In the name of Law..

Long ago, at school I heard a proverb, "Law is an ass, it kicks both ways". It didn't make sense to me then, but now its clear more than ever.

Law needs evidence and come to think of it, damning evidence can be falsified in the court of law and the orchestrator of this mockery becomes the most sought after "lawyer". I have nothing against the profession, but I have a few things against its practitioners. They shake our confidence in the rule of law, instead of instilling confidence in the masses.

Latest example of the level of stupidity of their arguments was when Ajmal Kasab trial was to go to court, no lawyer was ready to represent him. To an extent was the bar council chief was on television making a mockery of the profession by advocating that no self respecting Indian will take up the cause of a Pakistani terrorist and people like him must be hanged in public without a trial. This coming from a lawyer is funny enough and add to that the absurd arguments to prove the point, I pity the judge who hears such things regularly.

Lawyers have in the past always sought to represent the high profile defendants in the court whether its a Abu Salem, Muthappa Rai or in case of Nitish Katara or Jessica Lall murder. They have converted the so- called airtight cases into questionable cases and got the benefit of doubt for their clients. When a lawyer fabricated evidence in BMW case, people sought to get him barred from practice, but imagine the low profile cases where fabrication of evidence is a norm. These cases will never see face of light cos no NDTV is interested in low profile cases.

The point I am making is that a bunch of traders have converted a profession to a sham, so far, that people don't want to set a foot in the court room as they will be milked dry of their money and yet the justice they expect will not be delivered. It is my humble request to a few high profile lawyers, if you could use your expertise to represent the prosecutor and get early convictions, maybe another Ajmal Kasab will think twice before setting a foot on our lands. Lets make sure these people don't act with immunity to justice.

So long...

Cash for votes, we didn’t know of it seriously…. :D

Beware SRK; you are not the best actor in India after all and no hard feelings Mr. Bachchan nor are you. The MPs have overtaken you and beaten you in your own game. 22^nd July was the day I laughed the most; nNot because I watched insane movies but because I happened to watch the proceedings in the Lok Sabha.

At first I was shocked that Advaniji was missing from the action the entire day but all that time seemed well utilized when he pulled off the cash for vote game right in front of Deputy Speaker of the Lok Sabha. Let me first ask Mr. Advani what promises he made to his constituency for voting him to the Lok Sabha upteenth time; also has he fulfilled even one of them. Point to highlight is, when you get elected to the august house on basis of false promises made to electorate and money paid to them to listen to your (yawn) boring speeches that have not been modified since 1970s, you are actually buying their votes. In your case or the case of other 542 MPs the purchase is void because you never fulfill your side of the bargain. So let’s stop sensationalizing a trivial matter.

Everyone knows the whole basis of ‘political ideology’ is the deal that is cut in the background and the perks being offered to MPs. So trying to catch the imagination of the entire nation on the wrongs being done is a waste of time. Just to remind you, we have seen the likes of you for past 60 years so anything that you do will no longer surprise us or make us feel ‘ashamed’ of being called a democracy. We stopped feeling anything the day we elected unsuitable people to represent us.

Let’s just say, the UPA defeated you and let’s be sportive and accept defeat and stop hogging sound bytes as to show you are the only one to care about the future of a billion people.

Deal Ya No Deal !!

Over the past few weeks, the imagination of an entire nation was captured by something that was supposed to be the civil-nuclear deal between India and the US.I cannot think of a past occasion when any bi (multi) lateral agreement between sovereign countries with elected governments in place was splashed in the paparazzi as to be mistaken for some clandestine affair.

Over the past few weeks, all of us have known from various political groups that they all care for the sole benefit of this country and were piping each other in the race for “Who is the real patriot”. Disgrace is a weak word to describe all that followed. Government that was held for ransom for over four years was finally sacrificed at the altar of patriotism or shall we call it egoism of Com. Prakash Karat. The result was not quite that was expected by Com. Karat but he didn’t want to admit that he committed a political hara-kiri (or wasn’t it). Anyways point of matter is that the Government survived a close call and continues to ‘serve us efficiently’.

The only fault of the Dr. Manmohan Singh is that, what seems obvious to him in 2008 will seem obvious to the rest in 2028. He is the right leader in wrong times. We saw it in 1991 during the tabling of reforms bill in the parliament and now again for the nuclear agreement of ’08. Maybe carrying a time machine to the parliament will be a suitable solution to convince certain obtuse people. What I say about the PM is a personal adulation and not for the government. Government messed up the flow of information in what should have been a done deal to make it a close call for the survival itself. Not good management Ms. Gandhi, time to shake things up.

I will not waste time in what seemed to be abysmal behavior of Shri L.K. Advani and his strong love for the office of Prime Minister. Personal goals are must for any person and everyone should aim high. But to fulfill your goals holding the country to ransom at every single instance is outlandish. Wake up sir, its time to face the electorate. Your behavior may well hamper your party’s chances at the General election ’09.

Until next time…..

Raj Thackrey.. grow up...!!!

MNS chief Raj Thackeray is capturing sound bytes with tirades towards everyone nowadays. He has problems with north indians on one day, with the use of word Bombay on another and shockingly the use of 'shanta bai'. Let us all pray for the departed intelligence of Mr. Raj Thackeray and may it rest in peace where ever it is.

The world in moving towards globalization and every city is developing a global flavor and here we are in the most happening city of India bickering about the usage of words. Lets remind Raj that Germans call their homeland Deutsch land, the Japanese call their homeland Ni hon or Nippon and Spanish call their home land Espanol. Now if these countries start bickering about use of words Germany, Japan or Spain then I think they would do anything other than forcing people to comply with their language. Even we use the word India to identify our nation rather than make people call it Bharat or Hindustan.

Point of the matter is, words change as language changes and a person using Bombay in English makes it Bambai in Hindi and Mumbai in Marathi. Therefore lets grow up beyond frivolous issues and look to improve infrastructure of our city and make it a more secure place to live in. When the whole of India is grappling with problems of terrorism, drought, inflation etc. We expect our so called leaders to show some concern about these burning issues rather than attend functions and make poetic remarks about what name do we call our city.

The valentine gift..

It was 12:00 am on 13th February and he was busy with his assignments.. Hell!!! this academic life was taking it out of him.. the only ray of hope..the next day was valentine's day and all of sudden he was feeling blissfully happy when he thought of the gift he had planned to give her.. He could not stop thinking about it as he got back to completing his assignment.

Finally the day had arrived, his plan was perfect..or atleast he thought it was. The gift was there and so was the message... he went over to her place. She was all dressed up and how he admired her beauty..felt as if she was dressed up only for him and he felt lucky for finding her.

Should I give the gift first or read out the message..he kept deliberating... She said, "cmon wats it? my date is waiting.. cant keep him waiting today.. hez the best thing that ever happened to me"...

As he stood there shell-shocked, she walked out on him on valentine's day......

Valentine's Day......

Hello everyone!!! Herez some advice ahead of valentine's day... I wish to say that I am no expert on the subject of love as I spend most of my time at the stock-exchange, but there are uncanny similarities between the subjects...So here is my take

Your valentine and your stock asset have atleast one similarity, you always feel that, if you had waited a little long you would get better returns... :-) Don't use this reason to hold you back this valentine's day, this is right time to invest (propose) and don't wait for the markets to appreciate and make to difficult for individual investors like yourself. Also don't think about short term investment in this market as it leaves you poorer, if you are a long term investor then take a jump else stay out of the market. This market does not appreciate your diversified portfolio, your stocks will lose value if you have a diversified portfolio.

Market advice: Don't judge the stocks on face value but think about the long time profitability because face value depreciates and profitability appreciates with passage of time.

Finally the disclaimer, "This is subject to market risk, please read the offer document and red-herring prospectus before investing..."

--- A Stock-broker

When Bombay became Mumbai.....

"E dil hain mushkil jeena yahan, zara hatke..zara bachke.. yeh hain bombay meri jaan"... the melodious song from CID summarizing the life and times of good old Bombay...

In 1994 the world saw demise of a wonderful city named Bombay and the era of Mumbai had arrived... well both mean the same... coz the local name for bombay was mumbai... infact mumbai is close to heart than the anglicized 'bombay' ... but the event of rechristening bombay was a black day in history of India as it was proved successfully that people are so gullible that anyone can play the regionalism card and take the focus off many a shortcomings present in the society... many cities followed suit...and thus came the advent of Chennai , Kolkata, dont even get me started on Karnataka's very own Bengalooru which is a crap idea to say the least .

I have called it a demise of Bombay because after this, successive governments have failed the mega-city time after time and when cornered for slack performance, they have re-named one more important junction / station /centre /fly-over after Chhatrapati Shivaji and got away scott free on bad performance blame... Who is to blame for this ? We as the citizens of Bombay never stopped the khadi-clad citizens from thugging us in name of regionalism... Infact we are not only gullible but also lazy..we want to sublet our resources to laborers from outside and enjoy the income generated by their hard work.. and when these laborers claim their rightful share of the city we beat them up in name of regionalism...

How can you set claim on the city which you have never loved... just the fact that you were born in bombay does not give you the right to rape the city... The next time you take up arms against outsider taking away a job/resource from you, take a moment to think what have you given to this city which has given you innumerable opportunities to make a living and succeed in life.


-- An outside admirer of Bombay

PS: I have used the word Bombay mostly because I liked it when Mumbai was Bombay and everyone was welcome... I hope someday mumbai becomes bombay again..

Why me....?

This post is dedicated to a friend of mine for some wonderful thoughts she presented... I have used it here for the merit it presents.

I was discussing an incident with a friend of mine where I felt I was unfairly treated by life and was saying the phrase, God!!! why me? To this, she told me a story about Arthur Ashe and the famous question asked to him.

Arthur Ashe, better known for his exploits on the tennis field had to undergo two heart surgeries. He was shocked when he found out that things had gone horribly wrong and he had contracted HIV during the blood transfusions he had received during one of his two heart surgeries. He and his wife kept his illness private for a long time because of the stigma attached. When reports that the newspaper USA Today was about to publish a story about his condition, he was forced to make a public announcement that he had the disease. During the last year of his life, Arthur Ashe did much to call attention to AIDS sufferers worldwide. Two months before his death, he founded the Arthur Ashe Institute for Urban Health, to help address issues of inadequate health care delivery. During the opening ceremony, he was questioned by a journalist as to did he ever feel , God!!! why me??

His reply was classic, "I never said God!! why me?? when I won all those Grand Slams so why should I now?"

It made a lot of sense to me, I never complained when I was showered with all the good fortune, then why complain in face of slightest adversity...

Hope we learnt something today... Until next time...

Best things are right there.....

All my life I searched for it and it was with me all the while... these are the sentiments of musk deers who spend entire life following the perfume emanating from the musk and never get to it.. truth is, musk is stored in their navel... for all the people thinking, Dude.. thats dumb.... lemme tell you most of us do similar things in the span of our life time....

The next time you sit and feel miserable over losing someone, take a moment to look around you.. the best of people who care the most for you will be right there with you... and if you recognize them, your quest suddenly vanishes..

I was on similar path, but now that I have realized will not spend the rest of my life this way and live to rue it someday.... Time has come to act..and act fast...

Until next time......

Passing thought............

Someone once said, "Its great fortune to be a woman's first love and man's last". Trouble is, I found my last love but could never be her love, leave alone her first love.