Arundhati Roy Strikes Again... Hits at Anna

She is the one, whom you love to hate. With her so called liberal mindset and activism, she always grabs attention and most of the time becomes target of news media and general public. She doesn't believe in the concept of nation. She is Arundhati Roy, author and activist, always in news

This time she has gone against the popular sentiments, as usual and targetted non other than the present darling of general public, "Anna Hazare".  In her Article " I 'd rather not be Anna" in "The Hindu", She has gone all out against Anna. Well , a known critic of government, Arundhati, this time surprisingly has somewhat came to rescue of government. You may argue on her way of writing, saying cynically Anna as saint, , but she has a point and one can always ponder about it. She  gives the other point of view of Anna's method and makes you think about his movement, for a while.

Her intentions are not clear, but she has this habit of going against the popular sentiments and s has done it again. But this time she is knocking the doors of large movement, which most Indian public support knowingly or unknowingly. She may be seen as Villain and may be as non Indian, as she states in her article. It is interesting to watch the reaction from Anna's team .

Please click here for the original Article published in Hindu by Arundhati Roy.

Indian Railways .. A turnaround story: Hype and Ground Realities

A Lot of things have been said about Indian railways and its revival. i have seen in news about various initiatives taken by railways and how the railways turned in to profit making entity from a loss making entity. Lalu prasad Yadav, our railway minister is being credit with for spearheading the effort of revival of Railways. Not only  the railways turnaround story has become a case study in many of the business schools but Lalu was also invited to give lecture on this story at IIMs.

Some of its efforts such as Internet ticketing, cargo services are very much appreciable and improved railways. But I am very skeptical about the few very important aspects, which are still lacking i.e. cleanliness and infrastructure. I happened to be there on two very important stations on Indian Railways Bilaspur and Allahabad last week. Both of these stations are considered main junctions.My stay at both these stations was prolonged due to some expected/unexpected delay of my train.I just tried to gauge both these stations.

Let me first describe Allahabad station. In my life I have not seen such a worst station. The entire station is just like a mess, unclean tracks and it was a nightmare for me and my wife to stay there for 4 hours waiting for my train. when you look at railway tracks at Allahabad station, you will see all the rubbish things including shit.  I had taken a picture of Railway track for posting in this site, but decided not to put it because people seeing the photo may not eat for next two days. So worse the railway tracks are maintained. . Even the stalls there are so unhygienic, it is impossible to buy any product there. One cannot imagine using toilets there. The total infrastructure is in mess.

This shows the ground reality of railways. Why no effort is being taken to clean up the mess here. Why officials are not questioned about such pathetic state of this station. One may answer it is too crowded. But I have seen crowded stations like Mumbai CST and Bangalore. At least they are not so bad and some efforts of keeping the station clean are visible. But at Allahabad, the name cleanliness it self is absent both with officials and travelers. Off course this is my first visit to this side of UP, but I have traveled extensively in south, west, central India and Delhi side.Hence probably I am deep shock after seeing the  mess.

On the contrary, I am little impressed with the Bilaspur station at least w.r.t cleanliness. Much better than Allahabad station. What further impressed me is that many of the stalls were given to private parties who have maintained it well. Also the display systems, courtesy of inquiry staffs were good. However the upper class waiting room was very badly maintained with broken chairs. After seeing the waiting room, I decided to spend time in Platform rather than waiting hall.

Why railways not talking about the modernization and improvement of amnesties. Why they are just going behind numbers.My sincere request to Railways is to take up the cleanliness as a main drive and drastically change it. This needs to be top driven and enforced. Few change like usage of suction type toilets as in west to be used instead of open toilets, which invariably makes the track dirty.The entire maintaining and cleaning job of platforms, tracks, toilets, rooms and waiting halls to be outsourced and given to private parties with accountability and deliverables. .All the new trains have to be very modern and comply with all sanitation and hygiene requirements. Otherwise what is the use of so much of profit (if I am right last year Railways generated 15000 Crores.)? It is always said that Railways is for a common man. That doesn’t mean that common man has to travel at such pathetic conditions. I totally agree that a common man has the full responsibility of not spoiling the railway stations and trains, but at the same time Railways has to provide such environment for a common man to think twice before he throws anything at railway station,at least in country like India where discipline is the last thing in a persons priority list. It was said that Kolkata Metro would be a mess after few years in a crowded city like Kolkatta, but look.. Even after so many years it is maintained at same cleanliness levels. So it is incorrect to say that people spoil the places. If a good environment and surroundings are provided, people cannot and will not spoil it.

After seeing Allahabad Station, I wonder whether revival of Railways is a reality or just hype. May be it is real when it comes to numbers but when it comes to ground realities, it is just a faux.

Wake up railways … Clean up, otherwise the next disease epidemic will start from railway station.

Critically yours

Kiran

Review of Official web sites of IPL teams

I came across official website of IPL team kolkata knight riders accidently and I was tempted to see the websites of other IPL teams. Thought of comparing themfor their looks & design, contents and usability .

My Verdict goes like this..

Overall Winner is Clearly kingsxipunjab.com followed by Delhidaredevils.com and Kolkataknightriders.com The kingsxipunjab.com is very different, looks historical with its epic booklooks. The design is fantastic. The Delhidaredevils.com is more stylish and comes close second. For the 3^rd position there is a close competition between kolkatanightrider.com and deccanchargers.com, but because of its content , the kolkataknightriders.com occupies 3^rd position.

It is worthy to mention that deccanchargers.com is a good site with neatly put contents. The chennaisuperkings.com also has reasonably good looks,contents and gets top position for usability.The websites of other teams like themumbaiindians.com, royalchallengers.com & rajastanroyals.com are normal and lacks attention.

Parameter wise ranking and Overall ranking of websites.

	Websites	Design & Looks	Contents	Usability	Overall
1		1	4	1	1
2		2	3	3	2
3		4	1	4	3
4		3	2	5	4
5		5	5	2	5
6		7	6	6	6
7		6	8	7	7
8		8	7	8	8

Click on the logo of respective teams to go to their website.

What do you think is the best website ,Put your comments
Critically yours
Kiran

“3 Mistakes of my life “, great and simple novel by Chetan Bhagat

I never get time to read novels, but I do try to take time out from my regular schedule and read once a while. I just finished a recent novel from Chetan Bhagat called “ 3 mistakes of my life” First let me clarify. I am neither an expert nor have a capability to review and judge the novels. My expressions below are purely my thoughts about this novel and its author.

Chetan’s earlier novels “One night @ Call center” and “Five point someone” were huge success and Chethan was able to develop his own group of readers. I had read his “One night @ call centre ” but still to read “Five point someone” I somehow like to read Chetan Bhagat’s novel because they touch upon the young Indian and are very different from other novels.They are more related to a common man especially youth and neatly reflects what we experience or do everyday in our life. His characters are just an reflection of oneself. Sometimes you can relate many of his characters to yourself or your neighbor. His novels are written in simple language and without much fanfare. As Chetan says in his blog “ I write to express, not impress”

” 3 mistakes of life ” is also one such novel, where Chetan tried to explore the typical Ahmedbad and its people. He talks about three friends, who are set to start a Cricket Goods shop and then narrates how relationships, religion, politics and business influenced or changed them. What is more interesting is Chethan’s ability to provide good background for the story and his  midas touch in keeping the story alive at every page.

His story tells us the typical life at Ahmedabad old city, where people have their own priortiies. His explanation of the day to day life of the Belrampur is quite interesting. The story also reflects the typical pro -business mindset of Gujarati community. If one stayed anywhere in Gujarat, he will definitely like the way Chetan put the things in his novel. The story also tells the impact of  communal riots on those  three friends and last few pages really keeps you too much involved in the novel. Overall a very good novel.

May be it is too early to compare. But I see a lot of similarities between Chethan’s work and Malgudi Days author R K Narayanan’s work. RK Narayan tried to explore the happenings of old village of Malgudi during pre-independence days where as Chethan is exploring the liberalised India and its youth in his novels. Both relates to common man and touch their readers with simplicity.

Hats off to Chethan. For more info Click here

Critically yours

Kiran

Anna Hazare’s Movement…. Key Success Factors

Its been some hectic past week . We have seen and heard everywhere all the talk about “Anna Hazare” and his fast , demanding the government to pass the  Janlokpal bill. The movement has gathered support from all corners, much to the surprise of many,probably Anna himself.

Lets understand why such a movement is able to garner so much of support of people from all walks of life ?.  Let us try to logically reason it out.

• It's not about Jan Lokpal

 We all know that very few know about the Jan Lokpal (Anna’s version) and Lokpal Bill( Govt. version) and the similarities and difference between them. General public has either got the time nor the expertise to understand the bill fully and comprehend it. The general public sees and understands a bigger picture. They are more tired and frustrated with the recent scams. May be it it 2G scam, CWG scam,Madhu Khoda scam, Adarsh scam or Karnataka mining scam. Everyone feels something needs to be done for this, and they found the Janlokpal bill and Anna's Movement as a tool to vent out their frustration.All these scams are also making people distancing themselves from politicians. So it has more become a battle between Netas and Aam Jantas.

• It's all about Anna

Today's politics really lacks a truly mass leader, whose charismatic style lures general public away. Earlier it was Gandhi, Nehru and then Indira,Jayprakaash Narayan or Vajpayee. In the absence of such leaders, the general public was always looking for a great leader and they found one with Anna Hazare, who possess a clean and credible image. When they found such a leader after a long time, people start believing that they have found one who can take their fight against corruption to higher scales.

• Herd Mentality

“My neighbor has gone to Anna’s possession” , “My friend has posted in facebook saying that he is supporting Anna”, “If I do not follow, then I am left out and probably be labelled as Non Indian” . This is the exact feeling, many of the Indians have in mind. Hence if someone else is doing, let me also do… a typical case of  herd mentality. The herd mentality converts in to a revolution when it reaches a critical mass and attracts people from all aspects of life. Anna’s movement has already reached a critical mass or is in the verge of reaching it.

Well I do agree that there needs to be a total support for movement against corruption. But at the same time, we can not just go by one view. There needs to be a debate .In one hand,  Jan Lokpal bill, which if implemented in its current version, may give sweeping power to one particular body, which is absolutely against the democracy, whereas  in other hand, if the powers are distributed, then too many loopholes encourage corruption. It’s a complex situation,  difficult to solve completely. Only an honest attempt , both from Govt, civic society and general public will help in curb the corruption. This is  easier said than done.

For a movement, Anna’s movement has energized most people. I hope that emotions and ego should not and should never over take the logic in such a sensitive issue with far reaching consequences to Indian democracy.

 Kiran

Is BJP ruining its first state government in South India

 In 2008, when BJP won near majority seats in Karnataka State Election, it was time for the celebration. Indeed it was the first state in South India to come to BJP's fold. There were some sympathies to BJP, after it was taken for a ride by JDS.  They were  unanimous in choosing their Chief Minsiter Mr Yeddyurappa, whom later media started calling as "Yeddy".But after almost 3 years into power, its time for BJP to revisit and learn from several events of the last 3 years.

Scams, Reddy brothers, Sobha Karandlage episode or the very unpopular Managlore church attacks and Pub episode all have put a dent on BJP's credibility and reputation in media and probably in the minds of general public. Over and above, the arrogance of Yeddy and his unpalatable affection towards the CM chair, has made BJP laughable in public.

It was a golden chance given to BJP, and people expected  Yeddy to do something similar to what Narendra Modi has done in Gujarat in development front, given their somewhat similar backgrounds and personalities. Offcourse, Yeddy did try with global investors meet and others, but all these were more in talks and less in paper.

Yeddy's personality also mattered a lot. His short temperness, arrogance, promoting groupism, his inability to control reddy brothers and other rebels and closeness of Sobha did shadow whatever positive qualities or thoughts he had. He finally went in to  state of offensiveness , when his chair was more important to him rather than the duties. BJP national leaders also could not do anything either to support Yeddy or to remove him, fearing fall of first BJP government in south. However the Mining report by Lokayukta was a seal on the lid. BJP central leadership said, "enough is enough" and asked Yeddy to go. Having survived all the previous attempts by rebels to dislodge him, this time Yeddy could not find neither excuses nor supporters and hence decided to step down.

The damages done can't be repaired and I must say it is going to have strong impact on next election, if something drastic is not done by BJP central leadership in ensuring that the new Chief Minsiter has the support of all MLAs and at the same time takes decision collectively.

It is high time Karnataka returns to its glorius days of early 2000, when SM Krishna was able to drive various development initiatives. Subsequent chief mnissters were either engaged in solving the infighting or building their own assets. 

Only time will Tell....what lies ahead for Karnataka. ?

KiPs