Wit Wisdom and Whoop

Much has been said and written about the Demonetisation decision of the Modi government. Everybody and his uncle, aunty and niece have an opinion about it. If the government thinks that this is one great way of winning the war against black money the opposition thinks this is the one great way to destroy the economy.  Manmohan Singh has been Chief Economic Advisor to the Govt of India, Governor of the Reserve Bank of India, Finance Minister who helped turn the Indian economy around to become what it is today and was the Prime Minister for 10 years. Celebrated and hailed globally for his acumen in economics  he wasted a golden opportunity in Parliament when he spoke. He could have explained economic theory, impact of demonetisation, what exactly happens  and what the future is likely to hold for India. Instead he chose to throw some numbers without any basis, filmy dialogues and even the one quote of the father of economics John Meynard Keynes was misused. The comp...

As I checked my twitter feed late in the night I was shocked to hear of the ouster of Mr. Cyrus Mistry as Chairman of Tata Group in what seemed like a Surgical Strike. Least expected and more importantly there had been no hint in any media including those on economics and finance that there was any trouble afoot within the Tata group. What is even more intriguing is the fact that even as the announcement was made, the name of Mr. Mistry and his team has been removed including his speeches, interviews etc from across the group websites in one clean sweep. It's one thing to change the Chairman of a company such as Tata’s, but another to do so in such a brutal fashion? One would think that such brutal change would happen only when the person involved has been caught in a completely unacceptable position, but here that doesn’t seem the case – or is there something that nobody knows about? The news that Mr. Mistry is going to drag the group to court indicates that he doesn’t qui...

The flavour of the day be it on Whatsap groups or social media or even MSM, is the news that Britain is leaving the European Union. There has been much hand wringing, abusing, predictions of dire futures, commentary of Left, Right, Centre policies and some have even extended the arguments to racism, casteism, religion, anti minorityism and what have you.  51% of the people think the future will be great and 49% think its going to be bleak.  But those who think that the 51% are wrong also swear by democracy. Funny. If you believe in democracy then it means that you disagree with them, but accept the majority verdict. But many especially Indian MSM stars have been abusing the 51% with choice words – directly or indirectly – mobs, scoundrels, haters. Listen, what the UK citizens want to do is their business, those amongst us who have and do business with them  – live with change. Change is the ONLY constant in the world even if it is not what you espouse, but don’t beli...

1975 to 1977 – Emergency declared by Congress under Indira Gandhi. The atrocities of that period were predominantly in northern India. Whole slums demolished with bulldozers, thousands of people sterilised even if they were young, others killed. The Turkman gate incident where many Muslims were rendered homeless and thrown out is still well known. In the south the effect of the emergency was far less. We did have the infamous Rajan murder case where a young engineering student was brutally tortured and killed and his body never found. The prime accused Karunakaran went on to become a Chief Minister and  a very senior national leader of the Congress. As a 14 year old my own classmates were arrested ostensibly for wearing khaki shorts, identified with the RSS, and transported to a jail 200 kms away and lodged there. They were let off after a day with dire warnings. In 1977 the Janata party swept to power with 295 seats, squabbled, lost and fresh elections held in 1980. A nat...

Dear P.R.I.C.K.S I could not help coining this acronym which incidentally stands for - Powerful Rich Influential Celebrities Knowledgeable Successful - and though meant to be positive is also said with a certain hint of sarcasm. By Knowledgeable I refer to those generally considered as “Intellectuals” in our society and so the “I” can also mean that apart from Influential. Let me also state at the outset that I am addressing the diaspora of PRICKS here – from Modi to Lalloo, Amitabh to Anupam,  Sonia Gandhi to Brinda Karat, Sunny Leone to Nandita Das, Capitalists to Communists and so on. This has no politics, no religion, and no caste implications. I was motivated to write this after reading what Nandita Das had to say in Sunday Times of India. Frankly I agree with her for the most part and my sympathies with her. I have infact written about this earlier but in passing. Firstly every one of you PRICKS need to wake up, smell the coffee and face the reality of this w...

I guess my parents brought me up wrong.  I can’t for the life of me recognise or differentiate between an Iyer or Iyengar, a SC or ST, a Dalit or whatever.  Life has indeed given me opportunity to learn and I have, but in a very limited way.  I can recognise a Sikh because of his turban or a Marwari after he has bested me in a business deal. Sometimes the Banerjee or Chaterjee tells me they are from Bengal. Give me a Rao and I am lost since I have no idea if he is from Karnataka or Andhra.  What the hell, till he filed his nomination at Varanasi and BJP went to town talking of how Modi is a OBC I never knew that. Always thought he was one of those rich Marwaris like Lalit Modi or Russi Modi till someone whacked me on the head and said that Russi Modi was a Parsi.   In that sense I am intellectually challenged or should I say religiously caste challenged.  A lifetime in sales has given me the opportunity to better deal and understand people dependin...