Hoorray!

I have had - and still have - quite a few loves in life. Like that coffee, freshly brewed in the morning; the rain that pours at night, leaving the wet earth of dawn as the only evidence of her mysterious visits; Sunday mornings; the lights of the city on a weekend evening; an early morning train ride on a relatively empty MRTS; my Amar Chitra Katha collection; walking through the streets of Thirumylapuri - or Mylapore - to visit Kabali; an evening turning to night on the Bessy Beach - and the list goes on. I now have another addition to this endless list of loves. She was selected after a lot of thought and discussion. Introducing Bhooma! She is a Royal Enfield Himalayan - all of 411cc, a good amount of power and performance at my call, with just a twist of the throttle! The automotive forums are abuzz with a common theme - niggles and issues with the bike, as well as with Royal Enfield in general. However, there are an equal number of happy owners, who enjoy the bike as t...

॥ श्री रामचन्द्र कृपालु ॥ श्रीरामचन्द्र कृपालु भजु मन हरण भवभय दारुणम् नवकञ्ज लोचन , कञ्जमुख कर कञ्जपद कञ्जारुणम् ॥ १ ॥ कंदर्प अगणित अमित छबि नव नील नीरज सुन्दरम् । पटपीत मानहुं तड़ित रूचि - शुची नौमि जनक सुतावरम् ॥ २ ॥ भजु दीन बन्धु दिनेश दानव दैत्यवंशनिकन्दनम् । रघुनन्द आनंदकंद कोशल चन्द दशरथ नन्दनम् ॥ ३ ॥ सिर मुकुट कुण्डल तिलक चारु उदारु अङ्ग विभूषणम् । आजानुभुज शर चापधर सङ्ग्राम - जित - खर दूषणम् ॥ ४ ॥ इति वदति तुलसीदास शङ्कर शेष मुनि मनरञ्जनम् । मम हृदयकञ्ज निवास कुरु कामादि खलदलगञ्जनम् ॥ ५ ॥ मनु जाहीं राचेउ मिलिहि सो बरु सहज सुन्दर साँवरो । करुना निधान सुजान सीलु सनेहु जानत रावरो ॥ ६ ॥ एही भांति गोरी असीस सुनी सिय सहित हिय हरषीं अली । तुलसी भावानिह पूजी पुनि - पुनि मुदित मन मंदिर चली गोस्वामी तुलसीदास Fortunate I am, to be born in this land! Fortunate I am, to immerse myself in Bhakti, and in the thought of Īśvara . And how c...

One of the first news report I read this morning is this - http://indianexpress.com/article/india/politics/muslim-techie-beaten-to-death-in-pune-7-men-of-hindu-outfit-held/#.U46d2V4S8zI.twitter It immediately elicited a flurry of responses along expected lines from the usual, useful idiots. Even the basic courtesy of expressing condolences for the dead person and the bereaving family was seen to have been forgotten, in their haste to tie their favorite punching bags to the conspiracy. They did not stop to think that the outfit named here had as much probability to be NOT related to RSS or any other parivar organizations, and could be floated by anyone, and funded by anyone. Not that the useful idiots ever demonstrated an ability to think. Now they are also demonstrating their insensitivity to loss - because it is a loss only to someone else and not to them. Without digging back on their 1400 year history, and with events of only the 21st century, we can conclude that the follow...

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...