A Joke called India

See what a few hopeless politicians can reduce a country to - A Big Fucking joke. The joke, at which the whole world can have a hearty laugh, shed some pity and walk proudly comparing their nations to ours. A bunch of fidayeens none aged more than aged 25 and with only a year of military training wreak havoc in India's financial Capital, killing us like we are crop to be harvested whereas our guardians - the police, the army and the government are reduced to mere onlookers.

At this moment of shame for my country I'm not only angry (the word will never do justice to what I feel) but very very curious. Why does a country our size needs to have the worst police to population ratio in the world? Why should our police force be over aged and undertrained? Why don’t our "elite" forces have the right equipment? Why does the chief of ATS have to die wearing a cheap bullet proof jacket that might not have been capable of stopping a bullet after all? Why does it take half a day to bring our best anti-terror squad from Delhi to Mumbai when journalists were able to do a better job? Why does our intelligence mechanism stink in spite of its crucial role in a geography like ours? What is a moron like Shivraj Patil doing trying to pretend being the Union Home Minister? (Maybe Mrs. Gandhi would know).And who is responsible for the deaths of our young officers and jawans?

Sadly most of us know the answers to all these questions. Just see how many of the above have bureaucracy /red tape/politics as their answer. We may pride ourselves as an IT superpower, an emergent global powerhouse, home to the best cricket team in the world (?), but can we hide the fact that we are possibly the worst governed state in the world? All thanks to our politicians and politics. May be we can also pride ourselves as being the voters who got them into their places either by voting for them or simply by not voting at all.

We are all angry at the state of affairs but a few months in the future we will all forget what happened. A mention of the Taj will only remind us of the monument in Agra and our TVs will be tuned to the latest gossip from Bollywood or whatever. We may be angry now but we won’t even be concerned once the news channels get weary of the whole issue. As a country it’s a shame that the people in the largest democracy in the world don’t take their democracy responsibly. We can blame the politicians and bureaucrats as much as possible, but the fact remains that we put them there. We by our narrow view of the society in terms of caste, religion, region etc etc. And when we see them failing we train our guns against them only to choose the next best crook. Yes, we make up by indulging in petty symbolisms like a candle march or a signature campaign which God knows who really cares about.

Nothing will change in our country till we don’t become responsible for what’s happening in our country. The first step I guess would be to become a responsible voter. What would be the next step? I have no idea. But I’m looking for answers. I hope I will find out sooner than later. After all it’s not a joke living in a country which has become the joke of the entire planet.
P.S: Sorry to all those I offended. They just need to do their jobs better.

On Blogs and Other things..

Who According to me should be the next TIME Man of the Year? It should be The Blogger. Everyone I come across is writing a blog these days. Guys(and some gals too) are taking to blogging like an Indian kid takes to Cricket. Mr Humble Genius is back on the blogging scene, so is Mr Baddy, Mr Arsenal has announced his arrival with a bang and Mr Eggcentric is continuing with full vigour without any egging from anyone(I cant name everyone here - mostly due to insufficient memory and time constraint, read patience). I have had the great pleasure in reading about diverse topics ranging from movie reviews to some serious introspection. In short,I have had a great time just reading everyone's post without writing a word(apart from the comments, which are mostly ignored).But it has made me wonder about a single thing i.e. what makes people - Blog?Is it the craving for recognition? Is it just an outlet for the anger and frustration that we all feel in varying degrees everyday? or is it the need for "Intellectual Masturbation"- that men/women of reasonable intellect are ready to do at the drop of a hat(One has to be in Calcutta to feel this phenomenon.BTW I have borrowed this term from my dear friend Sadhan).May be, I will never know. But from the posts that I have read(since the day I first heard the word - Blog) it is clear(or I think it is) that it's never one of the above, but rather a combination of those.I have been missing from this parallel universe for close to a year now.
I was holding myself back from adding a dash of mediocrity to a place teeming with brillance from the thousand of bright stars that inhabit it.Today I finally gave in to the temptation, a day I will surely live to regret. There have been a number of things since the last time I wrote. A quick update:

* I tried cracking CAT. Almost got addicted to crack instead.(The 2nd statement is imaginary.But do you care?)
* At my office we tried to screw the onsite guy by delivering crap two projects in a row.But he was dumb and the client dumberer.And we failed gloriously.
* Discovered a lot of places in Calcutta,now called Kolkata by some.Mostly eateries where the food is cheap and the service compensates for the great food.
* Had been to Sikkim with friends.Sadly most of my time was spent snapping photographs and the trip was over before I ran out of battery.Next time I will be going alone(i.e. without my camera) even if it means less scraps on Orkut.
* Made plans as well as arrangements to leave Calcutta thanks to the great excuse called Higher Education(where nothing but the fee is higher).
* Have completed a few books in between. The bulkier ones being Losing My Virginity(Dint say how he lost it. Should be sued by all those people who thought it was a sex manual) and Shantaram(a nice book where Greg Roberts relapses in periods of introspection every second page).
* Watched a lot of Movies a few good , a few bad and a few crap. There were very thin lines separating them and at times no line at all. "Into The Wild" is one of the most inspirational movies I have seen in a long time. Russel Crowe was good in American Gangster, so was Washington in the same movie and Manoj Bajpai in 1971. The Oscar movies were "Good" but very sleepy.I regret watching the hindi ones barring a few like 1971,Dharm,Mithya etc.
* Roadies 5.0. Noting unites MRM(short for Maa Raan Mansion - the place where I stay) like it does.Inspite of the bizarre concept, dumb babes, smart ass judges and kindergarten politics its still the best reality show on TV and its FREE(no SMSing).

Is that my boss approaching???It's time to get back to (pretending to)work!!