The Seculars and a 'Chaiwala'

The preamble of Indian Constitution states us to be a "Sovereign Socialist Secular Democratic Republic". I have never found this to be more meaningful than at the current situation prevalent under United Progressive Alliance led by Sonia Gandhi! Especially that there has been no better display of secular India since independence than at present! I feel she is the only one to have sacrificed so much, after Mother Teresa, for a foreign country. Very rarely one sees a westerner deserting its own developed country for poor east with such humane tasks at heart.

Indians not only treat their guests as God but also welcome foes with equal fervor, be it religious fanatics spreading hate from foreign soil. Secularism is thy primary motto. The most live example is that of Mullah Abdul Salam Zaeef, one of the co-founders of Taliban, taking part in the Thinkfest in Goa alongside the country's Finance Minister.

Comfortably Numb! P Chidambaram

The UPA under Sonia also knows how to treat the 'pseudo' liberals like Salman Rushdie who outrage the modesty of others by writing some books! People like these are the ones solely responsible for creation of religious fanatics who keep blowing things up(most of the times themselves) every now and then. How can we blame these 'fidayeen's' or their handlers for such acts. Our Home Minister Shri Sushil Kumar Shinde has written to all the states to treat the fanatic Muslim youth with great respect. Such is our commitment to secularism! However, I am little upset that Taslima Nasreen has been allowed to be in India even after UPA was voted for the second time. She has managed to join Twitter as well. Can't imagine the damage she must be doing to secularism by this mode of free speech.

Stay Away! Salman Rushdie

Some of the UPA allies have gone an extra mile, inspired by Sonia Gandhi's commitment to secularism in the country. Most of them are strongly pitching for reservations for Muslims in government jobs, while others have offered cash incentives. Samajwadi Party, the torch bearer of social equality and secularism in India, ruling country's largest state Uttar Pradesh, has offered a tablet computer to all the Madarasa students and Rs 30000 to every Muslim girl passing class 10th. They should probably also announce lifetime pension to those managing to enroll themselves in class 11th.

So strong is our commitment to secularism, unity in diversity, national integration that Indian government also offers financial assistance known as 'Haj Subsidy' to Muslims while Pakistan discontinued it years back! Shame on our neighbor!

Our main opposition party is hand in glove with our enemies trying to sabotage every secular step of that Sonia Gandhi and her like minded allies have taken. They are solely to be blamed for the backwardness and poverty of the millions especially the Muslims even more than six decades after independence. The global warming and the struggling western economies haven't helped much either!

 

Seeing off Haj Pilgrims! Akhilesh Yadav

The recently elected Congress government in Karnataka announced a cash incentive of Rs 50000 as wedding gift to girls from Muslim community if  their family income is less than Rs 1.5 lakh a year. Well done! Who cares for other Indians with annual income less than 1.5 lakh or perhaps there are none at all. Most important, they are not secular enough to be cared for! Remember, anyone earning Rs 32 per day in India is considered well off as per the Planning Commission.

Inclusive Growth!

The Congress government in Andhra Pradesh went for 4% reservation for Muslims in government jobs under the able leadership of Mrs Sonia Gandhi. Just 4%! This is injustice, if not 50, it should be at least 40%.

You do face hurdles when embarking on such missions. Some non-secular, sick mentalities do try to disrupt such pious moves of the seculars by going to courts etc. But I don't see anything possibly coming in the way of such a noble cause.

Inclusive Growth continues!

Yes, UPA is so committed to secularism that it can even compromise some of the Indian territories to achieve this. Not even the daily killing of Indian soldiers by insurgents aided by the Taliban and their mullah's harbored by Pakistani Army can deter UPA from its secularism goal. UPA permitted Pakistan PM's adviser Sartaj Aziz to hold a meeting with Kashmir separatist leaders in the Indian capital New Delhi. The meeting will take place at Pakistan High Commission and will focus on bilateral relations, border situation, Kashmir policy etc. Which country on this planet will allow such a meeting on its own soil? Only a secular nation like ours under the able leadership of Mrs Sonia Gandhi.

Secular Diplomacy!

We are not just  secular, we also have zero tolerance to crimes against humanity. While the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting(CHOGM) will be attended by heads of all the Commonwealth nations, Indian PM Dr Manmohan Singh has decided to boycott it. How can a secular peace loving nation like ours take part in a meeting being held in Sri Lanka, a country which committed grave crimes against humanity by successfully eliminating LTTE. Yes, the same LTTE which eliminated our own ex-PM Rajiv Gandhi, whose widow Sonia is leading this country. My heart goes out while I write this sentence thinking about this messiah of humanity from Italy.

The Inhuman Lankans!

Indian mainstream media too, leading from the front, ensures all matters endangering the 'secular' motives of UPA makes it to the front page. Much needed to keep all the non-secular forces away and to warn the general public of their possible side effects in case they wish to join them. Sometime ago, a few non-secular and unsocial diamond merchants hosted this ex-tea seller CM of Gujarat only to face raids from the Income Tax department. Can we blame the I-T sleuths for this? Not when the secularism of country is at stake.

It's immaterial if hundreds die in country fight diseases, fighting poverty, train accidents, road accidents. What matters in the year 2002! Though manifold lost their lives in 1984 we should still focus on 2002. The ones who were butchered in broad daylight in 1984 were not secular enough to be mourned! Not even those who lost their lives in Bhagalpur in 1989, the elimination of Kashmiri Pandits in 1989-1990, 1992 Bombay riots and regular Hindu-Muslim conflicts in Uttar Pradesh (under the secular leadership of Mulayam Singh), Muzaffarnagar being the latest one. Seculars did not die in these conflicts, in fact those he lost their lives were as good as insects! What the people of India need to remember is just 2002 and I am proud to say that our bold, straightforward mainstream media has play a pivotal role in reminding us of it.

Non-Seculars! Beware

 Economy, poverty, child labour, corruption, scams, criminals in politics etc are things of past and so outdated. Or just a state of mind perhaps! We have all lost interest in where the onion prices are. Even tomatoes have made it there! One can't even buy them for a dollar a kilo these days.

What really concerns me is this guy drawing massive crowds, an ex-tea seller, not knowing history well. Gosh! The very idea sends shivers down my spine! How can someone so poor in 'history' possibly lead us? All his rallies should be banned immediately! He should probably be subjected to solitary confinement in a prison till next general elections are over. He is just misleading a billion Indians and more importantly trying to sabotage the 'idea of India', the very secular one which is the top agenda of Sonia Gandhi.

What if he has made Gujarat a self sufficient state in all aspects? What if Gujarat is power surplus? What if there has been a major decline in poverty among Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Muslims and a better female-to-male child ratio under him? Frankly, one won't give a rats ass about these! What matters is how secular one is and his knowledge of history! Expect these from an 'ex-chaiwalla'? Go take a walk.

I strongly believe we pass a law that India be ruled by only those who have visited Oxford or Cambridge at least once or belong to the 'Dynasty'. Don't really care what they studied there or whether they completed/passed their courses or not, but definitely not an 'ex-chaiwalla'.

Sonia Gandhi has had an eventful decade guarding the country's precious resources like spectrum, coal, land, water, oil etc and passing them into safer hands. This has really taken a toll on her health and she needs the much deserved break!  She has done an incredible job by making sure that the like minded seculars Mayawati and Mulayam aren't unnecessarily troubled by this 'caged parrot' CBI or the courts. Time for Rahul to step up! Who is better suited to lead the nation than this, dynamic, Cambridge returned young Gandhi scion? He is no-nonsense! Listen to his speeches, look at his charisma, his presence of mind, his hold on subjects! Poverty, space, secularism, ISI this guy is allover! When he speaks, the crowds go crazy and the social media get berserk! The 'sarpanchs' in Kashmir, who showed him the door the other day were a bunch of misguided and brainwashed dolts.

Dynamic! Rahul Gandhi!

Some non-seculars resorted to rumor mongering that the beloved son-in-law of Sonia Gandhi was land grabbing while she was leading the country into the secular revolution. Some even took pot shots that Haryana be renamed 'Jamai-ka'! Gosh! How low can one go. 'Gutter Politics'!

Little Farmer! Robert Vadra

Sonia Gandhi did a pilot run of her 'Developing Little Farmers' project on Robert. This is one of the projects which has been so close to her heart and plans a nationwide roll out if voted to power in 2014! Farmer suicides will be history.

A Weekend Break in South Wales

We recently took a trip to South Wales. Here is a what we did and what we saw.

It was the last long weekend of the year and of  summer, we had two destinations in mind, Cornwall and Wales. However with only one eligible driver we chose Wales as Cornwall seemed too far. We wanted to see some beautiful places and also do adventurous activities. Scuba diving was in everyone's mind so Google took us to Porthcawl. 

Porthcawl is a town on the south coast of Wales in the county borough of Bridgend, 25 miles (40 kilometers) west of the capital city, Cardiff and 19 miles (30.5 kilometers) southeast of Swansea. 

First things first, we had to sort out our accommodation. First few hotels turned fully booked for the weekend and we just about managed at The Fairways Hotel. A few more phone calls and we gave up the idea of scuba diving as that required over 2 weekends of training plus swimming(which most of us don't know). We ended up signing for Gorge Walking and Surfing.

Day 1 (27-Aug-2011)

Porthcawl is about 3 hours drive from Milton Keynes. Most of us are used to sleep late on Saturdays(this is not entirely true though), we started late than planned, around 11 am. We did not have  much planned for Saturday(day 1) and had thought of doing sight seeing and exploring nearby places upon reaching Porthcawl.

City of Bath was a small detour in our journey path so we thought of a quick visit. We made our first stop at Lansdown Crescent. After spending few minutes and clicking few pictures we made our way deeper into the city. Finding a parking place seemed a bit of nightmare, but we finally managed near City Center. We then had a quick tour of the Roman Baths, The Circus and The Royal Crescent. After a quick lunch at the McDonald's we left Bath between 17:00-17:30.

We reached Porthcawl around 19:30 pm. We had our hotel on the sea front and we were all very excited as we entered the final stretch towards our hotel, with sea in our sight, cool breeze blowing and waves washing the shore. The Fairways turned out to be an excellent place for a weekend break with warm staff. Had minor issues but that's expected given the kind of rush at the hotel bar on a Saturday evening.

We were looking for an Indian restaurant for dinner and the lady at the reception suggested Jaipur about 10 mins walk from our hotel. Jaipur turned out to be another restaurant run by Bangladeshi's claiming to serve authentic Indian cuisine. Starters were good, but main course was a disaster. Next up we went for a short walk on the paved sea front, on our way back to the hotel. The hotel bar was open throughout the night and we had few drinks before hitting our beds. Porthcawl's promenade has a number of pubs and bars open throughout the night.

Day 2 (28-Aug-2011)

We had Gorge Walking planned for today, scheduled to start at 09:30. We could only get to our spot(Pontneathvaughn, Neath, West Glamorgan SA11 5ND, UK) by 10:30. Our instructor Lee, a very nice firendly guy, was ready with all the gear, body suits, helmets and floating jackets and we finally made our start by 11:00. This was the first time for us. We made a slow start due to the water being very cold. Walking on slippery stone surface in waist high water was fun and exciting.  We crawled through a dark cave, climbed water falls and jumped into the mountain pools. This is a must do activity if visiting South Wales and the more stamina you have, more the fun.

We finished gorge walking around 14:00 and then thought of seeing few bays near Swansea and Mumbles. This was about 30-40 minutes drive from Pontneathvaughn. We were tired and hungry after this exercise and were looking forward to a good lunch. We stopped at a fuel station in Swnasea, near Mumbles and the asain guy at till suggested Mumbai restaurant, which was about 10 mins walk. The restaurant is located in a quite lane and has good ambience . It has a Mumbai style auto rickshaw parked in front! Lunch Buffet with 22 items, both veg and non-veg, for £9.99 was just the thing we were looking for. Food was great. When visiting Swanse, Mumbai restaurant is worth a visit.

We still had enough time left and I had heard a lot about the Rhossili Bay (thanks to Abhinav) so we decided to drive to Rhossili. It took us about 45 mins reach. It is a dramatic environment with Rhossili Downs towering above the vast expanse of beach that seemed stretching few miles. It was beautiful. It had a spectacular panoramic view over the bay walking up Rhossili Downs, the climb and views took our breath away, but well worth it! We spent good 2 hours enjoying the sea, the breeze and the sun.

We got back to our hotel by 20:30 and headed straight to our rooms for a quick shower. After previous experience with Jaipur, we decided not to give it any more tires and opted for Sahi Tandoori Indian Takeaway right next to Jaipur restaurant. We also took some drinks for the night and headed back to our hotel. The food was good and at half the price comapred to Jaipur. After few drinks we called it a day since we all were very tired and had surfing planned for early next day.

Day 3 (29-Aug-2011)

We had signed up with Adventure Wales for our half day surfing lesson. We headed to Adventure Wales centre for some formalities and then went to Rest Bay, a beautiful beach in Porthcawl. It's a great beach with lot of clear sand. Its about 10-15 mins walk from Porthcawl city centre and even closer from our hotel. This is one of the beaches popular for surfing. We spent about 15-20 mins with our instructor learning basics of surfing before we hit the sea. Water was cold but manageable in our body suits.

We had difficulty balancing ourselves on the surfboards initially, but being in sea water itself was exciting and fun. We played a lot with waves, though we never went beyond waist deep water. Most of us did not know swimming so found a little dificult to surf(swimming is not mandatory for surfing lessons though). We enjoyed in sea for about 3 hours, none of us managed to surf properly though, and playing with the waves was great.

We left Porthcawl around 14:30 and headed straight back to Milton Keynes as we wanted to have a good rest before we reported back to work the next day. We drove with lot of breaks and were home by 19:30 ending our exciting long weekend.

Resources:

Group: Vikram, Preeti, Manas, Sripati, Sudhanshu

Vauxhall Astra

Nikon D5100

TomTom Start 20

Mumbai Never Sleeps and Work in Progress Never Ends

26/11 happened to be a day which I remember as birthday of one of my close friend until 2 years back when the so called 'holy war', the attack by radical religious fanatics on harmless innocent humans, gave me another reason for having me not miss this day in my calendar. Yes, I am talking about 2008 Mumbai attacks, one of India's largest cities, in which brainwashed and trained barbarians killed at least 175 people and wounded at least 308. The whole world watched this horrific incident live as it unfolded over 3 days, thanks to the technological advances mankind has made in media and television.

Our nation observed the 2nd anniversary of this incident this 26/11, a date which only reminds us of the irreplaceable loss which many suffered due to the loss of their loved ones. Such anniversaries have become sort of celebration time for most of our politicians who get yet another chance to glamorize themselves, coming in front of the television cameras. This date, as per our honorable defense minister is "a grim reminder of the volatile and perilous state of our neighbourhood". Dear Defense Minister, this grim reminder only pops up in your calendar once a year, when you have to make a pre written speech? What have you done to prevent more such occurring? Extended Z category cover to few more of your own kind of elites or increase the count of NSG commandos to their convoy? The metal detectors that you put on some of the Mumbai stations, succumbed to the crowd pressure in few hours on the very 1st day have never been used since. And the constables with a wooden stick that you have placed on each station, what match are they to AK-47 wielding Kasab's?

And best was our honorable home minister who meekly complained "Pakistan has not fulfilled its promises of bringing to book the perpetrators of November 26, 2008 Mumbai terror attacks". Sir, why are you talking in such a cowed submissive tone? Is Pakistan your girlfriend who did not live up to its promises and you are going through a breakup? You don't have enough courage to fight the Naxal menace on your soil, how do you intend to fight this proxy war being planned and executed from across your nations border? 

Did you only learn "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star..., Baba Baba Black sheep..." and not "Jhansi ki Rani...., "Vande Maataram..." in your school? Your counter part in Pakistan, blamed the delay caused by courts in your own country for their inability to act upon masterminds(which apparently are under their protection) of 26/11. Do they really have a system in place, that we are wasting so much of our time and expectations, waiting for them to act? Wish you had even 10% courage that the Israelis have when it comes to defending their nation and people. Our motherland would have been a much better place to be.

Our humble Prime Minister is just too good to even speak or do anything which is not in favor of someone. He only speaks when is said to do so, by Madam. And rest of our leaders are too busy, outdoing each other in scams. With substantial rise in number of taxpayers(thanks mostly to the Indian software industry), and in turn rise in state earnings, one thing that is steadily on rise is number and magnitude of scams in our country. Our ministers and chief ministers are too busy filling their own pockets and of their near ones and dear ones, allotting them 2 and 3 BHK's and plots of lands. All we do to punish them of their misconducts for misusing the office of public is remove them from their post for some time and assign them a fat berth elsewhere. As a lip service to the common man, you setup an enquiry commission whose tenure never ends or never comes to a conclusion. Even if it did, no one has the courage to bell the cat.

When will we see a day without news channels reporting another scam? When will we see a peaceful and de-militarized Kashmir? When will we see some some strong words followed by actions from the our leaders? When will the Work in Progress End?

P.S: This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

A visit to BT Centre London

(SOP)08:30 - Took Raffles from 40 North 12Th to Milton Keynes Central Railway Station.

08:45 - On Platform 4 for 09:05 Virgin service to London Euston, train delayed by 14 mins(due to sheep on tracks)

09:45 - London Euston

09:55 - London Underground, Northern line to Tottenham Court Road

10:15 - London Underground, Central line to St. Paul's

10:25 - BT Center, 81 Newgate Street, London

10:30 - 13:15 - Brief meetings with various team, with short coffee break

13:15 - 13:45 - Lunch with Rajiv & Abijith

13:45 - 17:30 - BAU activities with short coffee break with Rajiv

17:35 - London Underground, Central Line to St Paul's.

17:45 - London Underground, Bakerloo Line to Oxford Circus

17:55 - London Underground, Bakerloo Line to Marylebone, met Vikas

18:40 - LBS, Regent's Park

21:00 - London Underground, Hammersmith & City Line to Baker Street

21:25 - London Euston, Burger meal @ Burger King with Vikas

21:40 - London Euston, Platform 8, London Midland service to Milton Keynes Central.

22:15- Milton Keynes Central Railway Station

22:25 - Dropped Vikas at North Row

22:35 - Reached 40 North 12Th by Raffles(EOD)

Stow Landscape Gardens Trip(4-Aug-07)

The weather was predicted to be clear without rains for Sat, 4-Aug-07 and it being a weekend we decided to visit Stow Landscape Gardens in Buckingham. We took 9:50 am X5 bus from stop opposite City Center McDonald's. It took nearly 40 mins to reach Buckingham. Behind the bus top we got down was Tesco super market and we had a small coffee break there while waiting for Ashish. Once Ashish joined us, we started on foot till we reached Swan club, where we decided to take cabs for Stow as it appeared far. We took 2 cabs and reached Stow around 11:00 am. After taking paying the entry charges at the reception we were just in time at the Stow tea house to join a free guided tour of Stow landscape garden. Even though Stow is a garden, surprisingly you won't find flowers here, thus the name Landscape garden. Brief history of Stow Landscape gardens available at http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/main/w-vh/w-visits/w-findaplace/w-stowegardens/w-stowegardens-history.htm. We were joined by a group of 8 other visitors in our guided tour. We found the details provided by our guide about the history of Stow pretty interesting. The landscape was beautiful a places. We also came across the Cooks Monument after Captain James Cook's discoveries in the South Pacific. It was then when we came to know that Captain cook was captured, murdered, cooked and eaten by the cannibal tribes during once of his explorations. The tour went on for about an hour and a half where in we covered most of the garden. The garden mainly consists of several small Temples of 18th Century build for various reasons. There are a number of lakes too, which are so designed and built that one can be easily drained into the other and so on. The Stow garden also houses the Stow School. There are a couple of Golf courses around the Stow school. After the guided tour was over we broke for lunch. Once we were done with our lunch, we decided to explore remaining areas on our own. With sufficient photos clicked by our friends for memories we finally settled at The Temple of Concord and Victory for some rest. We left Stow by 5:30 pm after having tea and some snack at the Tea Room.

Group:Vikram,Pankaj,Vikas,SreeHarsha,Sriram,Ashish,Dipesh,Yogesh

Pardesh mein

I arrived in UK on 18th Mar'07 evening. The flight landed at London, Heathrow airport at around 21:15 hrs. I was done with immigration and health check within 30 mins. Things appeared well organized here. By the time I arrived at luggage counter, it was already there, waiting for me. Kaanu Bhai was also there to receive me as arranged by Rahul. I reached Milton Keynes, 40 North 12th Street, my new place of stay in UK, after a ride of 1:15 hrs. The new country looked magnificient. Wide, well lit and free highways with zooming vehicles. The weather was quite chilling. My new flatmates seemed quite understanding and I received a good welcome. Next day my colleagues and I took a walk to the office. It was little windy and there was some snowfall in afternoon. The new countryside seemed great and was very peaceful and fresh.

Happy Diwali

This was my 7th Diwali away from home, since year 2000. This was it was a long weekend too. And it was so different from others. It turned out to be another weekend at Powai flat. Most of my time was spent on Internet as usual and rest went sleeping and watching TV. However the time was little different, Saturday being Diwali. However, you can imagine that how much excitement this festival of life can bring to ones life, who spent the eve eating Maggie noodles. It was the most lonely weekend as well with 4 out of 6 flatmates away home. Diwali evening I took a walk till the tea shop in Hiranandani. The celebrations were at peak, with crackers bursting in full swing, and each seemed to be targeted on me. I soon took rescue in an ice-cream parlour. After having a cup of roasted almonds, I decided to put an end to my walk and headed back home. Each bomb was exploding right next to my year, so I made sure no window was left open in the flat.

Yesterday, Ekka, Gurpreet and myself watched the DON remake. A good movie, I would say, but definitely not better than the original one. We took the usual bus and walk route back home after the movie, making sure we each had a cup of coffee at the junction outside Pizza Hut.

Today, I received another e-mail from my younger brother, Nisu, who has recently learnt e-mailing. Nothing was clear from his mail, and morning I will have to call him up to clear out things.