Re-view and Re-search

1.       Ordinance is “un-constitutional”.  – Rajnath Singh, BJP President on UPA-2 government’s move to bring anti-graft ordinance 2.       When bill is pending before the standing committee of the Rajya Sabha, how can the government bring an ordinance? -           Arun Jaitley, Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha speaking on anti-graft ordinance 3.       BJP is opposed to this ordinance as it is unconstitutional, illegal and immoral. -           LK Advani, BJP Patriach Yet in stark contrast and amidst the sign of desperation and avoiding confronting the opposition in Rajya Sabha (the government still doesn’t have enough numbers to push through), the Modi sarkar has passed another critical law through an “ORDINANCE” route. If the current trend continues, this government will have a distinction in using...

10 th December, 2014: 2107 hours IST Last evening I got a Whatsapp message from a number starting with +966 (the dialing code for the Kingdom Cover page of the book of Saudi Arabia (KSA)). I was happy thinking it would be a message from my parents (they are currently on a pilgrimage to KSA). With excitement I checked the messages and it read like this “ Assalamu alaikum ” followed by the adjacent picture and then a message again explaining what the picture is. It said “ This book is like an encyclopedia of Islamic Financial System. A colourful book, it has almost everything about Islamic Financial System”. The last message said “ Your dad is here with me in our bookstore in Makkah”. When I checked these messages, it was already more than half an hour since the time I received them. 2142 hours IST Realising the time lapsed, I was sure my father wouldn’t be around at the store for so long. I thanked the sender for sharing this. I communicated to him that I already own som...

The name Rajdhani (a passenger train service connecting the capitals of states with national capital) evokes a sense of pride and a journey of a life time for Indians including Non-Resident Indians (NRIs). As Indians we say “ Rajdhani mein ek baar toh safar karna zaroori hai”. If you haven’t experienced the journey, then you are really missing something. And I was one amongst the many who were bombarded with, you must experience Rajdhani. And this gave rise to my determination to have a firsthand experience of what Rajdhani is all about. Roger in New Delhi On 22 nd September 2014, International Premier Tennis League (IPTL) announced that Rafael Nadal has pulled out due to injury and Roger Federer will replace him at Micromax Indian Aces (one of the four franchises in the league). The Indian leg of the tournament scheduled for 6 th – 8 th December, will be played in New Delhi. Along with the opportunity to see Roger live in action (I am an ardent Roger Federer fan) it was als...

This 26 th November marked the sixth anniversary of the ghastly terrorist attacks in Mumbai. Though not the first in the maximum city , these attacks were vastly different from the others in their sheer scale and audacity. The terrifying, bullet - spraying spree of the armed fanatics in the southern end of the city sent tremors to the city. The terrorists not only hijacked the iconic landmarks but managed to siege the entire city all at one time. It took the security forces including the NSG commandos (the elite force created for such hostilities in the country) more than 60 hours to save Mumbai from hell. The world froze with the tremor at the most brazen attack of terrorism post 9/11 in US (for some reason US is the benchmark for everything and now even terrorism). As per the official release, a total of 166 individuals lost their lives, more than 350 were injured and millions traumatized. Ask any Mumbaikar about the incident and the wounds are there to see. And most impor...

Wali Mohammed Khan has two options; either save his family (mother & wife) and let the militants take away his daughter or sacrifice the family including self, yet lose the daughter to militants. He doesn’t want to exercise either of the options. Then what should he do and how should he go about it? Read on to find out about the trauma ridden day in the life of a Kashmiri family, held hostage by the militants. Tears of Jhelum is a story of a close knit Khan family who has managed to hold on to its moral sanctity in spite of the torn and blood stained social fabric and failing human values in the valley. The family members included Wali’s father (Abba Jaan) who was the district educational officer before he retired and both his mother (Ammi Jaan) and wife (Sakina) were housewives. He has two children, Salim (an engineer, married to Veena, a Kashmiri pandit. He lived and worked in New Delhi) and Meher (an MBBS from AIIMS, practices in a government hospital in Pahelgam). They...

Walkers Paradise Well! Well!! Well!!!  Pogaon  (Don’t know what does “PO” means or where the name came from and in which language it is. Spoke to people around to get the meaning or the origination of the name, but was unsuccessful. We Indians are anyways infamous for getting a new name by sheer mispronunciation, be it places or even for human beings) is not any of the World Heritage site and nor is a place of religious or political significance either. It’s a hamlet on the outskirts of Bhiwandi (a suburb of Mumbai) on the old Mumbai-Agra National Highway (NH-3) which passes through the textile town. As can be seen from the Google image (marked in red) Pogaon is located at a distance of 1.3km off NH-3 (Kaka Metals Enterprises in on NH-3). This stretch is famous with the health conscious morning and evening walkers/runners of Bhiwandi. My first brush with this place was courtesy my father, (well before I entered my teens) when he was one of the regular walkers on this qua...

Well Deserved??? Being an autocratic man, PM Narendra Modi made sure that he gets ONLY his people in the ministry (he  didn’t even budge to the pressure from the oldest ally Shiv Sena over portfolio allocation). To make matters easier for him, even RSS (not that RSS has any choice left, so I assume) gave him a free hand to decide his  inner coterie. Some names and their portfolios were on expected lines (I myself predicted a few since I have a reasonably sound understanding of our political landscape. Trying not being pompous here) whilst must admit others came in as surprise. Some good surprises and some ugly, very ugly! Here is a critical evaluation. No prizes for getting them right Being the “Kingmaker” Arun Jaitley was certain of amassing a huge booty from the King’s treasure. The Sr. Advocate, is widely known as the man responsible for the elevation of Modi as PM candidate. And hence his booty was as predicted. But honestly, I expected him to get Externa...

After a tumultuous delay, the PM-designate is finally the PM. Thank you for finally taking charge. Media has been bombarding us with PM news. The  past 10 days (16 th  - 26 th  May), the media space comprising 100 odd news channels, print media, radio and others wasted some millions of man-hours over meaningless, repetitive and often illogical coverage. Media was almost choking me with the PM news. But on the brighter side, I am now aware of the  minutest of details of our PM. Guess even Modi would not be aware of his own news. As if the Modi fever was not enough, media took over the ministry formation to mysterious levels. Honestly speaking, I had a few good laughs on the bizarre nature of the information being broadcasted on the likely portfolio allotment. Till a few seconds before or rather even after the oath taking ceremony was over, the media went berserk. The brouhaha on the ministry allocation finally settled with Rashtrapati Bhavan releasing the ...