in Caribbean. Let’s see how things turn up.

I hope this loss will motivate our team too though it doesn’t help that the team had to play WI soon after the humiliation .No time to brood and no time to rethink strategy and shortcomings. After this tour thankfully it’s a 79 day break which ends with Champions Trophy in South Africa.

I am pretty sure that Dhoni and his men will come back strongly then.
Sometimes you learn best about the game while not playing it.

I know we can debate this topic till eternity as I had said earlier too that all my countrymen has a cricket expert in him. Please feel free to comment on what I have written and am pretty sure that there will be many who will disagree with I have written.

Love,
Saket.

Will Pictorial Warning Prevent Suttabaaz from going for Sutta?

Is there something different with your pack of cigarettes today? Did you notice anything that might make you want to throw it away? If you did, even if you did not succumb to the thought, history of sorts has been made. If your pack contained a pictorial warning, then the anti-tobacco lobby’s hard work has actually kicked in.


May 31 is celebrated as World ‘No tobacco’ Day. India celebrated this through an order
by Supreme Court which says that all cigarette packets manufactured in India should carry a pictorial warning covering 40 per cent of its front space, from June 1 onwards.
But will this deter all the Suttebaaz from puffing?.

The anti-tobacco lobby is not entirely wrong in this struggle against tobacco products.
Tobacco — this little herb has created more damage to the world than any atom bomb has. Widely used as an intoxicant all over the world since time immemorial, tobacco is the key ingredient of cigarettes and pan, though well known to have a number of harmful effects, even causing cancer.

As per WHO:

India is caught in the midst of a catastrophic smoking epidemic, which is causing one in five of all male deaths in middle age and will cause about one million deaths a year during the 2010s. Seventy percent of these deaths (600,000 male and 100,000 female) will be between the ages of 30 and 69.


"Smoking is harmful to health". This is a statutory warning printed on all cigarette packets. Yet, the question arises as to how many people pay heed to this warning.
The Indian government instituted a smoking ban in public places in October 2008.
But there is no concrete evidence that the ban has worked (at least the sales no doesn’t reflect a slowdown in consumption).

The habit of smoking is more concentrated in the higher and lower echelons of society with the middle class much better placed in this scenario, estimates say. Will the educated urban smoker be bothered by this. A study says they will be. Visual medium is the strongest way to communicate messages. A Delhi-based NGO, says a picture is harder to avoid and works even with non-literates ( I disagree with non literates part though). It says graphic images will certainly interrupt the automatic manner in which a smoker reaches for his cigarette and ultimately lead to quitting too. The math works out this way: Anyone who smokes 20 cigarettes a day is exposed to the message 7,300 times a year at the crucial moments – when buying a pack and when taking a cigarette out.

Fine, that settles for the urban smokers. Now the major chunk of the tobacco consumers comes from rural, illiterate class. Firstly they don’t just dwell on cigarettes only, they have bidis, gutka etc which are not carrying these messages. Secondly even if other tobacco products were carrying these messages I doubt they would have made difference with
this class.

So my one point solution is to make the prices of all tobacco products exorbitantly high e.g. a packet of cigarettes should cost about 200. I know this will sound very irrational
but anything for preventing from all my suttebaaz friends from going for it.

My Thoughts towards Smokers:

I am not in favor of banning smoking as it collides with a personal freedom of humans
and will make India look like China and after all animals are born to indulge in vices and forbidden pleasures. Warnings have seldom stopped animals, man or otherwise from tasting the forbidden fruit.

Some way out for this community.
Don’t buy packets. Go back to your college days where you used to buy 1-2 cigarettes, that too on loan.
Or if you can afford cigarettes buy them and put them in a metal case to avoid those gruesome pictures.


I have tried to be neutral here. If in the beginning of the post I sounded like an anti-tobacco activist I have made some amends at the end.

This is one issue which we start a debate on it will last till eternity. I know 500-1000 words a little too few to sum my thoughts. Probably the readers can take it further by
their comments.

Love,
Saket.

Why Does No One Wants Rural Development Ministry?

Hi All,

As I am writing this Cabinet formation of the new government would have been hopefully finalised.IPL is over but the current drama ensures that we have our daily quota of theatrics and entertainment uninterrupted.This means that among other poachers, a shameless Mr M. Karunanidhi would have negotiated a deal between his wives,children and extended family.

After garnering 206 seats,it's biggest rally in last three decades Congress would have never thought it will face such strain in Cabinet formation.We the populace wanted to believe those reports that said the PM has put his foot down and denied the key infrastructural ministries to
non performers and corrupt Balu and Raja.But Congress backed out and all our hopes of a performance oriented Government were dashed all of a sudden.

What was really fascinating in this circus was the completely honest display of venality in an open,brazen demand for what they call plum 'ATM' ministries.What i want to ask the shameless DMK chief is does the ministries of Rural Development or Water Resources or Labour or Enviroment,serve the nation any less than the ministries he is demanding.Whom should we thank that the great leader married 'just thrice' and not more otherwise only God would have known how many more kids he would have and how many more ministries he would have asked for.

What is heartening is that Mr Balu has been asked to stay away.To throw some light on him, he reduced the Highway Expansion programme to a joke in his previous stint as Surface,Transport and Shipping Minister.He also pushed for Sethusamundram project much against environmental and political counsel.I wish when the list of portfolios come out tomorrow, merit of the individual is a parameter to the portfolio assigned to him.

A lot was made about the youth power of the Congress but the average age of the first 20 ministers sworn-in was 66.Now this is a complete U-turn of what Rahul baba preached and promised.

I just hope that Mr Manmohan Singh delivers on the mandate given mainly to his image of a man who wants to set up good governance and makes a team which does not treat Ministries as ATM but dwell on performance and proper administration.

Again I have lot to write but will save it for next posts.

Love,

Saket.

Has India got what it needed?

It's a week now that Election results are out.That the results were surprsing will be an understatement.Here is what I analysed about the results.

WHY THE CONGRESS LED UPA WON :

1. A VERY SUPPORTIVE AND BENIGN MEDIA : Now I know this will will invite some comments but this is what anyone who closely watched the month long poll drama on TV,newprint will conclude.Just have a thought on this : Internal Security in complete doldrums,prices of essential food prices up by almost 42%, job losses all around.Given their proclivity for sensation and, hence, the emphasis on the inane and the trivial, they have tried to project these elections as one without any issue.This is truly shocking.Apart from these there are many other areas in which I feel government has not lived upto expectation.And leaving the first reason i.e the internal security , all other factors directly affect the 'AAM AADMI'.(Though internal security is one of the primary reason this govt should have been thrown out).If anyone had a chance to glance any of the English media channel, it appeared they are serving as a mouthpiece of the Congress party.NDTV,TIMES NOW and to an extent CNN IBN too, were just too busy castigating the 'communal' BJP and singing praises of Congress to dwell upon the shortcomings of the government.The same secular Congress has now asked from support from AUDF, as secular a party as Congress is.Now if anyone wants to know what is AUDF please google it.This party has taken the first successful step in making Assam a second 'Kashmir' for India.Now after the poll results so predictably NDTV has wriiten a 'Rahul Chalisa' with all it's anchors(Barkha Dutt leading the pack) beaming pleasant victorious smiles.



2. WELFARE SCHEMES HELPED IN RURAL AREAS : One area where the Manmohan Singh govt scored was the 'rural welfare'. Early analysis shows the loan waiver might have helped in garnering votes though some analysis shows it was not such a huge factor.Most badly affected area with maximun farmer suicides Vidharbha in Maharashtra didn't seem to like the loan waiver and Congress fared badly here.So it can't be validated that it was the deciding factor but nonetheless it was a factor.Rural employement scheme though really helped Congress in rural parts.This scheme was designed in way that help directly reached poor without much clauses.Same was not for loan waiver.There were many clauses to avail that and probably that was the reason it was not the deciding factor.But all in all Congress scored quite well in rural parts of India.



3. Minority votes consolidation helped : This is one of the most important reasons Congress did well in UP.The Muslim votes were consolidated towards Congress and the biggest loser in UP was SP on this count.Congress more than doubled it's seats in UP and minority appeasement (Sachar Commission,Quotas in various spherew) really helped Congress.Even in Orissa the analysis shows the Christian minority were quite sure in voting for the winning candidate except if itwas a BJP candidate.This wil pave way for more minority appeasement in coming years.



4. PM's CLEAN SQUEAKY IMAGE CLICKED WITH URBAN VOTERS : Mr.Manmohan Singh may not be a mass leader,but right from his days as FM in Narsimha Rao govt., he has upheld this image of a man of integrity, a rarity in Indian politics.He may not have done wonders to Indian economy in last 5 years but he had Left with him which didn't help in carrying reforms further.Also his stubborness in signing of Nuclear Deal helped him identify with Urban middle class as a man who means business.



5. A DIVIDED OPPOSITION : The main opposition party BJP was a largely divided house.There was a huge infighting which resulted in adverse results in Rajasthan,MP,Uttarakhand and to a certain extent in M.P..Certain states have alliances which indiretly helped Congress.In Maharashtra,Raj Thackeray led MNS ate up the vote share of BJP-SS and in Mumbai all seats went to Congress.In Tamilnadu,Vijayakanth led MDMK helped the UPA led coalition in the way that the opposition votes were divided between AIADMK and MDMK.So the rout which everyone was expecting in Tamilnadu never happened.Similar was the case in Andhra Pradesh where superstar Chiranjeevi though opened his account in politics but more so on behalf of opposition TDP rather than Congress.In all these states vote share of Congress led UPA has fallen compared to 2004 General Elections still it came up as the largest coalition due to division of votes.



6. OPPOSITION'S AGENDA WAS NOT COHERENT : If the media is to be blamed for not highlighting the shortcomings of the govt.,then I will blame the opposing parties too for not doing the same.BJP came up with Swiss money issue though I believe they should have focussed on prices of essential commodities.I mean what has the poor living in a remote village of UP,Bihar etc has to do with Swiss money.He won't identify with this.The opposition faltered in not raising Internal Security threat as an election issue.After 26/11 Delhi still voted for Sheila Dixit failing to identify with Terrorism as an issue(shocking isn't it) and that deterred any opposition part to base their attack on Congress on terrorism.

Now there is a lot which is to be discussed and argued but I want the readers too to take it further.

Please feel free to post your comments.

Love,

Saket.