Bengal Needs Change...

The elections are on 27th April and the verdict is already out....Mamata Banerjee led Trinamool Congress looks likely to form the government after 34 years of Communist Rule.34 years is a longtime and at least in Bengal its showing.

The roads look like a stone littered shard of walkway thatz likely to break life or limb at any moment!Industry-all units shut and highrise apartments taking their place,traffic so murderous that venturing out of your house without insurance is an insanity!

The Royal Bengal Tiger has been mewling for the previous 5 years.But if you think that the alternative is something to get excited about,you have another thing coming.

Leaving behind grease paint and the arc lights a horde of actors have taken on themselves the burden of leading Bengal from Darkness into Light(lines from either De Rozio of Rabindranath Tagore).In this time of change the new leadership hardly has any known leadership skills other than the oratory of Mamata Banerjee.

I would be surprised if the new rulers of Bengal can last the next 5 years.There is no seasoned administrator and I expect more vendetta(that would probably put the Sicilians to shame),filling of party coffers and a general air of utter confusion.

I am tempted to look back on the illustrious history of this Great State but I will not allow any undue expectations to myself least I feel more disappointed than when I am writing this piece.

I hope to read this after 5 years and be Positively surprised!!

The Life of Benjamin Button...

In my next life I want to live my life backwards.You start out dead and get it outta the way.Then you wake up in an old people's home feeling better everyday.You get kicked out for being too healthy,go collect your pension.

And then when you start work you get a gold watch and a party on the very first day.You work for 40 years until you are young enough to to enjoy your retirement.You party,drink alcohol,and are generally promiscious.

Then you are ready for high school.You then go to primary school,you become a kid,you play.You have no responsibilities and you then become a baby until you are born.

Finally you spend your last nine months floating in a luxurious spa like condition with central heating and room service on tap and large quarters everyday and then VOILA!

You finish off as an orgasm.

-quote attributed to Woody Allen

Of Candlelit vigils and Anna Hazare

I appreciate and support the noble thoughts of Sri Anna Hazare.This respected Gandhian and social activist is doing what he can in his own inimitable way.ARE WE?

I say NO for myself.I seen  two injustices a day on my travels around the city.I close my eyes,feel remorseful and move on.How much further can we move on?There comes a time in Life when choice is no longer a matter of principle its a necessity.Enough jokes abound on how the powerful exercise power and the"common man" the exercises the power to bear the excesses!

The power within us still lies dormant but I see a re-awakening in the Nation and its exciting.Let us not forget Dr Binanyak Sen  facing life imprisonment for sedition,all this by a man who did not care to get rich and work work with the poor tribals in Jharkhand!

Aren't more dangerous specimens running around free in our cities!!!

Its difficult for honest men to be rich - Mahatma Gandhi.

I salute the vision of the Mahatma and the truth of his words spoken 60 years ago on the dawn of India's Independence.

So India win the World Cup...but?

Congratulations to Mahendra Singh Dhoni&the team.

But as I write this I strangely feel no sense of triumph that i felt as a 12 year old in 1983 when Kapil's Devils beat the West indies and I ask myself WHY?

Has life become so fast that we have started living not in the present moment but always in the future minute to come?Has Nationalism been replaced slyly by the marketing gimmicks that tends to exploit every moment of joy as an ode to a particular brand or product?The placards for 4s waved by spectators carry logos of one firm or the other.

I feel I am on the crest of a wave that moves ever forward like the one that hit Japan,only this wave is one of innocence lost of an opportunity that seeks to exploit every moment for all thats worth.

I try to feel a sense of utter Joy at this historic moment but alas my mind is already seeking a new point in time to celebrate...it does feel like Paradise lost.