the lotus eater ..

yes . opeth's new album shares the name with what has happened in indian politics .. shall i also say it was a 3rd front eater ??
i am no hard fan of any party or any person, but its too obvious why congress outperformed .. .as told by the inlighted people, this is the first time the young generation (40% of population) is going to vote . this young generation is however different from the previous young ones. . they are grown up after 1991 liberation of india ... that is actually a big turning point.. we know that the next generation would be learning all about the 1991 reforms, but though we're unaware of the importance of it, we've grown up in it and have just taken up stand against many things ..

firstly the religional divides. no guy supports it and it wont work. next comes development. we are pretty much aware of inclusive growth and think ideologically that with our increase in income, the poor should benefit as well. the days of lack of information are over . all the information is at a touch of a button. we are intelligent and thats why we decide after thinking. anyways, the major reason of the 'lotus eating' was rahul gandhi. the girls swoon over him while the guys consider him an intelligent guy after listening his conversation.

anyways, i am not a fan of his but there is just one thing the congress can boast of and that is the young brigade, with jyoti scindhya, sachin pilot etc . the point is that all the BJP leaders were due to emergency in 1971 and after that, no leader has come from its wings .. they have just grown older. even lalu, nitish were offsprings of 1971 emergency. anyways, the rahul factor has helped newer faces come into an imperialist party and helped its cause . thats why he got the praise which he deserves. coming to congress, it means business and it should, too . it should focus on inclusive growth, have a left inside it (to prevent any wrong action, which would make india suffer, cause though they are fools, they helped the last regime big time by stopping certain decisions on disinvestment and policy making. ) an example is the trouble chinese govt. is in and indian govt. hardly has a problem with US now, after its collapse is that left guys prevented indian PSU banks to buy fraudulent securities (of the AAA companies at that time) and it helped when we they crashed . had congress been alone, we'd have been in a bigger mess that we are in right now .

so, you've eaten the lotus, now you must open your minds policy makers ... think and think hard ! cause indians are good at it and we have that foresight to get us to greater heights than never before.

growing up

When a child, i was very much keen on growing up and being 18. the age is somehow so curious filled for a boy, making him dream that when at this age, he can do wonders .. know what the life is about and probably get a partner to marry .. and god knows wat shit ..
sadly, the boy learns earlier than 18 that the girl-boy thing and marriage thing is just a part of life .
but yaa .. the curiousity remains ..
at 18, u get to go to theatres, feel adult and be free ... and if u're lucky, you get to do what you actually desire of and to the parents, you dont need to give a damn .. another thing which happens at 18 is that you get to vote and participate in the society (thats too idealistic, but the post is about voting.. sadly).
when you reach 18, you just realize that there was nothing so great about it ... the movies, you've already seen, its just a common thing now and its not anymore curious... all that you get at 18 is the saddest thing .. you get to stand in queues and wait .. you have to wait for licence making, for college admissions, for bank operations and god knows what all .. hell, you even have to stand in queues for using public toilets, if its crowded, cause u cant give an excuse that u're a kid and cant control ur piss..
whatever, being a children is so way cooler. . no lines, you get all the things because of your 'innocence' factor and adults go way ahead to make you get what you want ... if your mom doesnt, your papa would . if he doesnt your relative or bigger brother/sister etc would give to your whims and provide you with all the things you need with a spoon ....

now, i finally turned 18 and got a voter ID card .. i even had the opportunity to vote .. sounds really exciting, participating in the biggest democratic process. being a part of the big society .. but sadly here too you had to wait in a line to get your turn. had i been too old or too young, i'd just have gone inside the booth and done the process.. (i tried to go inside, trying to be oversmart and pretending i couldnt see the line, had to walk out of the poll booth and join the line, thats when i decided to right about this post). anyways i got to vote and felt really satisfied when the results came out. plus, seeing the indelible ink on your index finger is way too cool. the color changes from light sky blue to dark blue to purple to brown and it finally wears off ... just reminds you of being a citizen who thinks about the society ... theres nothing else that is cool about being 18 ... ... nothing

but anyways, believe me, being old just makes get to know what is right or wrong. if you're not so lucky, probably you wont be able to understand what is right . right is right but wrong is also right. it just depends .. complex, convoluted life has no easy way out .. no shortcut (if you try shortcuts, you'd just enter the line like me). just toil and logic ..

IPL shuru !

IPL season 2 just started today and it feels great that we have some better source of entertainment apart from the stupid election bakwaas thats going on. i had the opportunity to talk with some slum people regarding the election thingy, too and the results are that people would remain fools while the politicians would remain 'gundas'/corrupt. while the male votes would still be sold in the name of liquor/other emoluments, the females are a subdued class and they will continue to vote to their husband's likings .. ...

coming back to IPL, it seems like a liquor haven too! apart from DLF sponsoring the league, everywhere u'll find different brands of the same company (UB) and apart from owning a team, vijay mallya has cleverly imprinted his brand on every person getting TV footage, from the cheergirls to the players to the commentators to even the umpires ! call that as advertising ......

another thing that deserves mention is that old is gold and this old saying will continue to remain true. rahul dravid is lovely and any criticism is just bad for the guy .... his elegance deserves a special mention and so does tendulkar. their greatness is and will remain supreme. one thing about dravid is his sheer strokeplay (and sometimes predetermined game, which lands him in trouble). and warne and kumble !!! how can someone talk about them ?? both have retired yes.. both are soo different in their approaches but both are equally successful. while warne can control the amount of leg-spin going in a delivery, kumble bowls to the limitations the batsman has. and some critics say indians fire only on indian grounds-that seems false, too. with tendulkar, dravid and kumble being in the limelight today and KP, flintoff, smith etc all bungling up, its obvious that indian cricket is and will be a treat to watch ....