Priceless!!

Tickets to the Bryan Adams Concert,Palace Grounds:Rs 4000
Dinner for two at an upscale restaurant : Rs 3800
Getting an auto to take you to these places : Priceless!!!

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Old is not Gold!!

Under the Indian Constitution, every government employee must retire at 60. Without beating about the bush, I ask Why?? Who says that an employee becomes incapable of serving the country at 60.. Is there a scientific basis for this law?? I don't think so.. Look at this report, in particular the last two paras. Its stunning. While the average life expectancy since independence has gone up by almost 25 years, the retirement age has risen by just 2 years..

Now, its another matter if the employee wants to retire early, there is always the VRS. Medical retirement also continues.. But for someone who wants to continue working, why not let them.. If they were fit at 59 yrs and 364 days, they definitely don't become incapacitated by aging a day!!! After all, in our country, a fifty-something is called a next-generation leader when it comes to politics.. Then why not the bureaucracy.. I personally think the retirement age should not be a fixed number, but pegged to the average life expectancy of the country. If we live longer, we work longer, simple..

Lastly, when we talk of Young India, and "Bharat Uday", we forget that India, by our own standards, would have been deemed fit to retire on 15th August, 2007, the day it turned sixty..

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Doctor doctor, please

Doctors take the Hippocratic oath, and are to live by it.. But with increasing frequency, I am seeing blatant violations of the sacred oath, in particular, of the sixth point mentioned here.. Every week, I keep hearing news of doctors going on strike, to protest either an assault on their colleague, or to protest the increase in duration of their course, or the introduction of caste based quotas, or against the health minister... The list is endless.. Try Google, you will get an idea of how big the problem is.

And now comes the disturbing part : Patients, including children dying for want of medical attention.. This is something absolutely unacceptable, and the government must, at the very onset of strikes like these, invoke ESMA, and make sure the medicos are back to work.. Health services cannot be held ransom to the whims and fancies of a few, no matter what.. These are "essential services", and they must continue, come what may, war or peace..

On the other side, the doctors do have a right to have their voice heard.. But a strike, that ends up killing patients is not the answer. I think the key here is a overhaul of our system, where tyrant ministers, sitting in their plush offices make rules on issues that affect the lives of these doctors. Rather than have this, we could have a medical council doing this work, which would constitute of doctors, and not bureaucrats.. Separation of the medical world from the clutches of a popular government is the buzz word..

This sort of a system, where the public does not have to suffer due to the wishes of a few is important, and for the simple reason : the scant medical facilities that our country has cannot be held hostage by anyone : they must continue to serve the people..

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Red and Saffron

Unusual as it may sound, the Red brigade in the country desperately wants the saffron outfits to win the latest state elections.. And this is because : They want to stall the Indo-US nuke deal..

If the BJP wins Gujarat, and also the politically lesser important Himachal, there is no way the Congress will brave a General Election, not for the sake of the nuke deal anyway.. And this will also strengthen the hands of the anti-nuke-deal lobby, since the saffronites have joined hands with the comrades on this one.. However, if Mr Modi's charisma amongst the youth and the women fails to work for him, and the Congress actually manages to pull off the biggest political upset of the year, we will see a much meeker Left, being arm-twisted by the Congress.. This will give Madame the much needed confidence to threaten the Left with the elections, which the Left, after Nandigram is ill-prepared to face..

So now, a State election, seemingly fought on local issues, will have a major impact on the country's future.. If the BJP win, forget the nuke deal, the government will bow meekly to the left.. If the Congress wins, most likely the deal will go through.. In case the left is still adamant, "Dus Janpath" will not hesitate to call for polls.. Anyway, Rahul is waiting..

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Corporate Government, Anyone??

I have had this question asked to me a lot of times : wouldn't it be a lot better if we had a corporate style governance.. And while the proponents of this theory list out the obvious benefits like quick decisions, faster development, more transparent functioning etc, there is one aspect that they completely fail to recognize, and that is the social responsibility of the government..

If you look at how corporates work, they will feed the bread-winning horse the most, which is very fair on their part.. For eg, if a certain division is making most of the company's profits, that division will also get the maximum budget.. Abberation like the one in the case of Apple Computers, where the profit making Apple II funded the eventually proved disastrous Apple III for a long time, and caused a survival crisis, are considered poor managements decisions..

But now, consider a government setup in a country like India.. The profits will come in from the industries, the commerce centered around the cities, the taxes paid by the urban citizens etc etc.. However, most of this money is not spent back on them, unlike a corporate, but spent on rural education, health care etc, which by any model, will never be profitable.. That however, does not mean our money must not be spent on it, for we can not expect a village school in a tribal area to be economically viable, this just means that as a civil society, we must accept this form of subsidy, for these children of lesser mortals cannot be, and should not be denied education for want of funds.. Same goes with rural health care, and a variety of other such schemes..

And if the country was indeed run by corporates, you would see a six lane and six track Golden Quadrilateral, lined up with all the industries, while the rest of the country would languish in the dark.. And after this, they might also claim to have no budgetary deficit, which shouldn't come as a surprise.. What we really need is better planning and investment in the rural areas, to make them self-sufficient and economically a "non-white elephant", atleast in three to four decades.. Till such a thing happens, my fellow brethren, we must share the burden for the greater good of the country..

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Terror Unleashed!!!

Terrified. Mortified. Petrified. Stupefied... by you.

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Love, Really???

What is love really?? How do you know if you are falling in love with the person you went out with last evening.. Does a big gong go off somewhere warning you about what you are getting into?? There may be symptoms that help answer this dilemma, but that sure didn't happen to me!!!

And then there are the brain mapping experts, who have ideas about love so abstract, as if they almost don't want me to fall in love at all... But then, maybe I should get a brain-scan done to check for mental illness.. A lot of people would vouch for that one..

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The Good times Continue

The Good times are on... And they just don't seem to want to end.. This year, especially the second half has been so eventful, I cant thank my stars enough.. And well, I have a long list to be thankful for : A mugging attempt, my first surgery, my first accident, followed by more surgeries, a lot of steel in me (yes, I was a Man of Steel for three whole weeks), some more misfortune on the road, and finally, my personal life, which would be called the pirate ship if the world were an amusement park... In fact, except for trouble with the law, I have all ingredients of the life of a bollywood protagonist..

On the other side of this peculiar coin called life, am quite thankful for work, for I am finally doing what I wanted to be doing. And last but not the least, for letting me drive a train, with over a thousand people on board, headed by 5200bhp of brute force.. Amen..

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Happiness

Case 1: Guy falls in love with girl.. They date each other for a few years, and realize that they can live with each other, and get married.. Years pass by, and a couple of kids later, there is no love left, just the fact that you can co-exist with your spouse..

Case 2: Guy woos over a girl.. They decide to get married.. Parents oppose.. They have their way, but parents perennially unhappy.. Girl and guy are a happy married couple.

Case 3: Guy and girl meet, fall in love, get married.. Some years later, girl realizes she doesn't love him anymore, and dumps him, and fights an ugly battle for kids custody..

Case 4: Guy and girl fall in love, girls parents oppose, she finally gives in to them, and decides to end the escapade..

I am seeing one of these happening around me all the time.. And I mean it, all the time.. In each of these cases, there is a constant tug of war between the person's own happiness, the happiness of his loved one, and his parents happiness. A series of incidents have left me wondering how do people make this type of choices.. How do they decide if their own happiness is worth more than the family, or it is ok to be unhappy and maintain status quo, for the sake of kids or family or even society.. Am well versed with engineering trade-offs, but am still unclear what train of thought someone has when making a decision such as these..

For ex, If I decide to go against my parents wishes and marry, then am I being selfish and putting my happiness above theirs?? Is my happiness more important than their happiness??I have a responsibility towards them, but at the same time, I am committed to someone else.. How can I pick a side, because no matter which way I tread, someone will be unhappy.. This is one of the cases where this doesn't apply : "Whatever comes our way, whatever battle we have raging inside us, we always have a choice. It's the choices that make us who we are, and we can always choose to do what's right." There are more than one right paths, we need to choose which right we want to stand by..

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