Two for Two & More.......

In my last post I made some comments about the recent setbacks to the Bush Administration. Within a short period a lot has occurred including the election losses by the ruling congress party in India and recent assassination of former Pakistan PM Benazir Bhutto, who was considered a favorite to win the upcoming national elections in that country.

I mentioned that US - India Nuclear deal is dead, I rushed to conclusions on this one. Looks like the election results in India and Bush administrations reinforcement of the deal might lead to deal being approved by the Indian polity. With the Lok Sabha elections looming, ruling party would like to have this on its resume. So we should watch and wait for the official word on this deal.

As for the situation in Pakistan, I was cent pertain right about America's ill advised trust in the Pakistani president parvez musharraf. He is and will do everything to stay in power. This does not mean that he carried the attack on Bhutto but he is certainly responsible and happy to see her go. People around the world including Indians and Pakistanis are expressing their shock on the incident, but for me it was a sad happening but certainly not shocking. I have not seen any intelligence report suggesting that the intelligence community was not expecting another attack on her, I wish she survived this attack, but what is done is done. Now she is a martyr to everybody. Instead this might turn out to be a historic moment for Pakistan and maybe Americans realize what a big blow it is to their interests in the region.

I think the incident marks as a testament to the unspoken favor to musharraf by al-qaida, people forget that there was an incident back in the mountains of Afghanistan when Americans came close to getting bin laden, it was widely reported that Pakistani army rescued several of the taliban, by air lifting them when they were surrounded by US forces, without any exit. We also need to look at the treaty between the north west tribals and the current Pakistani Govt. These seem to be favors by musharraf to extremists in Pakistan and Bhutto's assassination is a favor to musharraf by al-qaida, it does not change the fact that Bhutto represented the biggest threat to extremism in Pakistan. I can only hope this incident is the beginning of good things for Pakistan. We Indians cannot have an unstable neighbor.

Benazir Bhutto was a brave woman. The world needs more of them.

Two for two.....

The Bush Administration has received two setbacks in South Asia in a one month span. The much touted Nuclear deal fell through because of the Democracy in India and the chance of return to Democracy dropped by the general in Pakistan.

What does the good old US lose? US lost billions of dollars in business if the Nuclear deal went through, it lost a chance to reduce Global warming, it lost a chance to reduce economic Inflation and above all it lost a chance to become India's #1 friend.

Even though India was to gain much from the deal, the process of democracy was upheld and that should be applauded. Who knows maybe we were compromising our National Security, instead we compromised National prosperity. Only future will tell us, Even after the deal's downfall, India is not far away from getting all the nuclear power. The pollution we generate in future will make the world request us to take up Nuclear power, maybe then we do not have communists, who count.

Compared to this the emergency in Pakistan is a bigger blow. No dictator in history has ever embraced democracy. You would think Bush administration would know this, after all nobody brought down more dictators than uncle Sam. On top of that, this same administration will be remembered as the reason for Saddam's downfall. When you count a dictator as your number one ally in the fight against terrorism, something is fundamentally wrong in the thinking itself.

What does Bush Administration lose in this, it lost its face.

Difficulty Breeders....

Oct 15th, 2007, last day to file for tax returns for people who took filing extension in April, 2007. I was one of them and waited until the last minute to file my taxes. At first I waited until last minute in April and due to not completing the paperwork in time, got an extension for Oct. How lazy of me. There was only one good thing in the whole process, my attorney was busy both times leading me to believe that there are more people in this world like me. Well this is just one more of such things where I had company. But this time I thought about it and here I am writing about what I thought.

Why do all of us make things difficult for us? its so easy if we just do it the first time and not wait until the last minute. If you just take a moment and think about what is happening around us and see how many people do what we do, u will be surprised. We people in general make things difficult for ourselves. It is not just individuals, its group of individuals and even governments, including the best there are.

Here is one example... Why is Manmohan Singh embarrassed about the N-Deal episode? Does not he get it, that he needs the parliament to approve any deal? does not he get it that before that he should get his coalition to approve it? I can go on with more examples...no need though...I think I made my point.

so "Just Do It" Damn it.

Economics of Obesity

I see a lot of ridiculous surveys come up in the news on a daily basis. I see them and always come up with better ideas for surveys. Well I came up with one today. I was reading somewhere about the rising prices of wheat, corn and milk etc., because of increasing demand from Asia and use of these things for other purposes (eg. Ethanol production). Also a number human beings are gaining weight and of course the world population growth. All this brings in more demand and when demand rises non-proportional to supply, prices go up (Basic Economics). Well Population growth will be taken care of by the superpowers when things get ugly on the third rock or we are introduced to aliens, but what does the over weight people doing to the demand? why does we have to pay a dollar for a Big Mac? why not 50 cents? anyway somebody should find out. I do not know if somebody has already found out but if not this might be helpful information, this might be a good project for an MBA or an Economics student class.

What's in a name? 60+ years of a country's history

What's in a name? Well the next time you raise this question, remember the following.......

Sonia Antonia Maino a.k.a. Sonia Gandhi (religious affiliation Christianity) W/O Rajiv Gandhi F/O Rahul Gandhi CB/O Varun Gandhi S/O Maneka Gandhi (religious affiliation Sikhism) W/O Sanjay Gandhi S/O Feroze Gandy a.k.a. Feroze Gandhi (religious affiliation Zoroastrianism) H/O Indira Priyadarshini a.k.a. Indira Gandhi D/O Jawaharlal Nehru S/O Motilal Nehru (religious affiliation Hinduism)


Forbes..........thoughts........
Sonia Antonia Maino - Nobody
Sonia Gandhi - World's 6th most Powerful Woman (2007)

I was considering religious affiliations at birth, I could not come up with religious affiliations for some people mentioned above, reason being bit too confusing for me.

Also, if you know the list of Indian Prime Minister's, you may come to a conclusion that a donkey has a better chance when he/she is from Gandhi family than yourself, if you both are considering to contest for India's Prime Ministership. Sorry Sonia, truth hurts baby.

Guns or Roses

There was a small arms survey done by Graduate Institute of International Studies. According to the survey there are 875 million guns held by civilians around the world. 270 million of them are with Americans. Shockingly (for me) India is second on the list with number of guns. Indian civilians have 46 million guns. Even though the number of guns per 100 people is very small for India, I could have never imagined more Indians have guns than anybody else except Americans.

I am an Indian living in USA. Concerned countries being #1 and #2 on the above mentioned list. I am living in a society where almost everybody has guns, but this very society is considered a very safe society. I do not disagree with that a whole lot. When I go out I do not worry about getting shot. But I do have difficulty understanding the need for guns. I could only come up with one, which is making me think of owning a gun myself. Looking at the numbers what happens if there is a conflict? what happens to those who do not have a gun? the only justifying reason I came up with is everybody has one, I do not want to be left out.

The other reasons which are a little farther from reality for me to own a gun include - one day I want to represent India in the Olympics or go on a hunting trip.

Now I am looking at owning a gun myself. This is a shocking development even for me, u would understand if you read my post after the Virginia Tech massacre.

What do I know about India?

Whenever I call home and talk to my family and friends and try to preach them, they would just tell me - You don't know nothing about India maan, you live in America. What do you think Hyderabad is the same? you visited two years ago, there is a earth-sky difference from then and now. You Don't know Nothing.

Well my response is always been - Come on don't give me that crap. I know enough about India and Indian people, I lived in India for 23 years you know and have you heard about Internet, I would know things before they happen you know.

This might have happened to lot of you guys and gals out there. The last time this happened I decided to take more interest in the news from India, which I have gone away from.

My belief is a country will go as far as the people of that country. I quote Mahakavi ("The Great Poet") Gurujada Appa Rao "Deshamante Matti Kadoi Deshamante Manushuloi" meaning - A country is made up of people not soil. It is considered the universal truth. I have spent the last seven years in USA, but never stopped talking to my family and friends in India during that time. I hear the same things I heard back when I was in India. Though I cannot base the whole country's progress on the progress of these few I have always interacted with, I can certainly see why the progress of these few have been limited. India has certainly progressed during this period, maybe faster than some people might have thought, but not fast enough, not for me. Why do I think such is the case, its simple, India has become a larger free market during this time. Any free market depending on the size of the freeness, will progress proportional to that.

Anyway, economics aside I will go back to taking more interest in the Motherland, I decided to watch the new acclaimed movie "Chak de India". I could not watch more than first five minutes. The movie starts with a hockey match between India and Pakistan. Watching the speed at which the hero and other so called athletes were playing I could not take it anymore. It is a complete disrespect to the sport itself, because in reality the intensity on the ground will be so high that the athletes in such a match will have additional testosterone going. This first five minutes of the movie shows you the progress Indian cinema has made. I don't think the hockey players around the world would appreciate it for its depiction of a real life hockey game. of course they cannot replicate the reality but they can certainly reduce the gap. Well it resembled more to a street hockey game.

I would definitely love to see India progress at the current rate or at higher rate in the future. Once again that depends on how fast we Indians progress.