LOKPAL

Everyone is talking about Anna hazzare and his fast unto death.After the Govt's announcement of formation of a drafting committee,people are celebrating as if they have achieved something big.Some even compare it with events happening in North Africa,but their is lot of difference between them.Here, no major change in governance or constitution took place.People are being misled by media ,it's simply an illusion that a lokpal can clear up all the mess in our system. I have reasons why i feel its not got to be productive first of all,Anna Hazzare himself might be clean,but the same cant be said about people around him especially the Bhushans.Shanti Bhushan is said to have 202 crores of assest,some claim he got it by acting as a broker to various illegal deals.Dont know for sure whether they are all rumours or true incidents, but as all of us know there is no smoke without fire.But one thing is not clear why out of the 5 members of the civil soceity, two are from the same family.I think India perhaps does not have enough literate people. Secondly,there are two options before the drafting committee ,either they make the Lokpal a super cop with unlimited authority or power or they limit his jurisdicton.As we know "Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely".I dont want to discuss the consequences of the second option. Thirdly and most importantly, the lokpal will be one among us, he wont be coming from venus or mars. What happened in North Africa was that the Govt. as a whole was overthrown,not just a mere addition of an official(corrupt).Actually we dont even need such largescale change .The change will surely come if people themselves change.Change has to be within not outside, because we are the people who every five years choose our so called corrupt and inefficient leaders.

My Experiences of appearing GATE

I was quite excited to appear for GATE.It's not that i was well prepared or well equipped to face it.But its because i didn't have much expectations from it as i had not prepared much.My situation was much like minnows Bermuda,Holland participating in WC.They are more excited in playing WC than big guns because they have nothing to lose ,but lots of experience to gain.I had a perception that my center DAV CSPUR would be a hi fi place as it happened to the city's best school.But the place was not that great ,the room was gloomy,morose kind of thing.Their was also no one in the room to admire or adore .But the most pathetic part was that the exam was 3hrs long.
But among all these adversities their was one good thing, as usual i was alloted my favourite window seat. Atleast i can spend my time looking at the road, watching kids play and crows fight for bits of food.The children were shouting and screaming more than playing a game which was somewhat similar to Hide and Seek ,but there were very few places to hide.They were playing on the road and were under the risk of being run over by vehicles.This is the real India which lacks infrastructure.
Now ,i think i should talk about the exam "GATE 2011".As many of you might be knowing, i am not that good in my branch paper, so i was unable to understand some of the questions.The ones i think were easy i couldn't solve ,beacuse i was unable to recollect its formula or concerned theory.I just attempted the questions from the aptitude section,this was finished within 35 mins.I think our education system needs some change some kind of modification which will prevent people like me clearing exams although they know nothing.
Now i calculated my attempts it was just 14,if i have 100% efficiency ,which is impossible to achieve, i will still not make it , i anyhow need 30 marks.So ,i took a risk a gamble.i marked some as 'B' and rest as 'D'.Because people only remember winners.Can anyone remember who lost in 2003 wc finals.You will think for a fraction of second and say ya i know it was India.After some 10-15 yrs people wont be able to remember about 2003.People only talk about 1983 edition.Their is not much difference between the last and second best side,but the similarity is that they all didn't win.On the WC trophy only the winners' name is written.I dont know whether i was right or wrong ,but i didn't have much options with me.
Atlast it was 12, i was free to leave the room. I hope not to go through all this again.

TELANGANA

Every other day newspapers carry articles about protest,agitation and violence in AP on account of Telangana issue.Both pro and anti telangana activists are on strikes , protesting hard to ensure that the center listens to their demands.But the question that every one's asking why so much protests,so much violence?To find the answer we need to look back at the history of this region.


Since early times Hyderabad(Golconda) had been an independent state.But Aurangzeb captured it and Mughals ruled over it for a brief period. After the disintegration of Mughals ,Hyderabad state again came into existence with Hyderabad as its capital and telangana region as its empire.Even after the arrival of British empire ,Hyderabad enjoyed its autonomy.While coastal andhra and rayalseema were parts of Madras Presidency.After independence ,Nizam of Hyderabad wanted Independence of Hyderabad,like the king of kashmir, but the Indian army intervened to merge Hyderabad with India.Hyderabad state consisted of telangana region with Hyderabad as its capital.But things took a turn in 1953,when Potti Sreeramulu died in a hunger strike demanding creation of Andhra state.The central govt. appointed States Reorganisation Commission(SRC) to create states on linguistic basis .But telangana people opposed this move of the central govt., because they feared people of andhra who had access to higher standards of education under British rule would have an unfair advantage in seeking govt jobs.They also feared that the planned irrigation projects on Krishna & Godavari would benefit Andhra more.Although Telangana was less developed it had a larger revenue base., which they feared would be used for development of coastal andhra. This is the point where seeds of trouble were sown.The then PM, Jawaharlal Nehru made a strategic error by merging the two sides on the condition that equal development will occur on both sides,if disparity is observed then the two sides can spilt after 1961.But equal development never occurred ,today 9 out of 10 districts of Telangana are backward.The developed one being Hyderabad district.About 20% of total govt. employees ,10% employees in Secretariat and less than 5% of department heads of AP govt. are from Telangana.So, since 1971 pro telangana activists are fighting hard for a separate state with Hyderabad as its capital.


This argument is absurd on the ground that rayalseema and coastal andhra people have contributed a lot to the present day Hyderabad. But, today Hyderabad is losing its shine due to this violence.IPL matches have been shifted from Hyderabad.Foreign and Domestic investors are fleeing from hyderabad.People prefer to invest in backward districts of AP than investing in hyderabad,this is tarnising its image.I dont think this situation can anyway help Telangana people.Pro Telangana activists should fight not for a separate state but for economic development of that region,their MP's should lobby hard for industrialisation of the region.People should facilitate industrial growth.Central govt. should ensure that some concrete steps are taken in this regard and past mistakes are not repeated.

DEVELOPMENT OF THE TELANGANA REGION IS THE SOLUTION ,DIVISION ISN'T

A LETTER TO A DICTATOR

Dear Mr. Mubarak ,
In the last 30 yrs ,you have done a remarkable job as President of Egypt.You have brought stability and peace in Egypt ,thus ensuring development and progress.You have survived six assassination attempts, prevented radical islamist movements and maintained peace with Israel.Your efforts have ensured peace talks between Hamas and Israel.But man, you are 82 now and you have ruled for 30 long yrs ,its time you quit from active pol tics and spend some quality time with your grandchildren.Look monarchy,dictatorship are the things of past ,people want independence ,they want "DEMOCRACY".One man might be more intelligence than millions put together but he can't be right all the time.Your policies have not yielded much success.Egypt ranks 111 out of 177 countries in Human Development index.
Since1967, people in your country have been living under emergency law.Police powers have been extended ,constitutional rights suspended and censorship is legalised under this law.Even street demonstrations are illegal.You have detained around 17000 people without any trial.It is estimated that you have 30000 poltical prisoners.Anyone who opposes your regime goes missing the next day.Do you think these things are fair?Egypt belongs to the people of Egypt ,not to you and your family, they have every right to speak .
Media is suppressed and it publishes what the govt. wants it to.That's why a/c to Reporters without borders Egyptian media ranks 133 out of 168 in freedom of press.Your regime has led to rampant corruption ,you increased your powers to prolong your stay.But that has led to more attrocities against ordinary citizens.Your policies have favoured your family and the elites,thus widening the gap between the rulers and the ruled.

The most important thing is that you have lost support of the masses ,they want you to step down and you must step down.I dont ask you to flee Egypt,or else army will take over.But you step down, arrange for true democratic elections within a month.But first of all withdraw emergency,release all poltical prisoners, free the media.

It's better to live as a national hero than die as a rogue president

Yours faithfully

Pratyutpanna Das

CRICKET WORLD CUP: A PREVIEW

The world cup is round the corner, i think its the ideal time to discuss about the chances of the participating teams.This world cup will be an open world cup like the 1999 one,as no their are no clear favourites. Although India ,RSA and Australia have slight advantage over the rest.But we can never rule out Pakistan especially when its being played in the subcontinent.

To start with, the defenders Australia , they are a team in transistion.Although they have beaten England comprehensively in the last series,they are heavily dependent on 2-3 players.They are still unable to find suitable replacement to Shane Warne & McGrath .Their middle order is fragile and bowling lacks teeth.Shane watson is the key to their success.
Talking about India ,they have an outstanding chance of winning it.They 4-5 game changers who on their day can achieve impossible feats.No other team has so many game changers. But India's greatest strength will be its home crowd and captainship skills of Dhoni .But the worrying factor is fitness of key players like Tendulkar,Z. khan and Sehwag.India;s other weak point will be its spinning dept ,where harbhajan has been out of form.His performance last year was abysmal.The selectors chose Piyush Chawla ahead of Pragyan Ojha,Chawla can neither play as a spinner nor as an allrounder.
RSA are also in good form recently.Their preparations have received a big boost after their recent series win over India.Dale Steyn, Hashim Amla,A.B. deVillers and Jacques Kallis are in great touch.They have a balanced side but lack a real hitter someone like klusenser or Albie Morkel. I hope the surprise selection of Morne van Wyk solves the problem.
English side is filled with a bunch of talented ,enthusiastic players but lack consisitency.They have to find spark in the bowling dept.NZ lack a decent side. They have just 4-5 international players ,the rest just make up the 11.But they play well as a unit and can knock out any good side.Sri lanka will enjoy home support,but the sad part is that they have a large no.of all rounders who can most of the time end up as no rounders.They are yet to replace Jayasuriya and Vaas .and muthiah has grown old.They will need the 3M's( Mathews ,Malinga & Mahela) to shine.
Pakistan is the most unpredictable side , but it will miss some of its key players like Salman Butt ,Asif and Aamer.WI has got some really exciting players like Gayle,Pollard,Bravo, but there are many weak links in the team.Netherlands,Ireland,Bangladesh etc can at best cause upsets.
But i bet my money on INDIA ,I hope they wont disappoint me.

"NO ONE KILLED JESSICA"

Directed by Raj Kumar Gupta ,NO ONE KILLED JESSICA is a well narrated and well presented film.The film starts with narration by Rani Mukherjee, who happens to play the role of Meera Geyti,a firebrand tv journalist.Meera is stylish,workaholic and concerned about the soceity.She describes Delhi as all about power,where everybody is somebody.Meera is covering the kargil war for her news channel.While all this was happening, in Delhi someone shotdead a celebrity barmaid named JESSICA at a socialite party.Her sister SABRINA LAL played by Vidya Balan is an ordinary girl who wanted to live an ordinary life,she wanted to have a bf blah blah..
But after that fateful day her life is scattered ,she becomes restless to nail the killers.Meera thinks the killer cant escape as their are 300 witnesses and most of them being socialites ,so cant be easily manipulated.But she was wrong ,the killer is the son of a minister.who uses all his money and might to influence witnesses.This part of film potrays the ugly side of socialites, who turn their backs .The killer escapes punishment on account of lack of evidence ,this shocks Meera.Meera begins a series of sting operation to expose the truth.While Sabrina had lost all her faith in the system,Meera continues her fight for justice.Atlast they get their dues.This film was not just about case of jessica ,but it also descibes contemporary INDIA by instances like kargail war.The best part of the film is when sabrina asks "Is human life cheaper than a glass of wine".
Lot was expected from Raj Kumar Gupta after his debut performance in AAMER ,I think he has done a pretty good job.

FOOD INFLATION

INFLATION can be defined as the rise in the general level of prices of goods and services over a period of time.The rate of inflation currently is around 20%.It's mainly due to rise in food prices .Prices of most of the food items have shown an upward trend due to differences in demand and supply level. Demand is increasing while supply is decreasing.
Due rapid rise in population, new people are added ,thus increasing demand.More people means more houses ,lesser lands available for agriculture.The lifestyles and fooding habits have changed.Rapid economic growth meant people had more money ,but resources unfortunately are limited.In the last sixty yrs of independence, our GOVT. has been unable to provide irrigation facilities to majority of our farmers,making them totally dependent on monsoons.The GOVT. has failed to improve storage and distribution networks,while one part has excess other parts are deficient of it.The cold storages present are few and are controlled by traders or wholesalers who manipulate supply demand levels ,hence prices.Our GOVT.'s import and export policies are poorly managed.When the GOVT. knew that monsoons are eratic ,they should have anticipited price rise.They should have estimated the shortages and imported the food items,but they started imported after the situation got worse.
Our leaders and bureaucrats lack vision and foresight.They are least concerned about the people whom they are their to serve.The need of the hour is infrastructure development,changes in import export policies and punishing all those who try to manipulate prices.

"I do not like to repeat successes, I like to go on to other things"-Walt Disney

Walt disney is one of the most famous personalities of this world.He has created many cartoon characters among which Mickey Mouse is the most popular one.In this famous statement of his, he wanted to covey a message that always don't repeat your most successful idea ,sometimes think out of the box, try different things, go for new innovative ideas. According to him, Innovation is the secret of success.He has not just created one Mickey mouse, his Donald duck,Goofy and Scrooge Mc duck are equally famous.But most ordinary people don't try new things,they always stick to the traditional methods.Parents always insisit their child should either be an Engg or doc..They don't want him to do engage in other activities like sports,film making,fashion designing .Same is true for our bollywood ,they always trust on estd stars.Although some dynamic directors have shown remarkable success using new actors and innovative ideas. It's true in everywhere.
The same plan can't work again and again ,you need INNOVATION & FLEXIBLITY to survive in this competitive world.

IPL AUCTIONS: A REVIEW

In the recently concluded IPL AUCTIONS, the bidding trends were in contrast to the previous editions.Last time it was observed that senior players who had a brand image were sold at higher prices even though age was fast catching up ,but this time ,some of them did not find bidders.Some who got bidders were sold at comparatively lower prices.This is primarily due to the fact that three yrs have passed since and these players have lost their forms.Some of them like Ganguly,Gibbs and Lara have retired from international cricket and others will soon retire.Players like Gayle won't be available due to their international commitments.
The other contrast was that out of top ten buys ,top seven were Indians.This is because of improvements made by Indian players like Gambhir,Pathan.India has now a bunch of talented youngsters eagerly waiting for their chances,hope that IPL can become the ideal platform.
But their some other unanswered queries like Why was Morne van Wyk not bought ,whereas uncapped players like vandiar were bought ?Why dis Irfan Pathan and Robin uthappa receive so much,although domestic performance nor last IPl's form was impressive?why was Piyush Chawla bought at higher prices than Pragyan ojha, even though he was the purple cap holder of the last edition?