Thursday, October 25, 2007

Bobby (Piyush) Jindal, Governor, Louisiana (2007 - ? )



Yes - that's right, Piyush Jindal was elected governor of one of the most backward/poor/conservative states in the USA (trust me - I have lived in Louisiana). He is merely 36 year old, married to Supriya and has 3 kids. He can trace his ancestry to Punjab, India.

Maybe, the US is ready for an African American or a woman president. I would prefer the former. What do you think?

Monday, October 22, 2007

"it is not the end of life"

After declaring that the nuclear deal is needed for the forward movement of India and calling those opposing the deal “enemies of development and peace”, the government in India became just that - enemies of development and peace.

Clearly, the lure of power had won over the need to pursue the deal which, according to the PM and Madame Gandhi, was in the national interest.

The prime minister even went ahead and uttered these unfortunate words:
"I do attach importance to seeing this deal through, but if the deal is not through, it is not the end of life"

Sure, it is not the end of life. Life would also not end if you, Mr. PM would have stood by your words and resigned in protest. Life would not have ended if you had not been attracted to the lure of power. Life would definitely not end if you stopped licking Madame's shoes and adhered to some principles and had the good of India on your mind. Shame on you Manmohan Singh, Sonia Gandhi, Communist Karat and all those who are not a part of the solution. They can only stand in the way of any solution.

Sunday, October 14, 2007

The War

No not the one in Iraq - the one on PBS, describing the World at War (1941 - 1945). It's an interesting recount of the times from the perspective of 4 regular towns in the USA and their people. It's a history lesson, a reminder of what people are capable of doing - both good and bad - and what price everybody paid - in every corner of the world. The documentary, of course, focused on the war on the ground in Europe and North Africa and Philippines and the other islands in the Pacific ocean, it mentions little about all the British Colonies that were a part of the war in one way or the other - and for obvious reasons.
While I was watching it, I couldn't help but wonder the sentiments of people in India during the war, which side were they really on, being occupied themselves by the British and were they looking forward to the Japanese advances from the east? One person who tried to use the war to India's advantage was Subhash Chandra Bose. I also remember vividly my father talking, somewhat highly about general Rommel and the Kamikaze pilots. Of course, Churchill and his caustic tongue was of no comfort to India ('I hate Indians. They are a beastly people with a beastly religion' and 'India will fall back quite rapidly through the centuries into the barbarism and privations of the Middle Ages' if the British left India).

Our early knowledge about the war as children came from Reader's Digest books, one of them, World at War, in Pictures (or something like that). It had vivid photographs of the Pearl Harbor attacks, the death march, etc. This little knowledge was way more than others of my age.

Monday, October 08, 2007

Sunset from Cadillac Mountain, Maine


6:18:42 PM


6:21:11 PM


6:24:16 PM

Photos taken on Sept 30, 2007.