Hoorray!

I thought of a lot of titles for this post: "Ache Din Aane Wale Hain" "Iss Bar Modi Sarkar" "Time for a new India" Some more are running around in my head. But the most predominant emotion in my mind was - relief. When the election dates were announced, I couldn't wait for this day - the counting day - to come sooner. Now that it has come and is almost over, the feeling of euphoria has given way to relief. As of this moment Modi is taking 268 colleagues along with him to the Lok Sabha for sure, according the Election Commission of India 's website. In a few more minutes, that number will change to 280. This is a big relief, since to run a government - the central government or The Government of India - he needs only 272 members in parliament. Along with the MPs from his allies, that number is somewhere beyond 330+. The trepidation and the excitement I felt yesterday when I penned the previous post were long gone - in fact they were dis...

For 2014, I wanted to read at least 100 books. Across genres, in both English and Tamil. Accessibility was not a problem, since I have bought a large number of books in the last 2-3 years. However, I forgot to consider that this is an election year. Over the last 2-3 months, I have been deeply immersed in following the people, the trends, the incidents and everything that a huge election like this brings. I was totally sucked in. As an ardent supporter of Modi and BJP, I wanted to take part in this process much more intently, though in the end, all I could do was go to the polling booth on voting day and press the button. I was so immersed in it, that I even forgot to complete and publish this post, which i started to pen last month! Anyway, now that elections are over and results are out - technically, they came out yesterday since it's already 12 AM on the 17th of May, 2014 - I can now go back to my books. I seriously have to go back to my books! It's not like...

Tomorrow is a big day. It would be a day marked in the history of India and a turning point in Indian politics. After a lengthy 9-Phase election, counting happens tomorrow - all the epithets like world's largest democracy, largest electorate, just a 100 million short of the combined population of US & Europe at this moment have been trumpeted again and again. Still, we need to keep the numbers in mind. The number of Indians who were eligible to vote were 814.5 million.  Of these 66.38% or 551.3 million people have voted (including yours truly, exercising my right to vote in the fifth election since 2006).  Our votes have been recorded in 1.4 million electronic voting machines, which will reveal the numbers tomorrow.  For more of these numbers you can refer this comprehensive page on Indian General Elections, 2014 over at wikipedia. This is a big enough spectacle to attract the attention of a large part of the planet. Running around right now are exciteme...

What exactly is patriotism? Is it also just a form of lust for land? What does a militant fanaticism towards language hide? Instead of freeing you, do these abstracts immerse you in emotional extremism? The strong emotions that you feel when you think of your Motherland, Mothertongue - Do they bind you much more firmly to the dirt of the land? To hatred? To violence? "Daanah Pah Daanah Da Nana..." Long before the singers began singing, the beat got me going. This song is written in a language of a small group of people who tend to sheep and goats in a harsh landscape. Akhtar Chanal Zahri is the writer as well as the singer. Born in Balochistan, he grew up belting folk songs in Brahvi, his mothertongue. In Brahvi, he has penned this incredible song, to describe his land, its beauty. This language may be tribal and harsh, but it blends itself to so much lyrical beauty and is thereby lofty and sweet to me. I have been listening to this song repeatedly, mesmerized by i...

Why is it that I can never do the one most important thing I always want to do, i.e. write 1000 words a day? This is one serious issue, which I never could fathom. I write reams of comments on facebook - a lot of arguments, debates, jabs and pokes, and plain nonsense. But I somehow seem to slowly lose the ability to sit down and compile my thoughts. It is with such a sad state of affairs that I have to welcome an otherwise hearty 2013, after a nice, overall pleasant and wonderful passing of 2012. 2012 brought me several new friends. I started learning a foreign language - español - and hope to reach a comfortable level, to speak and write. I learned swimming, though I am yet to perfect it. I got a comfortable new job, in which I can confidently stay for a good amount of time to come. I added quite a number of books to my library. Oh yes, I even got this brand new laptop,  Lenovo Y480 . It is another story that I could not do much of what I primarily wanted to do with this laptop ...

Serve We can get anything today for money. This bartering of money for objects and results has undervalued the value of both money and the thing it buys. The irony is calling that effort or result bought with money as a “service”. What then, is the real meaning of service? Expending one’s efforts with no expectations of any kind in return is service. It is done for the sake of the effort, for love, for the betterment of the person receiving it. To serve is to learn, to grow, to realize, and to enjoy. The act of serving helps the person performing the service more than the person receiving it. It clears the mind and purifies the heart. Such is the power of service, where even those who at first are not inclined to perform the act willingly, are soon touched by the joy of service. After all, they cannot escape the virtue of happiness and contentment when it spreads from their own hand. We “I” do not serve. “You” do not serve. “He, She, It” does not and “They” do not se...

Sometime back, I encountered a puzzle posted by a member in a LinkedIn group. It was called a Million Dollar Suitcase . A scenario with a challenge was described and we had to find a solution. It went like this: Three suitcases are all labeled incorrectly, and you must get the labels right in order to find the million dollar suitcase (the one full of hundred dollar bills).  The labels on the suitcases read as follows: $100 Bills $1 Bills Both ($100 & $1 Bills) You are allowed one test. You may remove only one bill from a single suitcase, after which you must make your determination. You can’t peek into the suitcases. Can you find the million dollar suitcase? The Solution I read about it and devised a solution before checking it out on the site. My explanation was: Assuming all of the suitcases are definitely mislabeled - we can safely remove one (i.e. the $100 suitcase) from the game and consider only two suitcases: $1 and Both.  If we select the one ...