The D Day…

The time is now of something known as “Appraisal Time” for employees in private sector. This is the time everyone awaits every year to see the outcome of his commitment, efforts he had put throughout the year and to see where his career path is going. I agree that this had been a tough year for most of the companies and many had taken actions like retrenchment and pay cuts but its also important for management to understand that how delicate is this whole process of appraisal is. As this can make or break an employee’s mind frame towards his/ her work.

The people responsible for appraisal should understand that appraisal should be a two way open process rather than being a one way directives that an employee is expected to accept. They should also understand that not always what is reported by the employee’s manager about the employee is perfect. They should also come down and have a chit chat with the employee. This may not get any fruitful result to them, but this is going to boost the moral and productivity of the employee for sure.

Gone are the days when employee accepts and agrees to whatever that was told to him or her. With increasing level of uncertainty and anxiety, the need for effective communication along with true and impartial feedback becomes vital which every manager should understand clearly. An employee expects appraisal process to provide a clear understanding of their manager’s and company’s expectation from them and a clear path for growth in their current assignment and beyond.

I agree that there is lot of pressure on organisations to conduct effective appraisal keeping employees motivated in even tough times like today, but they should also understand that people join organisations and leave managers.

Indian crawling in slow motion…

I was once again back on track with railways for my visit to my parent’s place. Usually I had enjoyed travelling with Indian Railways till date and this travel was also nothing new. But again as always I came across few things that I am jotting down. I booked this ticket in a hurry but was confirmed with the help of one relative sitting at Railway headquarters. Long live Babus in our democracy. It was a pleasant surprise to see people responsible for keeping train clean visiting and cleaning the coach three four times in just less than 24 hours but it was unpleasant to find food pathetic this time. It was pleasant to see that ticket checker was asking for the identity proof but it was unpleasant to see that air-condition needs conditioning.

I also came across flying squad guys who were having free snacks at pantry coach in train, after one successful capture of an elderly uncle who was travelling without ticket. The uncle was also smart, after so many attempts these squad guys were unable to extract a single rupee from him as bribe. He insisted on receipt and they insisted on off the record settlement. After one hour of trial and discussions they finally gave up and uncle ji left the place smiling. It looked as if having free food was their legal right and they had negotiated this as a part of their CTC. There was not even a single GRP personal in the train for past twenty hours, which again surprises me. Is there in any change in rule regarding serving terms and conditions for railways staff?

This corruption, negligence and arrogance among the elite babus is one of the major reasons holding back India from growing. Although India has been ranked as one of the fastest growing economies but its also considered as one of the poorly managed economy. Its like India Inc. would like to fire its all cylinders but can’t as the road ahead is bumpy. India really is crawling in slow motion towards growth and thriving to become a economic superpower. Lets hope to see that dream and vision realising soon.

Life line of the city…local trains

Yesterday I had an experience of my life. Because of some prior commitments I travelled from my residence to one of the extremes of Kolkata (I am still confused, although Kolkata is not so huge but it never ends also). My god, that entire travel was awesome. I somehow managed to reach Sealdah station to catch a local train, I said somehow because it started to rain while I was on the way and traffic came to a standstill. I purchased a ticket for my travel after so many consultations over phone with multiple navigators who were supposed to keep track on my movement. Amazingly the fares are still very cheap. For a travel of 45 minutes all I paid was just seven Rupees.

Incidentally this was my first ever attempt or first ever dare to travel in any local train. This was a mixed feeling of excitement and concern as I always prefer to avoid all this messy means of travelling. These are called as life lines of the cities they carry. Even my maid also uses this to reach at my place in morning. Although she has to start as early as 4.00 AM to reach in time. I always wondered how she was able to manage all this. So back to the journey. I entered the local and managed to get a place near the window. Each seat looked as it was meant for three people and four were occupying it.

The train started bang on time without any delay but by the time it started it was jam packed. It was a mixed bag of people, some returning from job, some returning from college, few were vendors offering various products like lassi, snacks and even ayurvedic medicine and very few like me travelling for the first time. But the situation was really pathetic as you can see in the picture below

  

On reaching the destination, I completed my pre-fixed commitment and then moved to a Govt Guest house for taking rest. It was a location situated on the banks of Hoogly river. The location was an excellent one but very poorly maintained. The view of river was awesome.

The overall feeling and experience was a good one. Although it was a pleasant one but I would always prefer to avoid travelling through locals in this city as it was not an experience I would like to have again.

I believe the guest house can earn a lot more attraction if it maintained properly and of course the situation in trains should be lot better. Also they should think of providing First class as in Mumbai locals, so that people can think of that as an viable option instead of wasting money and fuel on taxies and cars.

Yes Boss…

As per a business survey, India has got most corrupt bureaucracy. So we stood first again. Indeed a great news for my fellow countrymen. For those countrymen who get a chance to vote once in five years and who spend their full five years running around the same politicians they had voted for, the Babus who are there to ease their lives.

I myself had many encounters with these species known as “Babus”. While trying to renew my passport, they refused to accept my rented house’s lease agreement as my residence proof(which incidentally is a legal document accepted by Income Tax department) but are ready to accept address on my bank account passbook (if account is with nationalised bank). Interestingly bank also asks for a local residence proof. How am I supposed to get that if I am a employed guy working in a private organisation?. Or worse I can get my passport renewed if I can pay extra 2000 Rs. to the respected broker. I need to pay 250 Rs. to get a domicile certificate from my state, but that’s the price anyone can pay and get a domicile, even if he or she had never been to that state. I can’t get a new gas connection because the government’s own gas company is not giving new connections but I can get the same if I am ready to shell out extra 1000 Rs. I need to pay 1500 Rs to get a driving license even though I am ready to give all driving exams but that’s the price anyone can get a license even if he had never tried a bicycle, that too without any exam. I can’t get a entrance exam form which is being sold through one of the nationalised bank as they are out of stock but right outside the bank premises I can get that through a broker by paying just 100 Rs extra. Back in year 2000 one of my friend got his international driving license for 3000 Rs through one mediator gentleman when he was not even possessing a valid Indian driving license. The guy managed all the paper formalities. Even though I can’t get a confirmed train ticket by either booking online or by standing in a long queue for hours, the broker can get me a confirmed ticket by charging extra per berth.

This is what I had been watching for years and this is what you all must be witnessing too. This has became part of our life and we had already accepted this as normal process for getting any government document. Earlier at reputed ethical companies at private sector were untouched by this wave, but now they are also not untouched my this new concept. Unfortunately the same trend is creeping into private sector also. You are best performer of your team if you can say “Yes Boss” to whatever your boss says, who the hell cares for the work done. You can come to office at 11.00 am, sit around, give gyan to your teammates, hang around with your boss and can go home as and when you wish. If you don’t have a godfather you are worthless, year after year the so called appraisal process will be just a formality. If you are the boss’s blue eyed child, all the facilities will be provided to you. You don’t need to bother about your project assignment, your performance appraisal, your promotion and your growth. For everyone else they need to take initiative, they need to learn and they need to perform to prove themselves.

Any salaried person will die paying his taxes for nothing and will remain neglected living without proper road, water and electricity. But the bureaucrats will enjoy the luxury of free electricity, water, house and government paid telephones. I wonder how they manage to build their big villas in the salary and that too after paying all the taxes legally. All the salaried people I know till date never looked in a position to achieve all this in a span of 20-25 years of service which our Babu’s achieve within a short span of 5 years. How every Babu’s kid studies in top shot colleges while the meritorious struggle to pay for their fees. If you say that they are born talented, I am forced to laugh. I had seen one of such Babu kid and I understand how talented they really are. Why the policies enforcing reservation to meritorious poor students are not getting implemented and definition of creamy layer is getting redefined regularly.

I wonder why should anyone pay tax or for that reason why anyone should  believe in the system which makes him run from post to pillar to get what is his right.

Why can’t the money which is spent on providing luxury to these useless creatures be used to aid those colleges like IIMs and IITs so that the burden of fees can be reduced to a larger extent on the students who aspire to study and learn?. Why should a politician who can barely be considered educated gets more salary and perks than most of the much qualified youngsters who had spent their time and efforts for studying?. Why do we have categories like VIP and VVIP when they all are supposed to be public servant?.

Wasn’t this democracy supposed to be of the people, by the people and for the people??

I really wonder…….  

Australian for Racism

Australia was considered as a heaven for outsiders, people used to go there without any fear for holidaying and studying. Most of them were Indian. It was a heaven for Indian student, study and earn side by side that too while enjoying the scenic beauties and beaches like Bondi beach.

But ever since this incident of racist attacks on a group of students from Hyderabad every one is scared to visit that place. Even families are asking students studying over there to come back because they are scared, really scared. Today there was a rally peace rally outside Victorian Parliament by Indian immigrants to Australia. That showed the anger of Indians over there. Although Australian High Commissioner in India condemned this incident of racism and assured that Government of Australia will ensure that this will not happen again, but the faith of people is already shaken and its really difficult to restore that.

Big B had done a good thing by refusing to accept the honorary doctorate degree offered by an Australian University. As he writes on his blog ”I can’t accept an honour from people who are are targeting my fellow countrymen for no reason ”

We as good hosts, welcome each and every visitor to India and give them so respect (although there are people who try to overcharge and make money, Amir khan is appearing in an advertisement to discourage all this acts) and see what are we

In fact if the things go like this, as suggested my friend KG, there can be a scene where those 10 thousand people who came for peace march will come back soon and start demanding for a separate state to ensure security for them and their people.

Its like they are saying “I’d love India, If I don’t have to live in it”

Come on guys..show some respect…!!!

The day when Kolkata stood Still

It was a regular morning on 25-05-2009. I got ready for going to office and was about to leave when I noticed that it was drizzling outside. Since I was in a hurry and was also hungry, I took a yellow trademark “Taxi” and started for office. On reaching office, I realised that the weather is not so good and I have no chance for having a breakfast. Anyways thanks to a colleague I got homemade Rotis and curry to fill my hungry stomach.

We started our work once it was 09:15 AM. It was still raining outside and the wind was blowing at such a speed that it looked like they are practising for laps at F1 circuits. It all started to go out of control at around 11:00 AM. Trees were trying to fly away in the skies and it also started raining heavily. Then most of us realised that it was “Aila”. I later came to know that although MET department had given a warning in advance but no one cared as usual because of their past track record of success in predictions.

This was first time I was witnessing something like this in my life till now. No one was allowed to leave the building. We can see metal sheets flying around, trees getting uprooted and it seems as if the building will fell down.

There was shortage of food inside office as uprooted trees had blocked all the ways and caterers were not able to deliver food. We all somehow managed our lunch.

During the time “Aila” was here at Kolkata, it halted all forms of lives. Worst hit were all the small shopkeepers on footpath. All the road side eating joints were ransacked. Cars crushed, electricity supply interrupted, water supply gone for a toss and lots of property destroyed.

No one was sure of how long the situation will remain like  this. It all lasted for few hours, with worried people about what is going to happen next. Amid all this confusion, it was declared a holiday and people were asked to reach there respective homes before the next round of storm which was predicted by MET department which luckily misses Kolkata keeping department’s tradition alive. 

One of our seniors offer me a drop till my friend’s place and what I saw on my way back home was also bad. People were running like mad everywhere to reach their home safely.

No one in my office has been witness to anything like this at Kolkata. I saw Kolkata Police working hard to clear all this mess, but “Aila” caught the administration off guard and they have to struggle hard fighting all this.

Although its more than 36 hours since “Aila” passes Kolkata, administration is still fighting to bring back everything to normal. One can still see the uprooted trees still lying on road sides.

People are protesting as in few places they are still deprived of water and electricity supply. One of the major blockage by protestors today at places near to second Hoogly bridge sent traffic for a toss and people reached office as late as 12.00 PM today. Anyways life is coming back to normal at Kolkata after few hours of disaster and shock.

Whatever happens, life always comes back on track sooner or later….That’s the beauty of journey called life.

Road – Pic - Trip

Few days back it was a lazy weekend approaching when I got an invite from Jamy for lunch at his place on Sunday afternoon which I happily accepted. Any invite from Jamy is meant to be accepted unconditionally as it is always bound to be a fun session. Every time I had been to his place, he is always ready with surprises and we had all enjoyed every time.

I was joined by Opium and KG for that lunch. We had a splendid round of Rajma-Rice-Curry along with Raita. All this was followed by a round of mango delicacy courtesy KG. We all were relaxing after that awesome treat, sting when we had an idea of going out for a road trip. Opium opted out owing sleeping disorders of his but rest of us three proceeded towards an unknown destination .

We crossed people enjoying an careless evening at Maidan and Victoria Memorial as we proceeded towards our unknown destination.

From there we headed towards second Hoogly bridge with an intention to have a drive at highway. I was especially excited as this was the first time I was going to those places in my stint at Kolkata.

Crossed toll bridge and continued to drive towards Delhi on NH06 although KG wanted to drive towards Mumbai but Jamy smilingly turned down his repeated request.

 

The view all around was very refreshingly green and lovely reminding me of one of my older trips to country sides.

By the time we reached Kona expressway it had already started raining and we were enjoying each and every moment of that.

 

By this time it was getting dark and we were also feeling hungry so we decided to give rest to our engines and cylinders to cool off.

And then it was time for Begun & Aloo Bhaja along with cups of tea served hot complimented with Parle-G.

After finishing all this we decided to take a U turn and started our journey back towards our dens. It was raining all the way back adding to the pleasure of the journey.

Enjoyed this Road-Pic-Trip to the most and looking forward to so many detoxifying and revitalising moments like this soon with you guys…!

Don't show Us The Finger, “The Bachchans”

After the day of voting at Mumbai, we saw may celebrities sporting the inked finger and flashing it to the press and media, but I was quite shocked at Amitabh, Abhishek and gracious Aishwarya Bachchan brandishing their middle fingers for the benefit of photographers after they voted during the Mumbai polls. The world knows exactly what it means, even 12-year-olds even in Asian countries like India and China. And I suspect the teen in Bangladesh and Pakistan too understand this.

It was neither needed nor expected, even for a noble cause like  voting and nor was it can be considered decent. Soon other actors followed suit and there was a sizeable stream of Bollywood's glitterati making the obscene gesture. With final round of voting due tomorrow, I won't be surprised if hordes of young Indian voters, impressed by the finger flaunting celebrities, come out of polling booths across the country showing their middle fingers.

Some actors, though, fully aware of the significance of holding up their middle fingers all their fingers, more gracefully and correctly.

While I have don’t have anything against the gesture as such, or any other thing that people do privately, but I believe people seem to have taken offence at someone like the Big B and Aishwarya getting so rude, that too publicly. Few things or acts, however trendy and rebellious or youthful and iconic, are just not cool, especially when you subject others to it. It’s like smoking or using the big F word. 

In Western cultures, says Wikipedia, In many Western countries extending only the middle finger and sometimes along with the thumb of the same hand, is an offensive and obscene gesture, colloquially known as "flipping a bird" or "Flipping someone off." In some cultures, the middle finger is used as an index, to point things out.Believed by leading experts to be originated in North America.

Can we please have a less vulgar and more modern way of showing the support to voting now? So that there's no ink on our fingers and there's no need for Big B and Abhi-Aish to flash The Finger at us first thing in the morning when the go to vote next time?

Its raining @ Kol

Thank God, Its raining here at Kolkata..after a week of draining heat its rain time…cool breezeee and Kolkata looks good for a change…just there will be traffic jams..but no issues..we will still enjoy it :)

 

Professional Heart Breaker

In this era of professionalism where for everything we do have a professional services available. If we want we can get flowers delivered at any address using professional services available, get our house painted using again professional services.

Like we have professional matchmakers, sites offering these services of matrimony. You can be a free user with limited services or you can have professional assistance as a paid member.

How about a professional heart breaker or in other words a profile called “Relationship Termination Specialist”. If you cannot break your relationship peacefully you can hire one. In this world of fast dating, this will be a most sought after service. He will go and deliver your message to the intended person.  And this will save you from emotional atyachaar. Imagine how smooth your life will be with all this!. No frills and no strings attached. You don’t have to go to your boyfriend or girlfriend and tell what are the problems they have, like

1. They know only 2-3 jokes and all are pathetic

2. They are racist

3. They do not fit anywhere in public

4. They don’t have any taste!! and so on…

In this present scenario of downtime this will surely be a rocking professional option.

My walk of Life….

Today I stand here and look back and I see lots and lots of memories and experiences. A mixed bag of good, bad and ugly ones.

There are times when I feel like thanking everyone who made this journey possible and made this journey a pleasant one. These are the one who stood by me when I myself was struggling, who gave me shoulder when I was crying, who joined me when I was enjoying, who encouraged me when I was down and out.

Although there are very few people whom I can’t even dare to think of saying a “Thank You”, because they are the reason I am here writing all this. They mean everything to me, more than even my existence. They went through all pain to make me what I am today, they taught me how to live and how to be a good human being.

There are others also who share my current position in life both personal and social. Few ugly memories, few bad memories and people behind all that. I do give them also a bit of credit as they gave me few unforgettable lessons in my journey till now. Life is an endless journey of learning and improving and everyone should go through it.

So Thank You people again for being part of my journey of life. What ever I am now today I dedicate to you all my family, relatives, friends (present alongside and lost during this journey) and all my critics and well wishers.

I miss you all………... 

Have you ever been HR’ed

The credit for this blog goes to my colleagues Jam, Amy and Opium. They are the one who inspired me or rather forced me to write about this HR'ed topic.

I need to explain first what is meant by HR'ed?

The next thing I would explain is about the symptoms of being HR'ed

Then comes effects of being HR'ed on that person’s surrounding, peers and his life.

According to Opium every one of his vendor company is HR i.e.,Human Resource, not to be mistaken by HR department. So being HR'ed is getting influenced by some HR so badly that you change the way you live. Or the change in your style of talking, walking and behaving is visible to everyone around you. This HR'ed can be because of love, enthusiasm or because of so many other influences of that HR. If any of these happens to you you are considered as HR'ed.

Symptoms of being HR'ed includes talking to yourself, smiling all alone, singing songs, talking on phone while walking, eating, watching TV, sleeping etc, not getting annoyed by anything, roaming all day without any reason visible to others and so on….

This has got severe effect on his peers and colleagues. Every one is made to believe that nothing is going on although every one can see and feel it very clearly. There are several attempts made by the person HR'ed to make you believe that the HR is not from someone they know, examples are given and stories made.

But in all its a pleasure for the everyone other to watch the person who has got HR’ed.

Impatience is the new way of life!

I saw an advertisement today from Airtel with this punch line "Impatience is the new way of life!". The advertisement was related to broadband speed but it really reflects how we are behaving now a days.

We are getting impatient day by day. We cannot wait for our turn at ticket counter in Metro queue. We cannot wait for the lift to come down and keep pressing the buttons. We cannot wait to get a promotion. We cannot wait for the traffic to move on a traffic signal and keep honking (which should now be included in constitution as our birth right now). We don not have patience to watch even a one day match (and hence the concept of twenty twenty). We cannot wait for the food to be served when at a restaurant of cafe joint. We cannot wait for the exams to be over so that we can party. We cannot wait for the commercial break to get over so that we can watch our favourite movie or TV series. We cannot wait for the month to get over so that we can get our salary. We cannot wait for our turn ay pool table. We cannot wait for someone to complete his call if we are trying his number and keep on calling him.

We are truly getting impatient and and I am unable to understand whether this is for good or bad?

Satyam now thinks Technically Mahindra's way!

Finally an owner for Satyam after so much of drama, hatred, broken hearts and shattered dreams of people who had believed in a dream called Satyam. When this story of Mr Raju broke out, it shattered the image of corporate India across world and the employees were left clueless of their fate. Their credit cards got cancelled, their loans were put on hold by banks and so on.

Finally Tech Mahindra today offered a bid to purchase shares of Satyam @ 58 Rupees each. This would have given a sigh of relief to hundreds of employees who were worried about how to pay their debts like home and car loans apart from fulfilling the responsibilities of their dependents.

Its time now when we should forget the past and encourage everyone to fight together in bringing back the faith and confidence in our IT industry. Together we can fight back with much of ease and sail through this bad time. Ups and downs are part of life and this stands true for the IT industry also. In boom we and our fellows had enjoyed a hike of three folds or a two times salary while changing our jobs. Similarly in this time of distress we have to stay strong and be together so that this bad patch is also over and we can enjoy the fruits of our patience.

I agree that this is a time of recession but also believe that we should keep our faith in our abilities. This recession thing is fuelled by our minds also. Whenever we are together, the topics of our discussion related to recession. I wonder if companies across world were earning so much for past so many years, how come a recession of one year shattered their ability to grow?

I believe this takeover will help in regaining the honour of Satyam to its previous heights.

"Maruti" purchases Nano

The day booking for Nano started in India it was a dream come true for Ratan Tata.

First day of booking resulted in more than twenty thousand of bookings. There were people like a lady from Delhi booking two cars, one for herself and one for her college going daughter, like a middle class guy from Kolkata purchasing it for his family of four and so on. But what touched was case of a guy from amchi Mumbai "Maruti". This guy is a cobbler working for past thirty years in city. His family consists of his wife and a kid who will be passing SSC next year. When asked he told that he was saving for past six years for a bike and then came Nano. He thought why not go for a better option than purchasing a bike. This guy had paid one lakh forty thousand in cash for booking his dream car Nano himself without any loan. Although first one lakh owners of this dream car will be chosen by a computerised lottery but Maruti was very much confident of getting his car. The happiness of owning a car was very much visible on his face.

Mr Tata must be very happy to know the sentiments of people which are attached with the Nano. I personally adore him for his sheer simplicity, passion and truthfulness. The day Mr Tata launched this car his confidence and dedication showed in his statement "A promise is a promise". He made a promise to people of India and he kept his promise despite so much problems like Singur and political setbacks. His dream of offering each and every Indian a car is true now. I salute his dedication to this nation.

Hope other industrialists will take a lesson or I would like to say will be inspired from this initiative from Mr Tata and come forward for serving the people of nation instead of gifting Jets to their wives or building a mansion for their family of four or five.

Shoe Business

After the incident of throwing shoe on ex-US president Mr Bush in Iraq by a journalist, today there comes a repetition of similar type by a journalist Jarnail Singh (reporter from Daily Dainik Jagaran) hurling a shoe on home minister Mr. Chidambaram. If you had watched today's video footage closely, this was just a protest not a targeted attack on Mr home minister.

I believe most of the people who watched this episode will agree to the fact that this was really an act of protest not an attack.

When our minister was not ready to answer a question which was a non related query to that forum, the journalist said "I protest" and just threw that show, If he really wanted to attack him, he could had easily been on target. And our minister asked Poilce to go easy with him, I am not sure whether he really wanted to do so.  But has to do so because the whole issue of Mr Jagdeesh Tytlor being given a clean chit by CBI, that too just before the general elections is too sensitive to be taken lightly. Mr Jagdeesh being a Gandhi family loyalist can not be denied a ticket and people who suffered during that riot are not ready to forgive him and they should really not forgive him. No one should have an impression that just because he or she is in power or a politician, they can do anything and will be left uncharged.

Today we see in media Lead India campaign saying "No to criminals" but are the political parties listening? If yes, they why we are still having gundas and criminals as candidates. If no, why not? Do they think that they can do whatever they want and no one one will oppose.

So lets break their myth this time and continue this "Shoe Business" in all legal forms (including voting for right candidate only) for those who are not listening till they start believing that India is not owned by a bunch of people, instead we "The People" are the real owners of India.

I had read somewhere " In democracy, people vote first and then suffer but in Dynasty there is no option of voting" and we the people don't want to suffer.

अब आप अपनी भाषा में भी मेल लिख सकते हैं !

Thanks to Google transliteration tools I can write mail in my language to my freinds and family members..


Click Here for details

Excellent job done Team Google!!

Who owns "The Great Indian Culture"

There has been many rounds of discussion going on on Indian Culture. Who owns it, who will define which act comes within the limits of the culture and who is supposed to govern it?

Indian culture is a very subjective thing and it has been used by several groups and parties for their interest.

Our culture is there for more than few thousand years and its not so fragile that a few people can break or shake it. Also it doesn't need any expert politician to protect it. Although the government has got responsibly to protect the right of each and every citizen.

India is a free country, people have very right to do whatever they want. Going to a pub is absolutely not a crime and no one has got right to beat any man or woman who goes to a pub or a discotheque. After a long day at work if anyone wants to go to a pub or disc to unwind, I don't see any Culture violation in that. This whole issue is blown out of proportion by people, political parties and media. Ideally no one should be allowed to take the law in their hands in the name of God. And I seriously believe that people who are doing all this are a bit jealous that they can't go inside a pub and spend like other people are doing.

I stayed in Bangalore for two years and what I liked about that city most was the freedom and energy that city holds. People used to be free there to enjoy their lives as per their wish. Yes we do have responsibilities to keep private things within the limits and do not expose those acts in public. But that never means that to watch a movie in theatre, I have to take an approval from some group or to go to a pub I need an clearance from so called owners of Indian Culture. I think the people who were talking about Indian culture at Mangalore pub and attacking women who were present there forgot that Indian culture also talks about respecting women. 

On top of that Renuka Choudhary giving slogan "Pub Bharo".Why do the politicians are trying to take advantage of all this. I am not going to a Pub on directives of someone. I go there because I like the environment over there. And what I like and dislike has to be according to my wish. I being a proud citizen of this great country I would like to enjoy my freedom of expression, freedom of movement and all that freedom provided to me by my constitution. I pay my taxes to the government and would like to avail all the rights extended to me by my constitution.

If these things like being attacked because you belong to a group or sex, then what's the difference between living in a democracy like India and living under the rule of Taliban? Everyone including citizens and political parties are responsible for making sure that right people are elected and law and order is maintained at any cost. 

Why don't political parties recruit ?

All the political parties who wants to make our country shining and take our country to new heights, do not recruit by publishing as all companies do.

If they really are serious in what they say, why don't they publish about openings so that they can get really good candidates. Why only family members of politicians are into politics. Why not anyone line me and you?

If they really want this to happen they should recruit guys from various fields of specialisations. Ideally they should recruit guys from financial background for finance portfolio, from IT background for technological portfolio and so on..

Why the aspirant has to be from some of the political party man or some powerful background. We should get an option to choose from the best while voting so that we can have real leaders, not someone who has got criminal record holding a position related to people security or some one charged of forgery holding a ministerial position dealing with finance.

Ideally parties should publish the requirements and make their selection process open to public so that people can have a fair deal while electing their leaders.We can always have a mix of experience and enthusiasm by keeping a mix of young specialised guys and our elderly experienced politicians to guide them.

If I can vote for my next IT minister I will make sure that I will caste my vote and would love to see a really eligible candidates getting selected for the position.

What is a "Slumdog" and why are Indians getting irked by the movie's success

Danny Boyle’s ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ has been nominated for ten Oscars. But many Indians are unhappy with the way India is portrayed in the film, particularly the way the poverty is served to the audiences.

The movie tells the story of an Indian boy from Mumbai's notorious slums who end up becoming a millionaire. He knew all the answers from his walk of life.

There are Indians who are proud of the Golden Globe awards it has won, and keeping their fingers crossed for the big big Oscars, some still believe that the film publishes a western colonial view of India. The movie in no ways reflects the real India, what it is now.

First thing that has to be noted is, although there are Indian contributions to this story but its not an Indian piece of creativity. Its an British movie, set in the backdrops of Indian slums and since its not our creation we do not have the credits.

As in any Indian movie, any American is a beer drinking guy with lots of dollars, similarly for them its always slum.

I personally like the movie just because of the way Jamal grew up in the story and the way it was portrayed to the viewers.

Its always the wish of the director and the producer to choose their topic and target audience accordingly.

If you like it, go and watch the movie and if you don't like it, forget about it.
Simply like what we did for many American movies on Columbia and Russia.