'VOTE' an idea.....

With the elections right around the corner, every second day we read articles and blogs on why and how and whom should one vote. We have been bombarded with voting appeals, rallies and advertisements among others. Bollywood with all its might, has come forward and asked the youth to finally get their index finger inked. Aamir Khan campaigning for the National Election Watch campaign and Shah Rukh Khan flying in from South Africa amidst the IPL Season 2 just to vote. All this shows increase in awareness among 'star' voters, which in turn encourages 'common' voters to vote too.

The word doing the rounds in these elections is - 'change'. But change is never easy, you fight to let go and you fight to hold on and we see a classic example of this as we watch the senior most politicians in our country taking digs at each other. What we need is no sound administration but a sound leadership. We often see people criticising our country is run but as they say if people start criticising, hurting and shouting - don't be bothered because in any game, spectators make noise.

Let's do it.

At this juncture, what matters most is that we vote. 70 per cent of our population consists if the youth. They need to think about life beyond their college and office gates. A system cannot transform overnight, and change cannot be brought about in a jiffy but efforts can be made to improve.

Our country has seen some of the gloomiest phases in the recent times, from fighting economic slowdown to taking a stand against terrorism, but has the common man come forward? Have you tried to make a difference? We can all be a part of a happy future, if we vote.

Vote not because you want the misery to end but because you want to start a new chapter filled with hopes and beliefs.

Vote not because you have to, but vote because you want to. Vote not because it is the need of the hour but because when the clock struck midnight on August 14, we promised ourselves a flourishing democracy.

Every vote counts they say. I say let us make every vote worth counts.

In my view, if you do not vote, you don't have the right to curse the government for the next five years which gets formed because of your not voting.

THE DOT ON YOUR FINGER IS HOT..... Flaunt it !!!

Damage Control

Ever since exams got over, my life's going haywire. Something or the other is happening the wrong way. It may be a piece of thought in my mind, but who knows it might be true. Actually these series of events have made me think that life's turning out to be a disaster. And I'm trying my best to control the damage. But as life unfolds, I seem to be helpless.

It was on 16th that my exams got over. And the very next day, the 17th, I had an accident. A close survival it was. The best thing was that I escaped unhurt.


The very next day, my glares, which I just got some three-four days ago, got damaged. Damn.... I loved it... huh !!!


Not only this, within two days, my Airtel SIM Card (of Mumbai circle), started showing "Insert SIM" in the mobile phone. It meant that it was damaged and needed to be changed.


And not to forget, the harassment in lodging the FIR at the Police Station and running at the car repairer and the Insurance office (for claiming the insurance of the car). Later I found out that I'd get only 40-50% of the repair costs. Now this was really bad. After so much running around madly, all I get is just 40-50% of repair costs, even if it wasn't my fault !!! At the time of insuring the car, these people say that "Ab aap chinta mat karo, aapki car fully insured hai..." (Now you don't worry, your car is fully insured...) Is this what you call 'fully insured'?

My car got damaged badly, my glares got damaged, my SIM got damaged.... I desperately need to do some 'damage control'... But I don't know how....

Peace....

Accident ho gaya... Rabba Rabba !!!

Hmmm.... It was just another day in the not so happening life of mine. My aunt n her two kids were at my place. We decided to go to a nearby tourist attraction and a Jain pilgrim centre - the fantabulous Ranakpur Jain Temples.

These temples, built in 15th century, are a great piece of architecture. A must see. It was half an hour drive from where I live. We went there. Had our darshan. Clicked some pics.





We stayed there for sometime. Had some refreshments. And then we were on our way back to home in my Tata Indigo, which obviously I was driving.

We were just 7 kms away from our home. I gave a glance at the watch on the car's dashboard. It said 6:26 pm. There was an auto ahead of me. I wanted to overtake it. But there was a bus coming from the opposite side, so I chucked the idea of doing that.

I was driving at a constant speed of 40-50 kmph behind the auto. Suddenly, the auto moving ahead of me took a sharp turn towards left. I saw another auto driving recklessly towards me. And....

BANG !!!!

That auto hit my car on the driver's side. And then that auto zipped off past me, turned 270° and went on to hit the bus at a spot 100 m away from my car. By that time, my car had touched the auto in front of me.

Phew !!! It all happened within nanoseconds, and that too involving four vehicles. Luckily, no one was hurt.

The driver of the overspeeding auto (in the pic below), the main culprit, fled away.

The police, as it is always shown in Hindi movies, arrived around half an hour after the accident. But better late than never. They came, recorded the statements of me, other onlookers. Then they told me to come to the Police Station to lodge a complaint.

I went to the Police Station for the FIR. It took me more than one hour to lodge my complaint. Ultimately, they told me to collect my car the next day.

Next day, I went in the morning to collect the car and complete a few formalities. Just a few signatures took another hour. I now understand why is it so painful to get justice in the Indian Law system. Its damn slow and full of formalities, which are probably meant to harrass the common man. And just because of this reason, most of the complaints do not reach the initial stage - the FIR.

And then, after this one-hour plus time, they told me to come at 2 PM to collect the car. Huh !! I thought "Do they mean to waste another hour of mine to collect the mangled remains of my lovely car?" Actually these guys do not understand how precious time is. "Justice delayed is justice denied."

Finally, I got my car at 2.45 after around 45 minutes of paper work. It now stands in the garage waiting for the insurance company surveyor to come and analyze the amount of damage.

My urge to all the government departments (including police) is that please stop harrassing people !!!

GOD SAVE INDIA.... (from overspeeding and irresponsible drivers and from the chakkars in the government offices)

No Criminals

I support the "NO CRIMINALS" initiative of the Public Intrest Foundation. Take a look at the statistics below and the videos that follow.

APPEAL
Sixty two years after winning independence, India waits to be free again. To be freed from criminals who have muscled their way into power. In 2004, about one in five MPs had criminal records, including some with charges of heinous crimes such as murder, rape, dacoity and kidnapping. This seriously tarnishes the image of honest and eminent leaders who are committed to building a greater India. It is time for every citizen of India to become a freedom fighter and unite to free India from the clutches of criminals. As citizens of a free nation, we appeal to all the political parties to refrain from giving tickets to persons with criminal backgrounds. And take an oath to free India from criminals forever.

And please do vote this time and that too for the right candidate. Criminal candidates are a part of each and every political party. Boycott those parties who field candidates with criminal background. Do not vote for the party symbol. Vote for the right person. Remember

"CAST YOUR VOTE, DON'T JUST VOTE YOUR CASTE"

NO CRIMINALS... PLEASE....

Kaun Banayega Pradhanmantri

Two days ago, I was watching Star News. Its election special programme "Kaun Banega Pradhanmantri" aired its opinion poll.

According to their assumption, the UPA (sans Samajwadi Party, Rashtriya Janata Dal and Lok Janshakti Party, which they termed as "Chautha Morcha" or the Fourth Front) is likely to get 203 seats. NDA was coming close to 191. Third Front (including the Left and a host of parties plus Bahujan Samaj Party) was likely to get a mere 104 which is way to less than their claim of forming the government. And the Fourth Front could get 39. Others and independents were likely to get 5 seats.

Since, according to this survey by Star News and Nielsen, no alliance was getting close to the halfway mark, the golden figure of 272, on their own.

These are the exactly figures from the survey :

United Progressice Alliance (UPA) - 203 seats
Indian National Congress- 155
Dravida Munnetra Kazhagham- 15
Trinamool Congress- 13
Nationalist Congress Party- 11
Jharkhand Mukti Morcha- 2
National Conference- 2
Muslim League- 2
All India Majlis e Ittehadul Muslimeen- 1
Kerala Congress (Mani)- 1
Republican Party of India (Athavale)- 1

National Democratic Alliance - 191 seats
Bharatiya Janata Party- 147
Janata Dal (United)- 22
Shiv Sena- 9
Shiromani Akali Dal- 5
Asom Gana Parishad- 4
Rashtriya Lok Dal- 3
Indian National Lok Dal-1

Third Front - 104 seats
Bahujan Samaj Party- 26
Communist Party of India (Marxist)- 25
Telugu Desam Party-13
Biju Janata Dal-9
All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagham-9
Communist Party of India- 4
Pattali Makkal Katchi- 4
Forward Bloc- 3
Revolutionary Socialist Party - 3
Telangana Rashtra Samiti- 3
Janata Dal (Secular)- 2
Kerala Congress- 1
Assam United Democratic Front- 1
Haryana Janhit Congress- 1

Fourth Front - 39 seats
Samajwadi Party- 28
Rashtriya Janata Dal- 6
Lok Janshakti Party- 4
Praja Rajyam-1

Others: 5 seats

Total number of seats: 543

So, this survey indicates that no pre-poll alliance is getting a comfortable majority, the million dollar question which arises is not that "Kaun Banega Pradhanmantri" but it should actually be "Kaun Banayega Pradhanmantri".

No doubt, with these figures, there is going to be a lot of 'change of hearts' amongst the so-called representatives of the people. There will be horse-trading and stuffs like that. Some will be lured by cash, some by offers of ministerial berths, some by dropping cases against them and the likes.

With this kind of thing happening everytime with every election in India, I think there is a strong need of a revamp in the political system. Why can't we have a two-party system (or three-party system) here in India. I know this is not that easy. But it would at least be much better than seeing this horse-trading and 'change of hearts'. This would reduce corruption at the highest level to a larger extent.

We should have a law that if an elected representative wants to change his party, he/she must resign from his post, join another party for at least a year before he/she can seek reappointment. What actually happens is that if a representative from party 'X' is elected. He remains on the post for some years. Then there's some tussle. He is denied ticket for next election. People from party 'Y' get in touch with him. And suddenly he realises that his beliefs are now changed. He joins party 'Y' and gets a ticket from that very party. Its the same party which he condemned just a few days ago. So there should be at least one year of 'cooling-off' period for these 'dal-badlus' (frequent party changers).

These were just the thoughts that popped up in my mind. And I thought why not share it on the blog. I'd like to hear views of the readers. Comments on these suggestions of mine are most welcome.

Opinion Poll Source : Star News-Nielsen Opinion Poll