United India : India - Pakistan - Bangladesh

An amazingly beautiful idea struck me today !

Today there exists such escalated tension between India and Pakistan. How our thoughts are clouded by hatred and distrust when it comes to Pakistan. But there actually exist an irony which has been overlooked. The same Pakistan was once our India and if seen through a different lens, it seems as if two brothers have taken arms against each other.

Partition divided us into India , Pakistan and Bangladesh, a single nation imputed by the sword of communalism and Religious sectarianism. What if, these 3 in future decide to come back together once again , to be a united country once again. What if we decide to erase the boundary once drawn on map by the British. What if we decide to reunite the parts of a broken nation lost once in history - a United India of India, Pakistan and Bangladesh.

West and East Germany came back together to form once again an united Germany. Can we dare to see the same dream ?

There is no use to awaken the ignorant - to make him vote

Well ! Recently I came to realize this irony -

Thr is this movement going around - Jago re ! , India awakening ...... Ya the one that tells that if u r not voting, u r sleeping :) The irony here is awakening a youth for doing something for which he doesnt know a thing about. .............. ok ! I get it that u dont get it :P let me explain !

We should vote. What for ! Y for ! Which for !

How many elections do u know about ? Ya! General elections ........ state elections ......... hmmm ..... do you know about municipality elections or for that matter panchayat elections !

Do you know the difference between an MP and a MLA ?

Do you know that locality (block) you are living in elects a corporator/ any representative by other name.

Do you know that does your state have a legislature council or not ?

U c ! wat use is thr to awaken a person who doesnt know a shit about what he is voting for!

They say we should vote to make our politicians accountable. But they forget accountability of MPs (general elections) don't matter to us that much.

Politicians whose accountability do matter to us are the one closest to us ........... municipality then state then general (union) ............. the closer it gets, the more ignorant we are about it (we don't know anything about municipality, do we? )

Its like this ............. group of friends c a pothole or corruption at a local sarkari office. One of them curse the politicians .............. another one says that its our mistake that we don't vote ......... the first one goes and votes in general election and feels good bout it that he is an awakened citizen and has done duty on his part. Wat fool ! Idiot doesnt know that voting in general election wont help, he must vote in municipality elections to make things better.

We have identified the problem correctly - to make our politicians accountable, we must vote. But prior to it we must know where to vote ................ and believe me, its not our fault, its our education systems fault.

Whats irony on irony is that we the most educated ones or the most brilliant ones (especially the IITians and IIMites ) don't have a clue about this system. Moreover, knowing about our admin system is no common sense . Yeah ! I am not joking , the bloody thing is so complex that if u take a book and start reading it, u will end up jamming ur brain. And they expect a common man to know all this and on this assumption, they come to awaken us !

The solution is simple - put a compulsory course on our administration, political and electoral system when we are mature. We have one (elementary) in our 6th-7th grade. Who does remember it, I don't and I know u don't. We need a compulsory course in our higher secondary and graduation (college) .

Afterwhich I believe our society can be awakened. Becoz u talk about waking one who is sleeping but has the knowledge !

Global Warming and Recent 2009 drought

As they all say, its all global warming ! The most contemporary effect of this climate change in our lives is 2009 drought which of course as we all know has sent food prices soaring.

You may have always wondered (well! at least some) how this drought and Global warming are connected. Though many point towards Global warming, there is no clear unanimous theory yet.

Well answer to this recent drought is phenomena of El Nino. El Nino is a global climatic event that affects our monsoons. During this event, surprisingly a high pressure exists over Indian subcontinent as opposed to low pressure in summers (a riddle which remains unsolved). Due to this pressure reversal, monsoons which are pulled into India, due to low pressure over Indian subcontinent, is severely affected. And in India we experience drought.

Now where does climate change come into picture ? Earlier this El Nino cycle used to repeat itself in 15-20 yrs. Post 1950s, it was seen to occur every 4 years and with 21st century, scientists are dreading us for a renewed periodic cycle of 2.5 yrs. This increased frequency of El Nino as many world scientist claim is an effect of global warming.

But alas ! our scientists are yet to fully understand this phenomena and its connection to global warming though it has been part of human history as long as we can remember.

PS - El Nino event is predicted to continue in 2010, so you may see a consecutive year of drought.

India's Sovereignty in today's world

Sovereignty means paramount, absolute and unchallenged authority of a nation (state) within it's own boundaries. Needless to say, it also implies complete independence and autonomy in handling one's own affair.

As the world moves towards globalization, its curious to note its effects on a nation's sovereignty.

Let me put some questions for you after which we will be able to appreciate the idea we are about to embark upon.

1. Why BJP and Left are opposed to Nuclear deal ?
2. Why are we opposed to international scrutiny of our climate change initiatives & policies ?
3. Why Left is against opening up of markets to foreign MNCs - liberalism ?
4. Why opposition (be it any party) views every international deal with crossed eyes ?
5. Why do we often hesitate to take aid from world donors ? etc.

The answer to all these questions is that all these deals though are advantageous and essential comes with a compromise. They all somehow subdue our sovereignty.

Whenever we sign an international agreement or deal, we are legally bound by the rules and regulations as agreed or set. Thus, our parliament looses its supremacy to freely legislate on matters dealing with the deal as its bound by international laws to abide by the agreement. And hence, we are subjugated to laws over which we have little control. Moreover, it's difficult for our leaders to acknowledge our subdued sovereignty.

Strengthening of International bodies like UN, WTO, World Bank.

Bilateral/Multilateral deals