My Date with the History of Motorcycles

Milwaukee is famous for two things, first its home of Harley Davidson and then its also home of one of the finest breweries of America. So during my stay in Milwaukee i decided to take the opportunity to visit the base of Harley Davidson. First of all it was amazing to see their power train operations but the real glamor of the trip was the visit to Harley Davidson Museum.


It was great to see the history of motorcycles along with illustrative models to describe the working of engines, interactive system to tell about the complete product life cycle right from the concept stage, all the engines of Harleys in working condition and an interactive system, with which you can listen to the patented sound of various engines. It was not my first trip to a motorcycle factory, but still the experiences could not be compared with any other thing. And at the end of it all, I was allowed to configure my own Harley, and then it was sent to me by e-mail (unfortunately only the photograph).

It was nice to see the bikes built through the past 105 years, with the oldest ones resembling closely with Hero Jet kind of bicycles. with just an engine on the frame and guess what all the controls were on the top of fuel tank. You look at the photograph and you will end up saying.. oops that's an Harley, but once one goes through the whole range, s/he will realise that its not just the living creatures that followed Darwin's theory of evolution.

Just look at the stand of the bike, It would have been difficult for sure to the bike on stand.

And guess what a bit modern bikes in 1910s were even used for motor sports including Motor Cycle Polo (well you replace horses with Bikes) and racing.

It was amazing to see the way American Industry responded (might be it was an obligation) to the requirement by the nation at the time of war. During both the world wars Harleys played significant role and for some years even civilian models were completely blocked to dedicate all the capacity for defence production, and if some capacity still remained that was utilized to produce bombs. Even at Kohler, the scene was same, I wonder how a ceramic products factory can produce bomb shells but it has happened.

After the end of World war II, Harleys were back in action amongst the common people. and then started the era of experimentation with the bikes, and I tried capture a few of them I found most amazing. I have seen such bicycle with a couple (or more ) paddles but a motor bike with two engines and even two fuel tanks is a bit too much.

And then a tiny Harley, I still remember the tiny Rajdoot, but the size of this Harley was good enough to qualify it for children, which can fit in the back of a station wagon, but it was made of fully grown people.

Following I am not sure from which angle gets the qualification to be called as bike, with an engine as big as Tata Mini truck.

Then is the one which is a tribute to the long standing relations between Pakistan and America. You can compare it with pakistani trucks, looks like the designer was deeply impressed with the visual appeal of those trucks but I have enough reasons to believe that the experiment was not successful. (Actually this was done by some one who was supposed to stay home as he was ill)

Finally the engine room, which had all the Harley engines till date. I will post the videos later, which contain sound of Harley engines. The section also had very good illustrative models to explain the working of a four cylinder engine, gear box, fly wheel (and its gyroscopic action, which contributes to stability of bike). I think this would have made the Internal Combustion engines subject easy for us way back in 2002.

After all that gyan, I finally get a chance to sit on a modern looking bike made by the same company with Buell Brand.

You can see other photographs at:

http://picasaweb.google.com/ashutosh.chandel/HarleyDavidsonMuseum

I am visiting Miller Brewers this Saturday and will update you all about the beer making.

We say OZ unsafe for Indians, how about the safety in India

Since the news of the attacks on Indians in Australia spread, I could not stop myself from comparing it with what had happened in Mumbai last year against north Indians (regional discrimination) and what happened during mass murders in the name of religion (84, 92/93, 2002). Its good to see the government responding in a positive way and taking the matters to the highest possible levels. But isn't it the same government's responsibility to ensure the safety of Indians living in India, or only the life of NRIs is important. When Raj Thackeray and his so called marathi followers were taking away the livings and lives of thousands of north Indians in Mumbai, same government did not come out with even a single official statement condemning such acts, instead they choose to encourage Raj thakrey to achieve political gains.

Today to my astonishment a statement came from the pitamah (and the pitamah of Raj) of regional discrimination in India. Bal Thakrey today came out with an statement against Aussies, demanding Aussie player's exclusion from IPL and restriction of business opportunities for Aussies in India. Probably before making such statement he should have understood the impact of his tactics on the lives of outsiders in Mumbai. In the similar lines could we demand exclusion of Sachin Tendulakar from Indian Cricket team or restricting business environment for Ambanis and Tata just because they live in mumbai (well for Thakrey they might not be mumbaikars). Amitabh, even after spending his whole life in mumbai, needs to get a certificate from Thakreys for his bilongingness to the city. Amitabh has long been a subject of regional discrimination and probably that was the reason of his out of proportion reaction to the events in Australia.

I am not saying that whatever is happening in Australia is correct or we should not protest, rather I feel the reaction by government is good. But I also feel that we should put the same value for the lives of Indians living in India. Why can't government take the similar or more strict (given the things are within the country) when any such acts are reported in India. I know its difficult to manage the political equation in a country as diverse as it can get with people speaking more then 20 officially recognised languages. I may find some more comfort in the company of Hindi speaking people (I know this also qualifies as discrimination, but don't we Indians move in groups when outside the country) but that does not mean I will find trouble working with a non Hindi speaking person, or I will be finding out the reasons to hit them.

My only point here is we should honor the rights of Indians in India, as we expect for the NRIs.

IPL and bottom teams

I have been travelling travelling and travelling during the past seven days and because of that missed out IPL semifinals as well as finals :( . Drove roughly 1600 Kms, thanks to great highway network in US, covered four cities. It was tiring but was fun. Spent couple of days in Chicago with one friend and then travelled to Wisconsin dells to see the water park capital of the world, came back and again drove to Wausau for some official work and came back today morning.

But in between all the fun, I missed out the final and second semifinal of IPL. I read about the blistering hundred from Manish Pandey and the nail biting finish in the finals. Till now a lot has been written about two bottom placed teams of IPL 1.0 playing in the finals of IPL 2.0, but we might want to go back to IPL 1.0 and remember that RR were supposed to be bottom placed team then and they came up with a surprise team studded with stones (little known players) instead of gems (the big stars) and took every one by surprise. Deccan chargers, if had done this good last time around it would not have been a surprise but coming back from bottom to top is a real good one. For Bangalore also it was quite positive after a disastrous last session and further bad start with KP at the helm of affairs.

Delhi and Chennai were good but were not that good in the knock out stage but if i have to pick one factor which really worked in favor of RR last year and for RCB and DC this year and that is fact that at the end of the day you have to rely and home talent. Gilchrist definitely was at his best in taking away the semifinals but in other matches he was well supported by his Indian colleagues. Be it Pragyan Ojha, RP or Suman, no one really was ready to call it quits. Whatever we may say about disastrous first half Bangalore had with KP leading the deck, but the fact is that their domestic talent was not working then. It might have to do with KP himself, as it needs a Captain like Warne or Kumble to get the talent out of shyness by giving them additional responsibilities. Warne did not shed tears for his limited resources like Buchanan (who wanted more foreign players in the playing XI). Kumble did the same by sending the newcomer Pandey to open the innings in a semifinal. Gilchrist did not shy away from benching Laxman to give Suman a chance.

If anything the other teams have to learn from two IPLs is that, they need the home grown talent and for that they can not just rely on state ranji teams. Like Warne they may want to test a few folks who didn't even play a single first class match as every one know what it takes in India to get a place in State team.

I will soon updating my visit to Home of Harley Davidson (yes Milwaukee is the town where they are built and I visited their factory)

No Photo finish in Elections

I am dejected with the loss of BJP and NDA but still I am happy to see the people like Mayawati and Left being marginalized. Even SP and RJD have been reduced to an extant that they can not negotiate for their terms, and most probably will dance on Sonia's tunes, as they will be desperate to be part of central government. Simply because they can not afford to be out of power at both center and state simultaneously, such a thing will create too much of negative impact on their cader.

Mulayam's SP is already under immense pressure in UP because of the Mayawati's constant vigil on Gunda elements of SP (may be 80-100% of total SP cader). However now mulayam can not dictate the terms, like using 356 against UP Government. But still UPA falling short by 10-14 will enable SP to talk for some ministerial berths, however I am not sure if congress people will really like that idea.

If it was only for the corruption, it would have still been fine to give them some ATM ministries (unfortunate but truth, corruption is part and parcel of our lives), but the most unfortunate part is their interference with foreign policies of central government. DMK is already troubling central government to save LTTE, which was responsible for killing of Rajiv Gandhi, but politics has its own compulsions. India has already messed it up Nepal under pressure from the left block, and we have already seen some consequences of that.

Whatever it may be, India still remains a predominantly Hindu nation and having that Hindu link with Nepal was always in favor of India, as at least they had one good neighbor (except Bhutan). Indian policy towards china was again compromised because of Communists, and now if people like mulayam have a say in central government I fear the worst on India's western borders. During the times of trouble in Pakistan, India needs to deal with it with strong hands, and any compromise on that, just because they are all Muslims out there will seriously damage Internal Security as you never know when India develops it own cader of Taliban.

I am still not able to understand the happiness of Indian Voters with UPA, I know they dont bother about economics, infrastructure and corruption but st least they should have seen the price rise and governments attitude towards terrorists. May be Afzal Guru Will have to wait for another 5 years (at least) for his punishment or people like Kasab will keep their smile on, while government will put all its efforts behind friends of Pragya and Purohit.

CBI-The Congress' Bureau of Investigation

If I can make out anything from the recent actions of the CBI, it is very clear that congress is finding it impossible to come back to power and before loosing hold of CBI they just want to clear the names of the people like Tytler, Sajjan Kumar and Quatrocchi. To my astonishment the attorney general and now the prime minister calls the Red corner notice against Quatrochchi (now taken off) as the embarrassment to the government. I am not sure what embarrassment are they referring too, probably they feel embarrassed after Interpol asks them why are you helping Quatrachchi in packing his money (Hansraj Bhardwaj helped during an official visit), when you are asking us to crack him down. Other then that I can not understand any kind of embarrassment a government has to face for the fugitives.



Why Mr. Manmohan Singh and company are so embarrassed by the fact the Mr Q is required by Interpol, is he some relative of Ms. Super PM. Or if he feels after failing to -plead successfully to bring Mr Q back from Argentina, then why is he not feeling embarrassed with the fact that his government is sitting on the capital punishment order for Afzal by the supreme Court of India, or for that matter thousands of Indians who are in jails waiting for their trails to begin. Why Mr. Manmohan Singh is not embarrassed by the fact that partners in his government are openly praising and accepting friendship to the killers of India's former PM (that too from his own Party and a friend of Mr. Q). Why is Mr. Manmohan singh is not feeling embarrassed with that fact the Interpol website carries numerous Indian wanted with confirmed addresses in places like Canada, UK, Middle East and Pakistan. And Why Mr. Manmohan Singh is not embarrassed about the fact that Interpol website does not point to CBI website properly (http://www.interpol.int/Public/Wanted/Fugitives/Links.asp#10).



This case of embarrassment is like a person a person, first opens his car and screws it up and instead of taking to proper mechanic calls it an embarrassment to keep such a thing and sells it. Here first the central Minister asked London bank to de freeze Mr. Q's accounts as they supposedly did not carry bofors money (why such an affection for an accused that Mr. Bhardwaj himself travelled to make the request). Then CBI faults big time with a new arrest warrant instead of the original one. Now Mr. PM says since we have faulted in the past its better to leave Mr. Q alone. I am not sure why is the congress party so adamant about not bringing Mr. Q back to India. Probably Mr. Q in India can provide some info against SPM. But at least they should use better arguments or methods to hide such things, calling it embarrassment because of your past failures is not a thing that can be digested. The Interpol website itself says that accused until proven guilty in the court of law can not be assumed guilty, then whats wrong with keeping a person as wanted until he appears before the court and court decides.

Here we must keep in mind that with the revocation of red corner notice Mr. Q is a free bird and can be assumed not guilty, even thought Indian courts did not get even hold of him, thanks to CBI.

Warne the Magician and Dada the great

I am happy... both the matches go as I wanted, first a thrilling win to delhi and then a loss to Kolkata with Dada proving his worth. In the second match, no one would have thought the way warne thought to defend a moderate total of 150. To block Gayle and McCullum, warne brought Yusuf and that appeared to be a well thought decision and then when they were almost done by the heroics of Dada, he took the things in total control.

When KKR required just seven from the last over, he put the new guy Kamran, who has never played even a ranji game, I was not able to stop myself from comparing Kamran's performance with that of Dilhara in IPL 1.0 RR Vs MI. Dilhara has loads of experience of international matched and he was not able to withstand the pressure of last over whereas now this new guy successfully restricts the opponents.

I wanted Warne to beat his ex coachie, who thinks of himself another Sun Tju. There are certainly big problems going in KKR camp thanks to Coachie, it was evident by the newcomer Yashpal was ignoring Dada'a advice. This guy Yashpal seems to be very arrogant or may be is on high with the closeness to new order in KKR. That guy got two catches and both the times his reactions just shown the arrogance. But at the end of it I am happy for Dada, who made blistering 46 to bring his team back into the contest, which I believe is just a start to make Vinnie and Coachie realize the real worth of Dada as a player. Also the Sun Tzu's bet on Mendis was so foolish that even a rookie like me told my friends before the super over that he will be butchered by Yusuf, who is particularly good against spin.

But there has been something not good yesterday and that was not blog from fake ipl player. I am worried about the guy, is he caught or he has just taken a break to escape the high levels of scrutiny. Whatever it may be, I am desperately waiting for his new post to know more about the happening after yesterday's match. Or if he was caught, I am eagerly waiting for the insider news about the identity of that guy.

I am loving it... the fake IPL Player

A couple of days back I read about this guy, who claims to be part of KKR team, played ranji probably for WB and has no hopes of being in the playing eleven. The blog is www.fakeiplplayer.blogspot.com, and the posts are just hilarious. I believe this guy gives some reliable info, else no one would have taken him seriously. The nick names given are also damn interesting and if you read all the posts, you can easily find who is who, but just to make your task easier, I will put down the nicknames used by this guy:

Sheik of Tweak - Shane Warne
Vinnie/Winnie/Badshah Dildo - Shahrukh Khan
Lord Almighty/ Lordie - Saurav Ganguly
Pedophile Priest - Adam Gilchrist
Kaan Moolo - Ajit Agarkar
Appam Chutiya - S. Sreesanth
Calypso King - Chris Gayle
Prince Charles of Patiala - Yuvraj Singh
Kishen Kanhaiyya Commentator - Ravi Shastri
Little John - Ishant Sharma
Meera Bhai - Harbhajan Singh
Babli - Priety Zinta
Big Sister - Shilpa Shetty
Junta Tormentor - Ajantha Mendis
Havai Chappal - Greg Chappel
Baja of Baroda - Anshuman Gaekwad
John Wrong - John Wright
RDB - Ranadeb Bose
Bangla Tiger - Mashrafe Mortaza
Very special friend Ram - VVS Laxman
Sandy Baddy Babe - Mandira Bedi
Coachie - John Buchannan
Phoren Babas - KKR Coaching Squad
Bevdaa Team - Bangalore Royal Challengers
Mr. Batlivala - Vijay Mallya
Biggest Bevda - Jesse Ryder
Commentator who crossed the border for this tournament - Alistair Campbell
Chatterjee Kaku - Old man in the KKR Ad
Big Sisters Team - Rajasthan Royals
Bubblies Team - Kings XI Punjab

A few recent posts have not been up to the standards set by him in the initial posts, may be because now every thing is scanned and the time is less rather now he also claims to be putting his blog via his bro in India.

My take on the blogger is that this guy is certainly not as described in the blogs, the kind of unique writing skills he has, it would have been easier to identify as you wont find many people with such skills. Other thing is that, he gave so many clues and anyone having inside information could have found as their are a few instance where 2-3 people only were present, so definatly this guy is faking it but for sure is some insider.

I feel it can be Lordie himself, as the start date of blog coincided with the announcement date of McCullum's captaincy and Lordie has good enough reasons to be against Vinnie and Coachie. Also one needs to have balls to do such an act, as any newcomer's career will be destroyed if caught and there is only such player who can take the team management head on when caught. Again I feel that Lordie has quite good oratory skills and he might be using his some journalist friend to put the blog and he is also cleverly putting the things about himself. I hope its Lordie.. and if that's true hats off dada, BRAVO.

If not lordie then it can only be a parts of Vinnie's marketing team, just to keep the interest of viewers after loosing the fan base in Kolkata. Vinnie is a very shrewd guy and any one can make out that fact from his take on Dada but unfortunately its too easy to find that he is faking it. Vinnie also is a very good business man and wants to earn profits by hook or crook and this might be one of his crooks anyways I feel next year onwards KKR will either remain KR with a base on Ahmedabad or Vinnie has to get rid of Phoren babas and lick a&% of Kolkata's dear Lordie.

Change of guard at Election commission and Chawla starts

Mr. Naveen Chawla is all set to take over as chief election commissioner of India. 20th April is the date on which he will take over, and I am not aware of the status for today as I believe Mr. Gopalaswamy is already retired. The first news I have seen after this change of guard were of EC blocking BJP's video for ad on black money and Sonia being cleared of the Belgian award controversy and with that I can see an end of neutral Election commission of India.

With Sonia Loyolist Naveen Chwala at the helm of affairs in EC, these two events might turn out be just an start. With the biased media (one might recall their different views of media about Varun Gandhi and N. Srinivasan), even the previous CEC had to take some decisions which can't be termed neutral. Now with Mr. Chawla, who is a well known congress loyal, we might just see EC working in tandem with strictly anti BJP Indian Media.

We must recall that Gopalaswamy put the specific instance of Belgian award controversy as a proof of biased nature of Chawla and Chawla gets that done as his first task. Coming to the issue of black money, I can understand the Congress's attitude with the top leadership relying mainly on swiss bank. The reasoning given by them sounds ridicules for their stance and then now Election commission says that showing a foreigner taking a bag from Indian puts the things in bad taste. I fail to understand, why such a well known fact can be considered a thing in bad taste, unless the foreigner in the video was a look alike of Quatrochi ( whose accounts were cleared by CBI during a hidden visit of Indian Law minster to london)

The greats of Tests rule in T20

IPL 2.0 started in a grand fashion yesterday, as it did last year. However there was a big difference in the matches played, last year's inaugural match was defined by reckless batting of McCullum, whereas this time both the matches were classified by some classic batting from the all time greats of the game, and genuine bowling firepower that also included two of the top three in tests.

If day 1 of IPL 2.0 has to be defined in one statement, i will say "The greats will rule in any form of the game". Yesterday's two matches featured three of India's Big Five in tests (Sachin, Rahul, Kumble, Saurav and Laxman) and of these three two bagged the man of the match awards and third ended with 5-5. Neither of three is playing T20 internationals for India as people say that this is the game for youngsters. Sachin's capability in in any form of the game is unquestionable and he made his own decision to sit out of the Indian squad for T20s, but the same reasoning might not hold good for Dravid and Kumble. In addition to these three, Warne was one more great of tests, who bowled superbly yesterday.

Going by the performances of these four, I can only say that this time around IPL is not going to be any one's game just by their attacking ability. On the pitches of SA, the application will matter the most. Not every ball can be dispatched to the boundary and scores like 140 will provide thrilling finishes and even those 140 can be made only with prudent shot selection. Dravid's innings was not only classic but also had a flavour of aggression required for T20s, he played the role of the anchor and provided the thrust when necessary. For RCB another stand out performance came from Kumble, who is not playing any form of cricket at international level (the argument used to oust Ganguly from KKR's captaincy). Even though RR's top order was wrecked by Praveen and Ryder, still last 6 could have easily made the match interesting. a 5-5 in a T20 is always a defining performance.

Tendulkar exemplified why is he considered modern great, even though his innings was not as great as that of Dravid but still he provided the stability to the batting order of Mumbai Indian. He kept one end safe, and provided the required support to the batsmen attacking from the other end. He also played some glorifying strokes, as you always expect from people like Tendulkar.

Warne's final figures might not put him as a standout performer, but we must keep in mind that he was bowling to Dravid. 2-18 in four overs is good in a T20 but if one as seen his bowling yesterday, its just a warning for the rookies in the coming matches. He bowled Kohli and Akhil with a sheer brilliance of controlling the turn of the ball.

With the rule of veterans on Day1, I am eagerly waiting to see the response of Dada to Buchanan and Shahrukh (Dada has a knack of responding with bat). Laxman' performance will again be closely monitored and I bet on him as well.

IPL 2.0, Dada and Elections

The so called shrewed combination of business and cricket is just about to begin and with that I can see the politicians getting anxious about the kind of response they will get from Media and the people. Since yesterday media has restricted its elections coverage and diverted good time to IPL, and once IPL is on, the crowd at rallies will be hard to gather.

Also came a news that dada is sacked as KKR captain, and to my complete astonishment, no news channel is reporting the response of Kolkata. I expected effigies of Shahrukh and Buchanan being burnt on the roads of Kolkata, but till now no news. But still i feel, next year it will be a big problem for Buchanan and Shahrukh, when the matches will be held in kolkata or may be they will ask for another home stadium. As IPL is a shrewd combination of cricket and business, KKR management must have had the business in their mind before making such decision, or may be the multi captain theory was just to give jore ka jhatka dheere se. Anyways I am waiting for the images of shahrukh being booed in kolkata ... my destructive mind :P.

Pakistan’s absence: who will be impacted?

This time around IPL will defiantly miss the action coming from across the India’s western borders, which also brought with them the support of millions of Pakistanis for teams like KKR. IPL was a huge hit in Pakistan, I guess maximum interest among the foreign nations, mostly because of all big players of Pakistan playing along with the popularity of Sharukh and Zinta in urdu speaking country.

The biggest sufferer of this absence will be KKR, who had four players coming from Pakistan. I consider Umar Gul as one of the best T20 bowlers, as he has the ability to bowl the Yorkers consistently and for that I believe he will be a big miss from the KKR squad. Umar Gul’s last year performance might not have been able to match the might he showed at world T20 2007 in SA, and since IPL 2.0 is held in SA I think Umar could have been a great asset for KKR.
Salman Butt was another big player on KKR payrolls. Salman again did not contribute significantly during IPL1.0 but still his impact at the top of the order can not denied. At international level this guy has a knack of performing well against India, but I am not sure how does that transform when he plays for an Indian team. Salman might not be a big miss because of prolonged availability of Chris Gayle and McCullum.

Shoib Akhtar was another big signing of KKR from Pakistan, and he made some impact during his 4 match stint at IPL 1.0. But I believe apart from cricketing prowess Shoib was one of the biggest factors of Pakistan’s support for KKR. Hafeez came to IPL with a badge of a big hitter, but ended up as an extra baggage, and might not be missed at all in the presence of other big hitter in the ranks of KKR.

So KKR will miss the firepower on the seam bowling department and will also loose their big fan base in Pakistan, still I am not sure if that will also impact their fan base in Bangladesh.
The other team, which will miss Pakistanis a lot is the current IPL champion Rajasthan Royals. They had three Pakistanis on their payrolls and Sohail Tanvir’s contributions to their campaign can not be debated. In absence of Tanvir their bowling attack will be led of Morkel and Patel as Shane Watson, another big find of IPL 1.0 will also be missing from action. They will have to rely on the new (publicized) sensation Kamran Khan.

Rajsthan will also miss their wicket Keeper batsman Kamran Akmal and now they have rely on local talent to fill that gap. Also their middle order might miss the stability that could have been provided by Younis Khan. My take is that from the pure cricketing perspective RR might turn out to be the biggest losers.

Delhi comes next with two Pakistanis in its squad, but both Shoib Malik and Asif turned out to be the over heads with their limited contributions. Malik was a big flop as an alrounder and Asif was also not able to match the firepower of McGrawth, Mahroof and Yo Mahesh. Now with Ashish Nehra also coming back to his home team, Delhi will not miss the Pakistani duo at all.

Bangalore and Hyderabad had one player each from Pakistan with them last time, but both Misbah and Shahid afridi were not able to justify the high price tags they came with. Even though Misbah was a personal choice of Malya, he failed and was not able to match the level of so called test players in the team. The biggest failure of star studded Deccan Chargers team undeniably was the Man of the series of world T20 2007. Shahid Afridi failed miserably both with bat and ball. With their pathetic performances the tow bottom teams might be feeling a bit light after doing away with the excess baggage.

Mumbai Indian, CSK and Kings XI were the teams with no Pakistanis and obviously have no impact coming from the stand off between India and Pakistan.

The New Age Jaichands

Prithivi Raj chauhan's campaign against against Mohammed Ghori's repeated attempts came to an end when Jaichand decided to take personal revenge by helping the forigner.

When Sonal Shah was appointed in the Obama’s transition team, some Indian-Americans expressed their concerns about her VHP and RSS Links. A big news was made of this, however I still fail to understand why someone having links with RSS can raise concerns among Indians living in USA, after all RSS is not a terrorist organization. Obama has links with church and no one makes an issue of that, then why should someone having links with VHP be considered a problem by Indians. Same way congress and its supporters living in US make it a point to lobby strongly against the visa to a democratically elected CM of Indian State.

I do not know really how brutal it was in Kandhar, but the way it was portrayed it just looked like another holocaust. EU expressed its concerns for the safety of cristians in India, why because of some people in India sitting and reporting and making it another holocaust. It might have been bad, not as bad as was reported. I know a few people, working in MNCs, who applied for immigration to European countries on grounds of threat to their lives in India. Then there are NGO who have to sell such things to get the money.

Coming to the report of SIT, which was appointed by Supreme Court, that says that NGOs actually cooked up the events in Gujrat after Godhara. SIT clear points out that people like Teesta have actually tutored the witnesses. The role of media can also not be denied in this, people might remember the sting operation done by Tahlka just before the last Gujrat Elections. Are the people like Teesta are doing it just get some extra money, which casts India to be ranked among the countries not safe for minorities.

I think all such people, who just for the sake of some personal rivalries or some money go all out to malign the image of India, are more dangerous then one Jaichand. If such people are not controlled, I fear India might be just getting closer to another partition (Current population break up of India is pretty close to what it was in 1947). Anyways the experiments like Ulema Council have already began, which if work out the bad days are around.

IPL Outsourced

In a week’s time, the cricket’s biggest extravaganza will set its first global footprints, thanks to Indian Government. In an era of outsourcing, India has benefitted the most by bagging the IT and other jobs. However as is the case with any business having money, people around the globe will be more then happy to work with you or work for you. India is the biggest market for cricket and that makes it easy for even the cricketers from first world countries (even those who criticize the playing condition in third world countries) to argue with their national boards about the 6 weeks stint at IPL that can earn them a million dollars.

This time around when this ultra rich baby was aborted by its parents, SA decided to take care of it. Obviously South Africa knows the kind of stimulus IPL can provide in such times. But with that I also see an opportunity for IPL in this. Last year’s IPL was a mega event for sure, but was mostly confined to India or at most in south Asia. This year when the 8 city franchise teams start their journey for the trophy, they will find more supporters in form of those living in Johannesburg and Cape Town. IPL has almost every good cricketer across the globe on its payroll, but still a person in SA or Australia will not be bothered much about the performance of Smith or Lee for RR or Kings XI, just think how much interest we have in county cricket when our players participate in that. However now with the teams starting their journey on an offshore location (a term highly used in outsourcing), it will be interesting to see the kind of interest It can generate there with the help of Big Indian diasporas and bollywood stars.

Franchises may loose some money of ticket receipts and might have to incur additional travel costs (Actually hotels in SA are much cheaper than those in India), but still I consider it a good opportunity for them increase their support base. Still I am not much happy with the format, if every team was allotted a home ground in SA and then they were asked to repeat the same format as that of last year, the city based loyalty might have hit the roof.

From the cricket’s point of view IPL anyways presented a great opportunity for the domestic cricketers to get a feel of Big Games, before venturing into the international arena. This year it takes the experience forward by giving them an opportunity of playing with big guns of cricket at a global location, which must help them and in turn Indian team for future. Anyone can see the evolution of likes of Asnodkar, Ravinder and Dinda. I also feel that this time around the results might be very different from the last year’s as I doubts the capabilities of domestic players on bouncy tracks and that might just change to order of teams.

I will quickly rap up the discussion with a little SWOT analysis of IPL at an offshore location:
Strengths: Teams with international players will be able to get good results as well as support base. Indian domestic players will get more recognition.

Weaknesses: Only four overseas players allowed in a team, thus restricting the global fragrance. Indian domestic players might not be as accustomed to playing the shots on backfoot as compared to their mastery on front foot on slower Indian grounds.

Opportunities: A new market thrown open for IPL and with that it can really get a global status. Also it will be good for Indian cricketers to get a feel of international cricket at international location. The timing is also perfect from Indian team’s perspective as they will play on wickets, which are closer to those they will get in England during world T20, thus enhancing their chances of retaining their champion status.

Threats: With no matches in India, the city bases loyalty may fade. Anyways no Hyderabadi would back Hyderabad this time around :D.

The Future of India by Samajwadi Party

After looking at the manifesto of Samajwadi Party today, I felt they are the most futuristic party of India, as they are probably the only one supporting the reversal of wheel of development. In the time when every one is crying about the global warming and bad economy of America, Mulayam and his team has really gone a step ahead and devised the plans accordingly.

First and most important thing Mulayam Promises is to curb the usage of computers, and I am sure its the first leap towards past. He is very true in telling the people that computers are bad, as they let the people to get the information easily (even with bad government websites a person can get his land records on web) without paying chaipani to Babus. Indian government is yet to utilize the computers at its fullest, but Mulayam singh must have got horrified by seeing the way computers help the common people in developed countries, and he must have also got a glimpse of what can be done with IT in India, by looking at the IT Policy of BJP. But don't take him wrong, he knows that computers consume lots of electricity and also they are symbols of US capitalism, so he is trying to help us save energy as well (Anyways UP doesn't have much). Also computers enabled the seem less flow of information across the borders and also helped to move the funds easily, and Mulayam can not tolerate some one sitting in NY continuously keeping watch on BSE, and rather controlling it along with other exchanges. Also Mulayam doesn't like stock exchanges and future trading, very true whats the point of betting on future and making the prices artificially inflated.

He also plans to curb usage of English, as US economy is sinking and now with his plans of cutting of the India from the rest world, whats the point of carrying the extra baggage. He however will send his illegal children along with those of akhilesh (His legal son) to UK and USA for studies as used to happen in the era of Rajas and Ranis.

Once English and computers are gone, he has machines in is agenda next and with that Indians will back to the era of Mother India (Someone might remember Sunil datt pulling the plough). Sanjay Datt would love to see others doing what his father did in that movie. Sanjay Datt will also start the publicity of charkha, but since charkhas will need wood, which is no where available, they will ask us to shed the clothes altogather, anyways they don't make the people civilized (well the "Return to Blue Lagoon" movie proves that). However people will still use the cell phone as Amar wont like to harm his friend Anil Ambani, and with no clothes (Vimal Still with Mukesh) and motors around Mukesh will be busy managing Mumbai Indians. Anyways IPL can continue as BIG TV will beam the signals live. This will be a great society you can imagine.

Also Mulayam singh will be pushing for the good relations with Pakistan and Bangladesh, with Pakistan falling in hand of Taliban, it would be sin for Mulayam not to talk to Islamic fundamentalists sitting in Islamabad, and he would need their best wishes to keep is regime in India flourishing.

Then Amar Singh might also start building another Taj in the Memory of Jaya Prada, anyways they will just keep the tradition of moghuls going. Also Taliban will get entry into India and Non Muslims will be forced to pay Jizya.

But with All this no one would be required to bother about Global Warming and no more fighting at WTO (as No more global tread from India) and G8. India will be a clean country as it was thousands year back and Mulla...yam would be the Shanshah (Amar will deal with Amitabh for no claiming his copyright)

I Know its a bad dream... But with such great leaders around dreams may come true.

The New Emotional Atyachar- Juta

When Raj Kapur sang the song "Mera Juta hai Japani", he would have never imagined that the Juta is going to be one of the most pronounced ways of expressing one's anger against the mighty people. The most powerful person alive on the earth was probably the first among them, then the list just keeps going on and the latest addition is Naveen Jindal.

Even a few people tried using some other substances like custured(In UK) in place of Juta, but I am sure nothing can meet the emotional power of a Juta. If the trend carries on may be the Netas, before coming out in public will ask the the audience to come barefoot and I know for sure Madam Mayawati will be the first amongst them, who already imposes a curfew on roads when she moves around. May be the union home ministry will come up with a new Z-Boot category of security for the possible targets and most importantly the commandos guarding them wont also be allowed to wear the Juta (as people still remember Indira was killed by her own security guard). May be for them the dress code will include the black painted toes (as was done by the participants of one Indian reality show). Also may be a new act on the line of NSA will be devised to protect the lawmakers, by putting any shoe hurler behind the bars for at least one year without bothering about bail. Or may be a Juta in hand can be included in the Arms Act (Sanjay Datt's one).

However once ready with all the acts and agencies to act against Juta Hurlers, the union ministry will carry out an assessment to decide the category of threat. I think that assessment should include past and present acts of screwing up the people. If I was to come up with the assessment my list will go like this: threat level max at top

1. Mayawati
2. Karunanidhi & Vaiko
3. Amar Singh
4. J Jayalalitha (The leaders from tamil nadu may do the task themselves)
5. Lalu Yadav
6. Mulayam Singh yadav
7. Shivraj Patil
8. Raj Thakre
9. Narendra Modi
10. Rabri Devi
11. Mamta Banarjee
12. Prakash Karat
13. Arjun Singh (For OBC reservations)
14. H D Devegauda
15. V.S. Achutanandan (Kerala CM)
16. Narayan Rane
17. Shalman Khan
18. K. Chandrasekhar Rao (TRS guy)
19. Ram Muthalik (a surprise entry, thanks to our media)
20. Om Praksh Chautala

However even after blocking all the Jutas, there might be other even more deadly weapons like the undergarments (Not sending by post, actually some one might remember Kangna Ranut doing the act in Woh Lamhe http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NIHLeulXRTI).

# Even though I tried to be as unbiased as our Media is, however my perception might have caused a couple of name not included in the list. However I want to make it very clear that these are not the people who I want to target, but simply I think they might be targeted.

Others are free to put their additions and omissions for the list.

Is Indian Media too biased

I have just put following post on IBNLive.com, I am almost sure of this not being allowed to appear on their website. If it does appear Kudos to IBN, or else they should just revisit the concept of freedom of speech.

If this topic appears, means that Indian Media really cares for freedom of speech.

I have suggested this topic, as while browsing through the various Indian News channels and Websites, I found a strange similarity that is an anti BJP and stron Pro Congress views expressed by all the bloggers, and commenters.

Take the case of Sanjay Jha's Latest Blog on Ibnpolitics.com about Mr. Rahul Gandhi. I do not know how can someone boast of a democracy with dominance of one family. I just wanted to compare the views expressed by Rajdeep on Varun issue and on D Srinivasan (If you don't know, he made similar statement as that by Varun but this the tables were turned). Or a debate topic on BJP's manifesto, the topic of the debate itself is biased, shouldn't it have been Comparison of Manifestos of BJP and congress instead asking if BJP's one is more xyz.

If I browse through India Media sites, it gives me a strange feeling that BJP is a pathetic party without any support at least among the educated class, but the max thumbs up on IBNlive are for Advani. When I browse through Orkut in any Community I find more Pro BJP people, is Indian Media not allowing even the people to express their views freely. Media companies always cry for the freedom of expression, I feel that should be applied to them as well. If we are allowed to protest against government on a road built by government, we should be allowed to debate about the role of Media on a Media website as well.

Ram bhi dar gaye

Shri Ram coments on Ram SethuThe Lord Shree Shree Ramachandra Prabhu surveyed the Ram Setu and said "Hanuman, how diligently and strenuously you and your vanara sena had builtthis bridge several centuries back. It is remarkable that it has withstoodthe ravages of the climatic and geographical changes over centuries. It is indeed an amazing feat especially considering the fact that a bridge atHyderabad built by Gammon using latest technology collapsed the other dayeven before they could stick the posters on its pillars."Hanuman with all humility spoke "Jai Sri Ram, it is all because of yourgrace. We just scribbled your name on the bricks and threw them in the seaand they held. No steel from TISCON or cement from Ambuja or ACC was ever used. But Lord, why rake up the old issue now."Ram spoke "Well, Hanuman some people down there want to demolish the bridgeand construct a canal. The contract involves lot of money and lot of money will be made. They will make money on demolition and make more money onconstruction. "Hanuman humbly bowed down and said "Why not we go down and present ourcase"
Ram said "Times have changed since we were down there. They will ask us to submit age proof and we don't have either a birth certificate or schoolleaving certificate. We traveled mainly on foot and some times in bullockcarts and so we don't have a driving license either. As far as the address proof is concerned the fact that I was born at Ayodhya is itself underlitigation for over half a century, If I go in a traditional attire withbow and arrow, the ordinary folks may recognize me but Arjun Singh may take me to be some tribal and, at the most, offer a seat at IIT under thereserved category. Also, a God cannot walk in dressed in a three-piece suitand announce his arrival. It would make even the devotees suspicious. So it is dilemma so to say.""I can vouch for you by saying that I personally built the bridge.""My dear, Anjani putra, it will not work. They will ask you to produce thelay-out plan, the project details, including financial outlay and how the project cost was met and the completion certificate. Nothing is acceptedwithout documentary evidence in India. You may cough but unless a doctorcertifies it, you have no cough. A pensioner may present himself personally but the authorities do not take it as proof. He has to produce alife-certificate to prove that he is alive. It is that complicated.""Lord can't understand these historians. Over the years you have given darshan once every hundred years to saints like Surdas, Tulsidas, SaintThyagaraja, Jayadeva, Bhadrachala Ramdas and even Sant Tukaram and stillthey disbelieve your existence and say Ramayana is a myth. The only option, I see, is to re-enact Ramayana on earth and set the government recordsstraight once for all."
Lord smiled "It isn't that easy today. Ravan is apprehensive that he maylook like a saint in front of Karunanidhi. I also spoke to his mama Mareecha, who appeared as a golden deer to tempt Sita maiyya when I was inthe forest and he said that he won't take a chance of stepping on earth aslong as Salman Khan is around."

Can someone tell her about the map of INDIA

I still remember the controversy a few months back regarding the Nokia maps, where they had shown LOC and LAC as international boundaries of India, instead of the boundaries accepted by India, that Includes Pak occupied Kashmir and Aksai chin. Then there was a controversy about a Map of Himanchal Govt.

But the ad given by CM of UP, posing inside India is the heights of %^&&%&*&^. Such an Idiotic act could have been expected from one and only Mayawati. I believe Dainik jagran is also equally responsible for this, they also need to make sure not to publish such maps.

Also I am not sure, if no one really picked up coz I didn't read or hear about this anywhere till now, its already one full day.

I understand that India has no administrative control over those areas but Fortunatly for India, Mayawati is not yet the person to decide about the borders of India, nor am I.

Diversity and freedom

We have a President who insists on covering her head and wearing long sleeves even in the height of summer, a Prime Minister who wears a turban, a Chief Election Commissioner who proudly displays a caste mark, and Parliamentarians who make a practice of sporting unconventional apparels which ensure that their caste, community or region is easily identifiable. I personally feel, that to build a harmonious, integrated society in modern day India, it might be wiser to try ironing out differences in society, instead of going out of the way to reinforce the angularities.

I recall the advice to the Parsees by the ruler of Sanjan, Jadi Rana, back in the eighth century. The Parsees, who fled religious persecution in Persia, landed in Gujarat and requested asylum. Jadi Rana allowed them to settle on certain conditions. The Parsees were told to give up the Persian language and speak the local lingo. They were also asked to dress like the natives and respect and observe the customs of the majority community. They could practise their religious ceremonies in private. The king's advice was sound. This minority community prospered in its adopted land by melting easily into the mainstream, even while maintaining its identity for over 1200 years.

The achievements in the 60th yr of Independence

I consider following as the major achievements of the country in the last one year:

1: Tatas take over of Corus.
2. The growth rate of 9.4 % for the financial year 06-07.
3. Sentences to 1993 blasts culprits.
4. Indo US nuke Deal.
5. Sensax Crossing 15000.
6. A lady president.
7. An Indian Satellite carrying an Israeli secret payload.