To get out of the monotony, that my life has become I decided to treat myself with something nice and exciting, so I went ahead and bought a new phone . I was contemplating buying an iPod  but my new Nokia 5800 works very well as a phone as well as a music player, and the free Sennheiser headphones is amazing, a  3.2 megapixel  camera and a nice look with touch screen makes it a great buy and also pocket friendly

“Bye bye, bye bye, and bye bye again”.  Thats Marat Safin saying bye to tennis and breaking thousands of hearts , including mine. No more staying up just to catch a glimpse of Marat, no more looking forward to a Safin tantrum, no more praying for his win,  tennis is not going to be the same again

I had never thought I’d get  to see this day ever, at least not in the near future. We have a Force India car on pole, how amazing. I always felt they were just there to make up the numbers. Though I doubt they will actually win the race, but what the heck, first pole must be enough reason for Mr. Mallya and co. to celebrate. Good luck to the team. Though as always I would want Ferrari to win it.

This post needed to be edited : Looks like there was someone listening , its Ferrari one and Force India two, first ever point for Force India, wow just amazing

Why is life so complicated, do we go out of our way to make it so? Why do we fail to appreciate things we have and realise its worth only when we no longer have it ?Why does it require a catastrophe to show we care? Why do we fail to realise that it is the small gestures that make a difference?

A happy independence day to my fellow countrymen and women (atleast the ones who happen to read my blog). I have received many SMS’s this day from friends, every SMS has the same tone, unity, friendship, brotherhood, honesty, pride etc etc.. its so easy to just forward a message ,but how many of us will actually remember what we forwarded and what we pledged today. Instead of forwarding messages which we will forget about ,I think we all should contemplate and decide on the small changes we can make. For many years I have been promising myself , that I will not pay any bribe and never judge a person by his/her religion, and I can honestly claim that I have stuck to my pledge. I hope Ican do it in the future too.

I also look forward  to the Prime Ministers speech, its a day when many new schemes are  announced. With the congress in power one thing I can blindly bet on  is   a  new scheme with a Nehru-Gandhi  name , and I was not disappointed, now we have a Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission.  I have a great admiration and respect for the Nehru-Gandhi clan, after  all they are the first family of Indian Politics, and they have done a lot for the country, but do we need to have every scheme named after them.If  the idea is to show respect then there must be many other ways of doing it, not just by using their name.  You can board from a Rajiv Gandhi airport and land  on Indira Gandhi  terminus. You are ill go to the Sanjay Gandhi hospital.  Outstanding  in sports you get the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award. You have hospitals, universities, schools, research centres, schemes etc etc all named after five  individuals. Ofcourse you do need names for all the facilities mentioned, but can’t the congress come up with any other name. After sometime it starts getting confusing.  I think we have enough historical figures to name every facility in the country.  I really liked the fact that Mr. Vajpayee named the rural road schemes as simple” Pradhan Mantri Gramin Sadak Yojhna”.  Hope next year the congress comes up with a different name, but I also realise that I am hoping for the impossible.

doing my bit

The 10 minutes to greenery program, a unique greenery drive, where 6 lakhs saplings were planted within 10 mins  i.e 10:30 am to 10:40 am IST  was a massive success.  Various organisations and individuals participated in the event to make it a resounding success.   A record of sorts, but I don’t know who was doing the counting .

This sends out a positive  message to the world,  a message that says  ” We Care” . This is a gift not only to the people of  India , but to the entire human kind, with love from the people of Sikkim.

Dear Mr. John Terry,

I am tired of seeing you in the news for all the wrong reason ,  I thought you were Mr. Chelsea , totally dedicated to the cause of the club, but now it looks like  you are just another bloke, trying to hold the club at ransom.  I have no problem with players looking for greener pastures, that is what life is all about, changes,  but they need to be honest about it. You want to go , say it. There is nothing wrong with it, what is wrong is, you trying to play with the emotions of the fans.  Frank Lampard did it last year, now its your turn. Did he give you some pointers on how to go about it?

I think the manager paid you the biggest compliment by comparing you with Paolo Maldini,  the legend. Was he wrong in doing it? I don’t believe half the crap that is written in the newspapers, I still believe you are totally dedicated to Chelsea, and u’ll be leading us this coming season, but can you please come out and make it clear to the fans. I hope this drama gets over as soon as possible, and we can focus on reading about a successful pre season tour.

Mr. Vilasrao Deshmukh, the former Chief Minister of Maharashtra gets a cabinet berth.  The same Mr. Deshmukh who was forced to resign after the Mumbai attacks. Widespread protest by the people as well as the media resulted in him leaving the post of the CM. Now  six  months later he becomes a cabinet minister,  isn’t this a mockery of  the Indian public?  Someone who had failed to perform get a bumper  bonus.

I was excited about the young brigade as they are called, young faces old surname, its so difficult for normal middle class girl/boy to break into two most public professions, films and politics. You need to have a famous surname to get a foothold, which is so sad, so much for Rahul Gandhi saying that he wants youth power,  there is no representation in the cabinet. The tussel between various allies will continue. DMK supremo openly saying he wants cabinet berth for his family members.  Mamta didi in spite of publicly claiming ,she does not want any cabinet berth gets Railways, well  Mr. Lalu Prasad Yadav is a tough act to follow, so look out Mamta di. And so the Great Indian Political Tamasha continues.

Idea have scored a sixer with their new advertisement featuring the three superstars of Mumbai Indians. Gullible people , totally addicted to cricket will surely give it a try, who wouldn’t want to talk to Sachin Tendulkar or Zaheer Khan.

My cousin could not stop laughing , when I confessed I did try to call up Sachin Tendulkar. Ok, so i’m not a great fan of cricket, but its SACHIN TENDULKAR yaar, what I got was a stupid voice message.

There must be hundreds  like me; not so gullible but curious people and thousands die hard cricket fan, calling the numbers. How many  of them actually got to talk to Sachin, I would like to know. But Idea sure did rake in a lot of money.

Truly “what an Idea, Sirji”

Secularism: the dictionary says Secularism is “A doctrine that rejects religion and religious considerations”.  This is one word that defines political alliances in India, one word that can bring about parties with different ideologies together as one. Suddenly parties who had been bickering and mud slinging, become great friends, all because of this one powerful word.

But, does secularism truly exist in Indian politics; can we call any party truly secular?  The definition of secularism in Indian politics is anti-BJP. If this is the definition we are following then we have hundreds of secular party in the country, both national and regional, there is one BJP so anyone opposed to BJP is secular. But if we look into the actual definition of the word, I don’t find any one party that is truly secular.

The BJP with their Hinduvta ideology, have always been considered to be communal, but then they do have Muslim, Sikh and Christian leaders within their party, so can we call them communal? Congress the grand old party of India, have always been known to woo the Muslim voters, so doesn’t that make them equally communal? Every party in India tries to portray itself as the messiah of the minority community, isn’t this a sign of not being secular.

I do not have alliance with any political party, neither the BJP or the Congress or any of the ‘n’ number of parties existing. I am just an Indian tired of seeing religion coming into politics. Why can’t we have politics based on development? Why does it have to be based on religion, caste, race, language etc, etc? As an Indian I want inclusive development for all, not for selected few. I want a nation which moves forward, I want opportunities for all, based on merit not on social status. I want us to be a corruption free happy nation, I want honest leaders, not criminals, I want a strong government and equally strong opposition who will all work together for the development of the nation.

But do I see all this happening? Sadly no, not in the near future.