Monday, May 25, 2009

Singh is King ... no actually 'the king'

I am very happy writing this post as my request has been heard by my fellow countrymen. (ref. my earlier post - 'Wake up and Shout')

All of you must have heard this popular phrase being used in media over and over again in the past one week, but the truth is there is not other title better suited to describe the turn of events in Indian politics over the week. (I wanted to stress a bit more on Dr. Manmohan Singh's achievement and therefore modified the contents.)

Indian general elections were concluded on 16th May 2009 after a rather fast counting procedure (courtesy Electronic Voting Machines, are you listening USA - EVMs) and declared UPA as the most dominant alliance. The fact that Congress led UPA won the elections with such a decisive margin was unexpected and also belied the predictions of a hung parliament. Over the past couple of months leaders of all kind of regional parties harboured dreams of being on the hot seat of Indian democracy. All of them had prime ministerial ambitions or at least had the belief of playing a major role in deciding who forms the government.

All those dreams and ambitions became a thing of past as Congress proved too strong for its rivals and swept the elections. By doing so it reduced the market power of the so called 'Kingmakers', who have to ability to make or break any government. The biggest victim of these elections was the third and fourth fronts. These are two coalitions formed by a number of regional parties. While the Left is a big party name in the 3rd front, 4th front was something entirely new to this elections with the voters failing to identify with any or all its leaders. As both these fronts didn't get anywhere close to the numbers they obtained in the last elections their power to have a say in the government diminished. BJP led NDA was able to achieve close to its last election mark but failed to improve on it. So the entire benefit ended up with Congress and its allies.

All said and done, Dr. Manmohan Singh and his cabinet have taken the office and have started serving the country for a 2nd consecutive term, which looks very unlikely to end before 5 years. The best thing what I and a huge number of Indian population felt was that the government will no longer be threatened or bullied by the demands of its over rated allies. The left forms no part in the new government and so does other similar self centered parties, who fail to see beyond their own selfish interests. The youth of the country is fed-up with the tricks of dirty politics which are played even at the time of national interests. (For better understanding look at examples of the nuclear agreement and the attack on Mumbai). Maybe it was this frustration which made the voters of India stamp their feet in authority and declare that 'whichever party comes to power should have a single hand majority in order to take its own decisions'. The fact that Rahul Gandhi, youth icon of India, tirelessly reached to people all over the country, swung the vote balance heavily in favour of Congress.

Whatever be the reason the outcome of this election have been a blessing for people of India, as they try to fight their way against the monster named recession and get back on track to the double digit growth numbers. Nothing else could have express the joy as expressed by the stock market, which rose by extraordinary numbers so much that it had to be closed twice for over-shooting the barrier. Its balle-balle time...

I congratulate Congress-UPA and Dr. Manmohan Singh for the victory and also hope for a stable constructive 5 year term for them in office.

EVEN MORE I WOULD LIKE TO HAIL THE PEOPLE OF INDIA FOR MAKING THIS POSSIBLE. KUDOS !!

Thursday, May 7, 2009

I for Internship <> I for IPL <> I for Introducing APL

Come the season of summer there is a weird curriculum waiting for wanna-be MBA grads in a B-School. They (includes me and my fellow mates) are told that through a thing called internship, they would gain valuable experience for becoming a manager. This 'I' starts off during the worst time in a year... Summers. So it is also called summer internship. Well the biggest let-off besides the weather is the fact that it is more of an opportunity for the corporate to get 'cheap labour'. And when i say labour, it’s actually means manual labour. I don't mean to disrespect the Labour class of our country (frankly speaking they are the best in the world) but once you are into a B-School you expect something better. Ok nobody has issues with working for a corporation, but there needs to be a certain level of motivation involved which needs to be generated from the hirer. So far with various reviews I can safely say that 90-95% of the interns are not at all motivated. The reason can vary from culture of the firm, the work assigned to the salary given etc etc. It has been a horrid time for me as well, partly due to the weather of Delhi. It has been the hottest April in Delhi for over half-a-century and I feeling its brunt. Add to that the no stipend clause and ** you get EXPLOITATION OF LABOUR.
Tired and exhausted for most part of the internship, my only salvation is the 2nd ‘I’ – IPL. After a sedate and rather boring start, the 2nd edition of IPL is turning in to another success star on Lalit Modi’s cap. Now the teams are getting used to the conditions and are able to devise better strategies. Indian players (well at least the ones in national team) are performing superbly. After slogging the entire day in heat and crappy work, I head back to my hostel with the expectations of a nice cricket match, and its rarely I have been disappointed. Adding to the fizz in IPL is the fantasy game, which is played by almost all cricket lovers from my college. Due to this fantasy game you can see people cheering for players from both the teams just for the fact that they are included in the fantasy team. It’s hilarious… It’s weird, but I actually get the motivation to run back home just because of IPL. Somewhere down the line I would owe a lot to IPL for saving me from one painful death. And yes, when I speak of the above lines, I am not being selfish. I speak on behalf of half a dozen friends of mine who feel exactly the same.


Waiting for the days to end and dump this internship thing into my historical ‘don’t-touch’ ledgers..

And ya I forgot to introduce to you all .. Adhchini Premier League 2009 (APL). This is the cricket extravaganza we have organized to keep the craze of cricket alive. Matches take place involving teams from adhchini who cross cultural boundaries to play together. This league involves 2 formats:
1. Hot sun format
2. Underground format

The hot sun format includes matches which brings players out on the sun and test their physical fitness and stamina. The underground format checks more of the temperament and skill as it happens under lights and is played in the basement. Transfers keep happening regularly with the no. of players also variable.