Wit Wisdom and Whoop

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. No media then or now will dare point a finger at the Congress for such incidents since according to them every wrong-doing in India has happened only after 2014. Rajan Murder Case - Kerala Rajan murder - justice denied As a 14 year old my own classmate was arrested ostensibly for wearing khaki shorts, identified with the RSS, and t...

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...

In the recent past there has been a huge uproar over the suicide of a young scholar Rohith  Vemula.  This is not about his suicide or the events that have followed. It is about my thoughts on the caste system we have. For centuries India has had a caste system. Religion has intermingled and made a concoction that is difficult to unravel.  For decades the British used the divide and rule strategy so effectively that we even had cricket matches “Hindus v/s Muslims” and none in the country felt like protesting. No, this was not in some past forgotten stone age, it was as recently as in  1946 meaning just 70 years ago when the heroes of our freedom movement Gandhiji, Nehru, Patel were all in their leadership positions.  It grew to encompass Christians, Buddhists etc as others.  For more on these cricket matches read here.   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombay_Quadrangular These matches came to a halt in 1946 not because someone found it obnox...

Dear Rahul, Since you spoke about listening to different shades of opinions and seeing the way you reacted to the students at Bengaluru I felt this was a good time to send this letter to you. Chances are you won’t read this but at least I have made an attempt. The only reason that prompted me to write this is that for whatever reason I see a new Rahul Gandhi, at least in some ways though not in all. So maybe there is hope for you yet. Firstly, you are NOT your father, mother, grandmother, great grandfather – you are what you are – Rahul Gandhi. Accept that, imbibe that and focus on that. Please try to learn from many other children of famous privileged families. A Ranbir Kapoor except for the towel scene has charted a course that was different from his father Rishi Kapoor. We see and hear Ranbir on/off the screen. Karishma and Kareena Kapoor rarely remind us of Randhir or Babita and at best Karishma’s eyes remind me of Babita. Saif Ali Khan thankfully doesn’t remind me ...