Slumdog controversy

When India used to be a land of plenty, culturally we genuinely belived in living a simple life, and as a rule, the soceity was against aggrandizement and overt wealth building. This was at a time when India was one of the world's wealthiest countries, centuries ago ( remember all the invasions by the Mughals, Ghazni and Alendar to plunder the wealth of the country?) Slowly this gave way to a select few within the society accumulating all the wealth through dubious " principles" , the others resorting to " what I have is enough" more out of frustration that they were unable to have an opportunity to get to the riches, than pure renunciation. Over the last 70 years, courtesy a socialist-minded Central Goverment, it was almost criminal to think that everyone was entitled for everything. The poor were made to be deliberately poor, and the rich were getting richer through dubious means. As time passed by, the information age caught up fast through permeation of media and the internet. Even the humble farmer is able to see what he is missing out in life, but alas, given the disappearance of any solid principles on integrity, and the rapid disintegration of joint families leading to absence of good influence of the elders, the common man has put money right on top of the priority heap, and will now do anything to get more money. This episode is an unfortunate reflection of this degeneration of values in the society over time. And I think this is only bound to get worse. A few thoughts on this whole "Slumdog" nonsense. 1. At the end of the day, it is only a movie and not targeted at any individual in particular. I wonder why people are getting worked up so much over the portrayal of poverty in the movie. After all, it is only the creative expression of the movie team, and if one does not subscribe to it, one should simply stay away from such movies, but the movie makers have all the right to make a movie as per their creative abilities, as long as they don't hurt anyone's sensibilities. And I don't think they have hurt anyone's sensibilities. 2. The whole intelligentsia of the country seems to be on a mission of " why do you want to make money trying to portray my poverty?" This, to me, is nothing but paranoid thinking. How many of these so-called intelligentsia have used this occasion to really question ourselves on HOW we can do away with poverty, slums and make ourselves a better country? Why get worked up when someone criticizes us or picks on our weakness? 3. One has to remember common human tendency - when someone is on the ascendancy, the others, more out of jealousy or out of other negative feelings, will constantly be on the lookout for weakspots, and blow them up. Look at the kind of criticism of China on many front - human rights, lack of freedom for labour, lack of democracy etc etc etc... every time the West wants to pick on them... their response? IGNORE. And move on with what they believe in. 4. Why can't we do the same? Why not take this as a recognition that the world is now noticing India for it's "growth story" and in many ways, sometimes even gets alarmed... and so it is only natural that the Strong would pick on our weak spots and magnify them. Instead of genuinely working towards mitigating those weaknesses, why go on a self-denial mode or sneer at people who point them to us? Take critism positively, and if, as a nation, we want to stand up and be counted amongst the best, and I believe that as a nation, we certainly want to be one, then we should NOT ignore such weak points or criticisms, but rather work on them seriously. But alas, I do not see any of that happening. The last news I heard was that the same Dharavi slum, which was to be redeveloped into a proper settlement colony, with commercial interest, is now going to continue to languish, because Unitech or DLF has pulled out of the project... if this is really true, then shame on us... this will then smack of an attitude such as " we will continue to have all the filth, and wont make any meaningful efforts to get rid of them, but others have no right to point it out".

Reminds me of the Ostrich burying it's head in the desert sand!! I know many of us won't like my above criticism, but I genuinely feel it is high time that we as a nation started to recognize our own problems and earnestly work on them, and not shoo away any criticism just because it comes from outside. We have this dirty habit of harping on our old glorious past and simply resting on those laurels, even as the present rots away. When I see countries like Japan, Korea, Singapoore, Hongkong and even Malaysia making progress over the last 100 years, I would like to ask ourselves - how much potential we really had over the last century to make ourselves a more prosperous society, and how much opportunities have we missed? I don't have to answer this - we all know the answer, dont' we? Cheers. Dilip

Patek Philippe

This is amusing. See this adverstiement of Patek Philippe. http://www.patek.com/patek-philippe.html?pageId=8021&backgroundId=4&lang=en&

The USP is " You never really own a Patek Philippe. You merely look after it for the next generation". Cut to the election campaign now... and this read this... Looks like Motilal Nehru has been a Creative Director for Patek Philippe more than 80 years ago !!!!

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Early-start-Gandhi-Gen-Five-hits-the-campaign-trail/articleshow/4398205.cms

Early start: Gandhi Gen-Five on campaign trail 14 Apr 2009, 0900 hrs IST, Manjari Mishra , TNN

JAGDISHPUR: Former pradhan of Chandosi gram sabha Kanhaiya Baksh Singh had an unusual assignment on Sunday, April 12 — he escorted Priyanka  Rehan and Maira made friends easily with village children, shaking hands & distributing Congress badges. (TOI Photo) Vadra's children, Rehan (7) and Maira (5), on their maiden independent election trail in the family pocketborough of Amethi.  Singh (53) sums it up with an old Awadhi saying, "Kathi ki bili bhi gungunati hai (even a cat in the house of a katha singer knows how to hum)." Today, he is a proud man, having helped in the launch of the fourth generation of Gandhis in the hurly-burly of heartland politics. "It came as a bolt from the blue," he told TOI.  Resting at home, Singh was summoned to Munshiganj rest house for "an important business". There, the old family loyalist was given charge of Rehan and Maira, who were raring to go "canvassing for mama" all on their own, with only a maid and security personnel for company.  The team left the resthouse at 10 in the morning and for the next two-and-a-half hours toured adjacent villages of Chandoki, Ramshahpur and Hardoia. "The little ones are born charmers," said Singh, who excitedly described how "the two took to meeting people like fish takes to water". They needed no tutoring. "Gandhi parivar ke bachcho ko bhala kya samjhane ki zaroorat hai (where's the need to train a Gandhi kid)," he said. Both made friends easily with village children, shaking hands and distributing badges with pictures of Rahul and Sonia.  The strategy to woo the elderly was different. Clad in red kurta and white pyjama, little Rehan hit it off with them by bending down and touching their feet without any prompting, parting with a crisp one-liner: "Rahul mama ko zaroor vote dijiye (please vote for Uncle Rahul)." Like a consummate politician, Rehan, while walking the lanes of Hardoia, a Dalit dominated area, stopped by an ailing old man on a string bed in his veranda. He inched closer, looked at the man and asked, "How are you uncle?" before repeating the all-important message. The children even walked into huts to meet and chat up veiled women who were reluctant to come out in presence of village seniors.  Priyanka told the media on Monday that the kids were out campaigning for their Mamaji and had even provided her with valuable feedback on problems like power cuts facing the constituency. "I thought let them have a first-hand feel of life..." said a beaming Priyanka.

NSA

India as a country seems to have selective vision, when it comes to many day-to-day things, and especially in politics.

Varun Gandhi was thrown in jail for his "hate speech" , under the National Security Act. If it proven that he had indeed made such a speech then it certainly deserves all the condemnation and punishment.

But, in the same country, in the same paeriod, Sajjad Lone, the leader of the J&K People's conference, a separatist movement, is fighting the ensuing elections , on separatist plank. In other words, he is turning the election in the constituency, into a virtual referendum exercise in favour of separatism. His outward position is "I will contest polls with a commitment to use this mechanism as a method to represent the voice of the Kashmiri people and to take the strength and merits of our aspirations to the central stage of India".   Clearly directed at the lawmakers to ensure that no law can be explicitly used against him for doing this. No NSA. Nothing.

The most shocking part is - there is not a word of condemnation from the Congress-led UPA Govt to this. You and I know how any other country in Asia would have reacted to such a person who openly espouses separatism.  

Nor is there any "opinion" or "analysis" from the Pseudo-secular media, other than the customary "matter of fact" reporting.

But then, this is a Democratic India. God help Bharat Mata!!!

 

India Stock market update April 09

I had mentioned about 5 months ago that I have started entering the
Indian stock markets again. I have made investments progressively over this period in small quantities every month.

As of yesterday, Some holdings have shown negative , some as high as 250% . my porftolio shows a 50% profit in this depressed market overall.I am exiting the market again this week, and will wait till the elections are over. By then we will also get a confirmation on whether this "turnaround" is for real or not. If, by then the market has gone up another 10 ro 20%, so it be, but I want to
play it safe, since I already have 50% in my pocket.

This is the first time I am experimenting with this "slow and steady" investment
model, over an extended period, and it seems to work well.

For those of you who intend entering the market, but have not done so yet, my
suggestions would be:


1. If you are going directly to the market through online trading or your
broker, buy select scrips in small quantities- remember, this should be with a 3
to 5 year horizon at the least.

2. Fix a target of return that you would desire, and do not get greedy- just
pull your hard earned money out before the hell breaks loose again. You can
choose to leave the Profits portion only, till as long as you want.

3. In terms of timing, you can continue to buy in small quantities,
notwithsantding the ups and downs in the market. The other alternative is to
wait for the election results to be out. If it is a hung parilament, then
chances are that the market could crash by 5 to 10% on the day the results are
out, and that would be the ideal day to BUY. Keep you money ready for that day,
if you do believe that it will be a hung parliament.

4. If you are buying Mutual funds, keep buying in small quantities in select
funds only. Don't spread too thin. Look for funds with the best historical
returns, and don't bother too much on annual charges as long as performance is
good. The other approach would be, if you have money earmarked for retirement,
then wait for a market correction, and put in the money in big chunks and forget
it for the short/ medium term. Analyze the Fund Manager's pedigree before you
jump in. Remember - any mutual fund is only as good as the individual fund
manager. I personally prefer Sanjay Duggal of HSBC India Growth Fund.

5. In the climate, gold could be a good long term investment, given, the
impending Dollar collapse, so if you planning for buying jewellery for your
family, then I would suggest waiting a bit for gold to correct ( I think Gold is
overbought, technically) and then put some of your money to keep your family
happy!!

The "Night Watchman"

Finally, the inevitable is happening. The "night watchman" is getting ready to hand over the crease to the regular batsman... and the batswoman has also now come out openly and has said that she may well pad up, too!!

Singh endorses Rahul as PM






Dharmendra Jore, Hindustan Times
Mumbai, April 14, 2009
First Published: 02:32 IST(14/4/2009)
Last Updated: 02:33 IST(14/4/2009)




Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, the Congress’ prime ministerial candidate in the Lok Sabha polls, said on Monday that Rahul Gandhi was fit for the country’s top job. His statement comes a day after Rahul’s sister Priyanka Vadra said she wanted her brother to become the prime minister one day.

“Power must pass on to young politicians and Rahul has all qualities and abilities to be the prime minister,” Singh said at a press conference during his one-day visit to Mumbai.

He also lambasted BJP’s PM-aspirant LK Advani, saying he had “the unique ability to combine strength in speech with weakness in action”.

Polity and decency

It is saddening to see the moral denigration of the politicians in the country with elections knocking on our doors. The last remnants of decency and decorum have been dissolved on the banks of the Ganga. Be it Varun Gandhi's "hate speech", Lalu's " I will kill him under a roller" threat, Rabri Devi's derogatory comments on Nitish Kumar, Rahul Gandhi calling Advani a "liar" , not to mention all the "below the belt" comments flying around in Tamil Nadu ... all have gone to show that we have lost our sense of public decency and probity. So much so for a nation which prides itself on "culture", "values", "respect for elders" etc.... shame on us! Dilip