What if Trump triumphs!

After Donald Trump’s proposed ban on Muslims from entering the US, he has lost business associates and his businesses, at a rate faster than you could say “TRUMP”. 

In several countries, his business billboards and hoardings have been taken down. His products have been pulled off the market. His controversial statement evoked outrage from many corners of the world. His comments were widely criticized, prompting many people to respond in anger. 

Describing Trump’s speech as “hateful”, Mark Zuckerberg spoke out in open support of Muslims, saying “If you’re a Muslim in this community, as the leader of Facebook I want you to know that you are always welcome here and that we will fight to protect your rights and create a peaceful and safe environment for you.”

Close on his heels, followed Google’s Sundar Pichai vouching his support for Muslims, saying "open-mindedness, tolerance and acceptance of new Americans is one of the country's greatest strengths and most defining characteristics. And that is no coincidence - America, after all, was and is a country of immigrants". 

Surprisingly, response to Sundar Pichai's statement has been quite subdued in India. In fact there were scattered murmurs of criticism and abuse in the cyberspace. As usual, the self appointed tour operators advised him to go to Pakistan. Some were even offering additional options like Syria, Iran, Iraq, and other such places. It is ironical that just a few months ago Indians went gaga over his appointment at Google. It is such a hypocrisy how the Indian psyche has changed in recent times.

Donald Trump’s extremely aggressive stance is making his own party chiefs very uncomfortable and worried. They fear that his hate speeches could have a backlash on their party at the elections. Even with the mounting criticism, Trump vowed never to leave the presidential race.

So, here is my question. Will Trump triumph in the US presidential elections? My feeling is, a section of the Americans may be swayed by his speeches and his revolutionary promises and may even vote for him. But I doubt very much that he would be elected as POTUS. 

From his speeches and statements in the press, Donald Trump comes across to me as arrogant and rash. More than that, his rhetoric of hatred and xenophobia is a serious cause for concern. It rings alarm bells!

On the other hand, if George Bush could win and even get reelected, why not Trump! Many experts even say that Trump is not only a viable candidate, but according to GOP polls  his lead has been increasing by the day. It has been also reported that since his hate speech, donations have been pouring in to his campaign coffers. With this kind of support, it is very likely that he will be one of the front runners.

One of the hot topics trending on the social media and discussion forums is, assuming Trump gets elected, will it work out for good or bad for US and the world in general. If bad, how worse could it get. 

It is possible that things may work out for the better. But in the worst of worst case scenario, here is what I imagine could happen, if he really means all that he is saying he would do if elected: 

Closer to home, the American society may get divided and torn apart in strife like never before. With more lenient gun control laws, the states may start looking like the “wild wild west”.

On the international front, with his continued hateful and xenophobic attitude, he may upset many nations, including some of the allies of US. Many of them could even get alienated. Relationship between the US and Russia may deteriorate to such an extent, that the world may see a "rewind" to the cold war era with many more players taking sides, with much worse implications. There could be many conflicts between a new divided world order, with devastating consequences, leading to global socioeconomic and political crisis. There could even be the possibility of a depression, this time much worse than the Great Depression of the 30’s.

On the brighter side, I don't reckon there would be a third world war. I don’t think anyone would be foolish enough to think that they can nuke a country and not feel the ripple effect of annihilation. No, I don’t think anyone would want to risk such a situation.

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Listen to the clarion call!

India is facing spate of disasters, some natural, some man made,

* Torrential rains in Chennai never seen before in recent times, rains deluging the whole city. So severe that the city is still reeling from its effect and desperately trying to cope with the after-effects, trying to recover and return to normalcy.

* Kerala State is facing backlash from Chennai floods through rising water levels in Mullaperiyar dam

* Severe water shortage in Telangana State for weeks now.

* New Delhi is facing death-threatening smog and severe pollution level which is reported to be 24 times above normal levels. The air is so toxic that schools had to be shut down.

*  Tremors were felt in most parts of Northern India today.

Similar disasters are being faced in other parts of the world,

* Beijing is facing toxic smog, so severe that red alert had been issued and schools have been shut down.

* Tajikistan was jolted by 7.2 magnitude earthquake today.

* Northern England was whipped by floods caused yesterday by Storm Desmond, so severe that many schools were shut down and many residents evacuated.

It sure looks like a showdown between "devastated" nature and "destructive" man. No prizes for guessing who will win the battle, unfortunately. Are we ready and prepared to face the consequences?

When calamities occur, they affect every individual, irrespective of color, creed, religious, communal and sociopolitical divisions. It is a proven fact that when nature gets angry, we  can run but can never hide. It sure sounds like doomsday, but I am sure man will prevail. At what cost, one cannot say.

It is high time for man to pause, think and set the priorities right. Nature seems to be desperately issuing a clarion call for better treatment. It seems to say, "you take care of me and I will take care of you"! 

It is time to start treating nature with more respect and utmost care for our environment. Alarm bells are ringing, we better pay heed, for our own sake.

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Eraviperur Gram Panchayat, a Perfect Development Model:

This is an amazing story of not one, but a string of successes achieved by Eraviperur Gram Panchayat (Village Council) located in a remote part of Kerala, India. 

In four years it achieved complete digitization of its public administration functions. Certificates (birth, death, marriage) are issued same day, within minutes of receiving applications. 

Among other achievements are, free Wi-Fi to the public within accessible range, touch screen public kiosks for tracking files, ultra modern record rooms, bio gas plant, plastic shredding units, sanitation parks, and many others. A very interesting achievement is the use of shredded plastic along with tar in road works. That is quite an innovation towards reuse and environment conservation.

This Panchayat has also won string of awards of excellence for services related to health care, sanitation, bio-diversity conservation, high tech green village. Here is another uninque distinction it has achieved. This Panchayat is ISO-9001 certified for its Primary Health Center, perhaps it is the only one.

All these things achieved in just four years. Truly, Eraviperur Panchayat can easily inspire and serve as a model for every other Panchayat and Municipalities in the country.

What is commendable is the team spirit between the administration and the public. There were dialogues and open discussions and an enviable cooperation between administration, the opposition party and the public. 

It just goes to show that anything can be achieved without making a big noise about it, even by a government body. All it needs is a "will", honesty and integrity to succeed. 

Kudos to the administration of Eraviperur Gram Panchayat and to its people, especially to the Panchayat president N. Rajeev  for leading the pack so successfully.

Thanks to this source for this incredible story: The News Minute: Eraviperur Gram Panchayat Digitization

Unexpected act of kindness

This is an incident that happened almost twenty years ago but I still remember it very distinctly. My contract had ended with the organization I was working with. I had option of choosing from couple of offers for a job change. I was quite keen on one of them. But as the recruitment procedures were taking more time than expected, I decided to wait for the completion of formalities for the new job of my choice and hence had to leave Oman.

I did not want to sell my car as I was certain of returning, hence I decided to transfer it in the name of a friend for safe keeping until my return. My car was in joint ownership of the organization and myself. Therefore, I needed letter from the organization to transfer the ownership to my friend.

It is not a secret that many organizations in this region carry a “colonial” attitude in dealing with their employees. Most managers go around with a demeanor that of a dictator. They literally treat the employees as slaves. There was this invisible sword of “sacking” hanging always over one’s head. They would resort to everything possible to make things difficult for the employee. Things may have changed now for the better. I would not know as I have been very fortunate to be working with organizations that valued the worth of its employees, since I left this organization.

It was the last working day of the week, closing time was 1:00 PM. I was quite apprehensive of things moving slowly, hence I went to the transport office first thing in the morning. As expected,  nobody gave me definite answer on when I would get the letter. Finally after following it up several times, I got the letter along with "end of service settlement" around 11:30 AM. I went to the bank, encashed the settlement cheque and rushed to the Vehicle Registration Office. I had to hurry because the office closed at 1:00 PM.

The Vehicle Registration Office was more crowded than usual, as it was the last day of the week. I had to complete three procedures, application form verification, fee payment and transfer completion. As I was standing in the queue, I kept glancing at my watch. Finally after what seemed like an eternity, I got my application verified and moved over to the payment counter. By then it was almost 12:30 PM and there were only three men ahead of me. I heaved a sigh of relief, as I stood awaiting my turn. And then, it happened! 

The whole place went dark, it was a power outage. I stood there dazed and stunned, wondering "oh no, what will happen now, it was already approaching closing time, what will happen to my car"! I was jolted back to reality by a voice coming from somewhere behind the counters. Then I realized that the whole place had become empty and I was the lone man left standing in the darkness. I felt so stupid! As I looked towards the direction from where the voice seemed to come, I saw a police officer addressing me and asking what was wrong. I explained my situation to him, that I had to transfer the car in my friend’s name before I left the country that evening.

The police officer took my application and told me to come to the rear entrance of the building. I rushed out and went around the building looking for the rear entrance. It was a restricted area, entry allowed only for police personnel. As I approached the rear entrance, I saw the police officer standing in the hot Sun with a file in his hand. As I approached him, he handed over the transfer completion document and a manually prepared receipt for cash payment. I gave him the money and took the document, thanking him profusely. He just smiled and said “no problem, go”.

The police personnel in Oman are extremely courteous. Even if you are pulled up, the first thing they would do is greet you with “Salam Alaikum”, followed by hand shake and then only they get down to business. It is really very heart warming, something quite different as compared with what happens around some parts of the world. Of course as the saying goes, “you can always find few rotten apples in every basket”. But, it is better to cherish the good experiences and forget the bad ones.

But I was too flabbergasted at what just happened. It was absolutely unbelievable that someone, a police officer at that, would go to such an extent to help you out in such a situation. He could have just as well looked the other way and carried on with his work. But he chose to empathize with the state of quandary I was in. Something really extraordinary! 

Later when I returned to Oman, I went looking for the kind police officer. I remembered him only by his face. I searched, but could not locate him. I tried to look for him during subsequent visits but coild not find him. Either he had been moved to another department or location or he had retired. However, to this day, I cherish his act of kindness.

                                 *****

A matter of words and context!

Adesh Srivastava, the Hindi film composer and singer, passed away on 5^th September 2015, a day after he turned 50! May his soul rest in peace!

It is such a coincidence that just a few days ago, I was made to watch a video in which Adesh Srivastava was present! Why I was made to watch that video, is quite interesting!

Our development team was preparing for the demonstration of one the systems to a new group of users. At the end of the preparation, one of the programmer was requesting me to be present during the system demonstration. He said it would give them confidence to do a good presentation. I replied that they have become experts on the system, hence, there was no need for my presence.

One of the programmers, said “we want you to be there so that you can give us ‘history’ after the presentation”. I could not quite understand what he was trying to convey. The other team members stared with puzzled looks as well. We thought that, he was having difficulty in using the right terminology, may be getting confused with some other word!

To make us understand what he was talking about, he started playing a video on YouTube. It was a video of an Omani singer, Asma Mohammed Rafi, who was one of the participants in one of the seasons of SaReGaMaPa TV musical show. I remembered that season, it was one of the most entertaining of seasons, more so because of the Omani singer! But I was quite flabbergasted why the programmer was showing us that video. What was the connection between a system presentation and a musical show! He looked at our confused faces and said, “Wait, wait, it will come”.

At the end of the song, the judges started giving grades for the song rendition. Adesh Srivastava, one of the judges, was the first to judge and he gave “History” grade, the highest grade.  At that moment it dawned on me what the programmer was trying to convey! He wanted me to be present during the system demonstration and give my assessment of their presentation. I started laughing at the whole thing!

The programmer was right in what he was trying to convey but it did not make sense to me until he showed the video. The word “history” has its many standard meanings as we know, but in that season of SaReGaMaPa, “History” was one of the grades for judging the songs, others being “Hit” and “Superhit”.

It just goes to show, that it is not just the words that are important, but also the context which is more important! Because, sometimes a word spoken out of context, could convey entirely a different meaning and could even create utter confusion and chaos, sometimes even misery!

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The power of saying "NO"!

In 1909, Harry Gordon Selfridge came up with the phrase “The customer is always right” as a business strategy to attract and please his customers. Which translates into saying "YES" to whatever the customer wants. Unfortunately that strategy does not always work.

Sometimes, you have to say "NO". There is more power in saying "NO"!

Sometimes we come across people who are impossible to deal with. They make all sorts of unreasonable demands and suggestions based on misdirected assumptions and most of the time, due to ignorance and even arrogance due to their positions. I have come across several such people in my professional experience.

Some clients are so unreasonable and bull headed, that no amount of convincing and arguing helps. It is absolutely useless to even try to convince them. Whatever you try, it only ends up in utter waste of time. To such clients, it is better to simply say a big “no” or even to say “take a hike” or “go fly a kite”!

During implementing a system, the management of our client had appointed a Senior IT Person for coordinating the project. During initial stages of the project itself I was quite apprehensive on the success of the project because of this person’s obnoxious behavior. Fortunately for us, he was sent to UK on a course. This was indeed very good news for us, a blessing in disguise.

A younger person was appointed in his place who had recently graduated in IT.  I realized that the Young Man was thirsting for knowledge and experience, and that was a good sign. He was full of excitement and had a very pleasing attitude. He organized the user meetings smoothly and even acted as a translator when we had to deal with some users who were not comfortable with English language. Everything went on smoothly. The system was developed according to plan and it was ready for User Acceptance Testing.

Unfortunately for us, the Senior IT Person had returned from the course.  The Young Man had to transfer his duties back to the Senior IT Person and that was not good for us. This time, not withstanding his obnoxious attitude, he was full of “UK returned” attitude. We handed over the system for user acceptance testing along with documentation with step by step procedures on system setup and testing conditions based on agreed test samples.

For several days nothing happened. When I asked why the testing had not started, the Senior IT Person looked at me with that “fresh UK returned” arrogance and said “Why should we go through all these lengthy procedures? With a click of button the system should give us results!”. I paused for few moments trying to compose myself and then I asked him, “You are a computer science graduate, have you heard of GIGO?”. He had never heard of it. He simply retorted “What is it?”. I said “It means ‘garbage in, garbage out’. If you enter garbage, the system will give you garbage. Since you do not even want to enter anything, the system will give you nothing, not even garbage”. With that I walked out, with the Senior IT Person red in the face.

He made a big issue out of it. We did not know what he had told the management, but they were pretty upset. An emergency meeting was scheduled. When we entered the meeting hall, the place looked quite tense. It turned out that the Senior IT Person had misled the management into thinking that we wanted to run away without completing the project. I quietly explained to the management everything that had transpired. The manager was quite embarrassed, but he was graceful enough to apologize for the unfortunate incidence. He immediately took the Senior IT Person off the project and replaced him with the Young Man . From then on, things went on smoothly. We handed over the project few weeks earlier than promised.

In the beginning of the project, the manager had said that if we finished project on time he would reward me. I thought he was just joking. But he surprised me with a gift. It was Christmas time when we finished the project. He gave me an envelope saying, “this is your Christmas gift”. Inside the envelope was a job offer! I was over the moon, for it was a very substantial offer! Unfortunately it did not work out, as someone else made a job offer with working conditions exactly to my liking.

I am sure lots of people come across such impossible situations in their day to day professional life, one way or another.

One day during the time when we were learning swimming, I saw a man walking towards the swimming pool with his wife and two teenage daughters. He was beckoning to the swimming coach. After talking to them in whispers, I noticed the swimming coach becoming quite angry and upset. As he swam back towards us, he was cursing and muttering under his breath. When I inquired what the problem was, he said the man wanted him to teach his daughters swimming without touching them. He also put the condition that the girls would wear their arm length regular dresses, not the swimming costumes. The swimming coach simply told him to go find some other coach!

Sometimes diplomacy may work, but not always. Most often, being brutally straight forward saves lot of grief. I have seen many people, mostly marketing and sales guys, making unrealistic promises just to get business. They may not even know the nitty-gritty of the technical aspects of the project, anyway they go ahead and make the tall promises. Most of the time these projects end up in failure and financial losses. I have seen quite many people fall from grace as victims of such mistakes.

More than saying “yes” one has to learn how to say “no” for, "customer is not always right". It will certainly save you from lots of grief and financial losses!

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It needs guts to do this!

This is an unusual, but very inspiring true story. It is the story of Sriram and Karpagam. Sriram is an IIT-IIM graduate, while Karpagam was a Commerce & Management graduate and a top ranking executive in a shipping company.

Both met while volunteering for a non-profit organization. That chance meeting not only brought them together, but made them both realize that they both wanted to do the same thing in their lives.

On a fateful day, they both decided to chuck their jobs and the city life. They escaped to the serenity of a rural life, close to nature, far from the hustle and bustle of the concrete jungle and all the toxic and maddening things it encompassed.

I am  sure many of us would have many times had such an urge while battling the challenges of grossly urbanized city life. 

But one has to have guts like Sriram and Karpagam to actually chuck everything, including lucrative jobs with its economic freedom, and opt for a simple life far from the city and all its superfluous attractions, that too at an age when career and wealth making is considered as the most important things in one's life.

We cannot but salute the resolve, conviction and the self confidence of this brave couple. Click for full story:   Story of Sriram and Karpagam

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The man with the lantern!

Quite often in our lives, we are subjected to situations that seem to test our faith in God. There are many stories of "test of faith", stories that reflect upon how people react when their faith is put to the test. I came upon one such interesting story that was narrated by one of the members of Legion of Mary.

Once a month, the members of Legion of Mary celebrate “Marian Devotion”. It is a ninety minutes of devotion, praying, singing of praises, and reflections on the life of Mother Mary. 

There is an overpowering atmosphere of fellowship and brotherhood with everyone greeting each other as “brother” or “sister”, with smiles on their faces, feeling quite at peace. Sometimes, the priest also joins along sitting with the congregation. All in all, it is quite a peaceful, comforting and a solemn affair!

In between praying and singing hymns, someone reads out a passage reflecting on events in the life Mother Mary or narrates a story of faith.

During one such event, the following story was shared by one of the members. I do not remember the story exactly word to word but I have tried to repeat it in my own words trying my best not to lose its central message.

This is the story of a man who prevailed when his faith was tested several times, on the same day. The man lived in a small town. He was an average person, just like you and me. He believed in his faith, not fanatically religious but reasonably righteous.

One Sunday morning the man started walking towards the Church to attend the Sunday Holy Mass. As he stepped out of his house, he felt the chill of the cold winter morning. He shivered a bit, hugged himself  and started walking towards the Church. 

The Church was not very far from his house, but this morning, the walk seemed a bit difficult. It had rained heavily the previous night and the road was wet and slushy and it was still quite dark.

As he came to a bend in the road, it was a bit difficult to cross the path, as there was a large puddle in the middle of the road. As he started crossing the bend, he slipped and fell to the ground. His dress got considerably soiled. "Surely I cannot go to the Church with my soiled clothes", he told himself. He turned back towards his house angry with himself for being so clumsy.

He could not understand how he could have slipped. He has been walking these roads all his life, but never once had he experienced this kind of an embarrassing situation.  

As he walked back home, he heard a voice whispering in his ears, telling him that there was no use trying to go back to the Church as he would not be able to make it on time. But as he neared his house, he told himself that it was still not too late. He would still be able to make it if he hurried up. He quickly cleaned himself, changed his dress and started walking again towards the Church.

It was still quite dark, too early for the winter sun to rise. As he came near the bend, he was very careful, not to slip again. He was very happy as he almost crossed the bend. But as he was finishing the last few steps, he slipped again and fell to the ground. The man was furious with himself. He could not understand how he could be so careless and clumsy yet again! He looked at his dress, cursing himself under his breath, he started returning home dejected.

As he started walking back, again he heard the voice whispering in his ears, for sure he would not be able to make it to the Church.  He should forget the idea of Church for today! It is too late! But as he neared his house, his resolve grew stronger. He told himself that it was still not too late. At the most, he would miss the recitation of  the Holy Rosary and the Litany of The Virgin Mary, but he would still be on time for the Holy Mass.

He quickly cleaned himself, changed his dress and started walking again towards the Church. As he was nearing the bend, he saw a man standing by the side of the road, holding a lantern. As he came closer, he saw that it was a wizened old man. He did not look familiar to him, perhaps a traveler from the next town.

The wizened old man started walking along the man, with his eyes on the ground, not saying a word. The light from the lantern helped the man to see the road more clearly this time. Both walked in silence and as they neared the Church, the man thanked the wizened old man profusely for his help and consideration. The wizened old man did not say anything. As he turned to leave, the man asked the wizened old man to join him in the celebration of the Holy Mass.

The wizened old man answered, “I cannot enter the Church”. The man was quite surprised and curious, he asked “why not?”.  In a sad and defeated voice the wizened old man said, “I cannot enter the Church because, you see, I am the Devil!”. 

That is when the man looked more closely at the wizened old man and noticed the deep, hollow, sad, sunken and deathly eyes. He felt a shiver run up his spine!

The wizened old man continued, “I knew that you were a man of faith but I was not sure just how strong your faith was. I made you fall, both the times, trying to shake your faith. But when you returned to the Church the first time, God was very pleased with you and He blessed you". 

The wizened old man stopped for a moment and continued, "The second time when I tried, again your faith prevailed. God was pleased more and He blessed your entire family. Then I realized, that you are a man of strong faith and testing you further would only increase the number of people being blessed and I did not want that to happen. So I wanted to make sure that you reached the Church safely without any further incidence”. 

With that, the wizened old man turned and disappeared into the chilly winter darkness.

It seems that when your faith in God is strong unconditionally and unshaken, even the Devil will be forced to bend its knees at your feet!

One might say, "what was the big deal, he could have prayed at home!". Sure, he could have prayed at home. But the celebration of the sacrament and sacrifice of the Holy Eucharist is central for Christian faith. It is an important grace given to the Christians. How could not a Christian yearn for that grace, the "Bread of Life"!

Community praying also has its own importance. "For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them." - Mathew 18:20

                                                        

Shot in the arm for Swachh Bharat Abhiyan

I don’t usually get excited about the Indian union budget. It is always almost pretty much the same. Few carrots here and there to please the vote bank, otherwise mostly it is the same, “old wine in new bottle". 

But the Union Budget 2015 was a bit of a surprise. The usual vote bank carrots were surprisingly missing. In fact most common response to the budget from people was that the budget was in favor of corporations, because of 25% reduction in corporate tax and it was against the common man, because of the increase in service tax from 12.36% to 14.42%. Though the percentage increase in service tax looks small, the net impact could be quite big because of the ripple effect it could have on all services and commodities. It always does!

For me, the main surprise was the budget allocated for building Six Crores of toilets across the country under “Swachh Bharat Abhiyan”.

I was quite skeptic of the whole thing when “Swachh Bharat” was initiated in October 2014, with the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi rustling some dead leaves, surrounded by cricketers, film stars and other celebrities. 

That was followed by some of his ministers getting on to the streets with much fanfare  and doing the sweeping act. It was reported in the media that truck loads of garbage was ordered to be spread on the streets for the ministers to sweep. That was very amusing news! India is not exactly Singapore or Switzerland where you have to go looking for garbage. In fact when you step out of the house you have to be very careful not to step onto garbage or dirt. Then why would the ministers order for truck loads of garbage to be spread on the streets! The only answer for that may very well be, "the ministers needed sanitized garbage instead of doing their sweeping act with stinky and smelly garbage".

The Prime Minister also  managed to rope in big names like Sachin Tendulkar and Amitabh Bachchan to join in the campaign. In one of the media coverage’s, Sachin Tendulkar was being interviewed by a senior journalist out in the street. Amitabh Bachchan also joined in on audio. "Big B" talking to "The God"!

Before the discussion could get down to serious business, Amitabh Bachchan took a dig at the dark glasses Sachin was wearing. That only made Sachin squirm in embarrassment. The tone and the way Amitabh Bachchan said it, it really sounded more like pulling the leg than compliment! It is amazing how celebrities vie for "one-upmanship"!

Amitabh Bachchan opined that in Switzerland, school students were made to clean streets as part of punishment if they were caught flouting school rules. He suggested the same could be adopted in India also. What a wonderful and novel idea! Most children cannot clean their own rooms but we would be seeing them cleaning the streets! That will be the day!

In Switzerland they have different colored trash bins for different types of trash. Even if anyone is caught throwing trash in the wrong trash bin, they would be fined heavily. In India we do not have such a problem. Even if you are a civic minded and law abiding citizen, it would first need a big effort to find a trash bin. Even if you find one, you cannot even get near it. Being crazy fans of cricket, all you could do is take a shy at the trash bin and hope it falls somewhere close to the trash bin.

Building a “Clean India”  is serious work. It needs dedicated manpower, lots of investment and lots and lots of awareness programs. It cannot be achieved through part time involvement of celebrities. Using celebrities to attract the attention of cricket and film crazy public may work to an extent, nothing beyond that. After all, the celebrities too have a living to make and of course they have to worry about their personal glory as well. They may get their fifteen minutes every time they appear for the campaign, but beyond that they need their own time to continue to be in the limelight! No amount of public adulation and worship is enough for celebrities!

The allocation of budget is definitely a shot in the arm for the “Swachh Bharat" mission. Let us hope that it is the beginning of a much needed clean living for our country. But it cannot happen without positive attitude and realization of the importance of personal hygiene from the people. It cannot happen without honest efforts from men and women entrusted with the responsibility of implementing the projects. 

The success of the campaign depends on answers to many questions.

• Will the money be spent honestly for its purpose or will it go into deep pockets of corrupt and shameless individuals and greedy corporations? 
• Are there enough controls to ensure accountability and ensure that the money is spent according to plans? 
• Will the public provide the support that is so important for the success of the campaign? 
• Will the public and the politicians rise above political party affiliations? 
• Will the states cooperate with the central government?

We have to wait and see, only time will tell!

                                  *~*~*~*~*~*~*

World full of suckers……

There is a saying in Hindi that roughly translates to “there is no dearth of fools in this world, you look for one, you will find thousands”. There are plenty of cases in real life that add credence to this saying.

This incredible story dates back to 1975.  Gary Dahl, a salesman from California, was one day having drinks with his friends. He listened to his friends discussing about pets, how difficult it was taking care of cats, dogs, birds, and other pets, how they made a mess of their homes, and how hard it was to control their behavior when their friends or guests visited their homes and how costly it was to maintain them.

As he went home, Gary could not help thinking about what his friends were discussing and as he pondered over it, a brilliant idea took shape in his mind. Why not a pet that did not cost much, that did not mess up homes and was not a nuisance and was easy to take care of! Like lightning an idea struck him, why not a “Pet Rock”!

Charged with his incredible idea, Gary went to a building material store and bought few rocks of different shapes and texture for less than a penny each. He made a beautiful “pet box”, put some straw in it and added a nice label that read “this box contains one genuine pedigreed Pet Rock”. He even added perforations to the box so that there was air circulation for the Pet Rock! He wrote a “Pet Rock Training Manual” with step-by-step instructions on how to take care of the Pet Rock (how to make your pet roll over, make your pet play dead, house-train your pet, …).

Gary was either a good natured guy who was just trying to be helpful to his friends or he was a genius who had a good understanding of human vanity and human weakness. Whatever he was, Gary was ready to sell his invention.

Would anyone fall for such a stupid gag, one would have wondered! People collect pebbles and shells, and other stuff but who would pay for a piece of rock you can find just about anywhere!

Well, when Gary introduced few boxes, his friends were thrilled with it. Soon news of the novel pet spread like wild fire. Gary was on the way to becoming a millionaire. Within months a million Pet Rocks were sold each for $3.95.

Many people were intrigued at the success of the Pet Rock. Some people were so outraged at the very idea of rocks being sold as a pet, they harassed Gary with lawsuits and threats. But nothing stopped Gary. He became a kind of inspiration to many people and even appeared on talk shows.

Experts who discussed about it at length, agreed that once in a while such “useless dumb jokes” become successful because it gave some people “few moments of absolutely meaningless pleasure in a troubled world”!

Some may say that the people of those times must have been raving mad or plain stupid to fall for such a gag! Well, stupidity and foolishness is not restricted to “certain times” or “certain generations”. People buy Pet Rocks even today. It is sold online for $12.95, with an added bonus of a leash. Hard to believe it? It can be ordered at Pet Rock Online .

Detailed step-by-instructions with pictures is also available for taking care of the Pet Rock. One such resource is at Pet Rock Care Manual .

You can even get a “Geeky” Pet Rock at Geeky Pet Rock. What is so geeky about it? Well, the Pet Rock has a USB connected to it. The other end of the USB can be connected to your laptop, desktop or any other smart device that has USB port. So what does the Geeky Pet Rock do? Nothing, it just sits there connected to your computer, without disturbing you! A sort of “being closely connected to your life”!

Over time, pet rocks have become quite popular among adults and children. Recently some school students sold pet rocks to collect money for fire fighters. Someone has even written a poetry on pet rock.

I am sure everybody must have heard of Tape Rewinder. During those days when Audio Cassette Players and VCR’s were the latest inventions, Tape Rewinders were quite popular. It was believed that rewinding the tape on Audio Cassette Players and VCR’s was not good because frequent rewinding of the tape would spoil the system.  Tape Rewinder was a better option.

But would anyone need a DVD Rewinder? Incredible as it may sound, such a product does exist . But what does a DVD Rewinder do? It spins the disc backwards, for a certain period of time. Does anyone buy this thing? Lots of people are obviously buying it online from DVD Rewinder . Lots of technical information is also provided by the manufacturer!

Will anyone in their right mind buy bull crap? Obviously, there are people (30,000 to be exact) who did just that!

"Cards Against Humanity” is a typical card game. According to the makers of the game “Cards Against Humanity is a party game for horrible people. Unlike most of the party games you've played before, Cards Against Humanity is as despicable and awkward as you and your friends”.

It was reported by the news media (Black Friday) that on 28 November last year, the makers of this card game suspended the sale of the cards, instead they sold $180,000 worth of Bull Crap as a protest against consumerism. 30,000 shoppers bought the Bull Crap packaged in beautiful designer boxes. From the report it appears that many shoppers were disappointed to find real Bull Crap in the box. Honestly, what else did they expect!

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Aam aadmi prevails!

Well done AAP! What a sweeping victory! The banners, headlines and statements screamed, “Jhadoo turns into Vacuum Cleaner”, “Mufflerman Returns”, “Aap ki dilli”, “Tsunami overtakes wave” and so on. But for me the best is, “AAP decimates BJP”!

It is a massive rout of BJP, a meager 3 wins against 67 wins of AAP. It is a reversal of national elections! Already the blame game has started in the BJP camp. But honestly, BJP lost it even before the election announcement was made. The last nail in the coffin was announcing Kiran Bedi as CM candidate. You could almost see Arvind Kejriwal almost smacking his lips at that announcement.

The BJP was overconfident and upbeat with the national win. They lost touch with ground realities. They thought they had the people of India in their pockets. But surprise, surprise! They got their reply! People threw all that “yojna bhasans” out of the window! 

To be frank, it is their own undoing. Even when their party goons were running amok everywhere, they just looked the other way. As if it was a silly matter, like kids playing minor pranks.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi went all over the world showcasing his oratory skills and bowling over everyone with his speeches. He spoke and spoke in volumes. But when his ministers went around making slanderous remarks and the bigots were running wild trampling people’s sentiments, he kept mum. Not a word, not even a whimper!

This loss should be a big lesson for the BJP, particularly to Narendra Modi. It is a big “whack on his back”. You cannot take people for granted with “all bhasan and no action”! You cannot keep quiet when people’s sentiments are getting trampled by your own party-men! If you have no control over your men, then you cannot call yourself a leader! This should teach everyone a lesson! 

The condition of Kiran Bedi is pathetic, to say the least! She enticed Narendra Modi to get her into BJP fold by heaping superlative praises on him. She thought she could not lose going by the BJP wave. What a surprise, what a disappointment, people did not fall for the trick. Overall, this election result is very healthy for India!

What will Kiran Bedi do now? Will she rejoin Arvind Kejriwal? She might try, after all she has proven what an expert she is at jumping camps and playing the blame game. She has already disowned BJP by saying “I did not lose, the BJP has lost”. In my opinion, she should give up her political aspirations and take up some social cause, like the brutal rapes and other atrocities being committed on women and little girls. She can at least salvage some of the pride and respect she once had!

By the way, I bet no one even noticed the “duck” scored by the Congress Party! Is it not high time to prepare a “time capsule” for the Congress Party?

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