Tejas gets Initial Operational Clearance

So finally the Home Grown fighter jet of India, the Light Combat Aircraft - Tejas (Ahem!) has got the Initial Operational Clearance! Its one of those days when we take a pause and look up proudly to the fact that we are Indians! Kudos to the Tejas Team!

Tarmak007 -- A bold blog on Indian defence: Part 3: Celebrating Tejas IOC: When shutterbug Rah...:

Maul the Malls

City : Jaipur
Location : Office
Day : Friday
Time : 4:30 pm

Characters : Summer Intern (Suvarna) and Process Associate( a local guy from jaipur, lets call him Saurabh)

Suvarna: The weekend finally! Saurabh, are there any good places to see in Jaipur?
Saurabh : Sure there are! Catch a bus to 22 Godaam. go to crystal palace. Best way to spend the weekend in Jaipur.
Suvarna: Crystal palace.. sounds good. who built it?
Saurabh : I've no idea.
Suvarna : What kind a place is it? Can I explore it on my own? Or will I need a guide? Is it near Hawa Mahal or the City Palace or Jantar Mantar?
Saurabh: No!!! Its a mall. Lifestyle, CCD, Inox, Mc Donald's sab milega.. Poora dinn nikal jaataa hai
Suvarna : !&&*#$???

What time are we living in? In city like Jaipur known for its heritage sites, visitors are packed off to malls. Welcome to generation Z, a whole bunch of kids who have grown up too fast, earn way too much than they need, do the work the do not love, to earn money and buy stuff they do not need. My MBA in marketing suddenly makes me feel like spiderman. I gives me the power to sell, to commercialise life itself at the risk of corroding society as we know it.

With great power comes great responsibility. And I thought it would be fun to be spidey!!!

What were we thinking??

I try to concentrate..

But for a class that is at 5 in the evening, on a sexy winter day, its not a task easily accomplished.

"What is it that you would really like to do?"

I'm forced to think... What would I REALLY like to do?

Dare I say it out loud?

"Don't think, be instinctive. What would you really like to do?" Mr. Prithwiraj N. Ghorpade repeats..

I lift my hand slowly, the hesitation showing in its movement, and blurt out before I can change my mind

" I would like to be a poet" (well.. the truth is out!)

" or sell flowers on a beach" (now where did THAT come from!?)

Mind you, I was in a class of International Business, working day in and day out to supposedly add value to my life..

The fact that here I was, in a class with glass windows, blocking out the cool winter breeze, with tubes of agitated ions giving me light and fans pumping stale air into my lungs, while wanting to sell flowers on the beach... its unsettling, to say the least.

We all claim we love nature..

What were we thinking then, when we build all these walls (literally) to keep it away...

Take a moment and think..... Don't forget to express it here..

- Suvarna

Elections results out. Stability achieved...

Finally we have the results of the elections and the UPa has been re-elected. The good thing this time is that we have a much stable government as compared to last time. The Left Parties not being a part of the government is one of the best things that has happened. It is not good for the country if the ruling coalition wastes most of its time in maintaining the coalition and remaining in power. Atleast the constant nagging by the left front has been ruled out this time. There have been no major surprises. Dr. Manmohan Singh as the PM is, as always, the worthiest choice.

A BJP-Congress Alliance?

Elections are almost over and by the looks of it, India is up for a really unstable government this time around. There are views that this government may last for about two years after which there will be fresh elections. Amongst all this ruckus, something that caught my attention in the newspaper was a statement by Mr. Shatrughan Sinha about a possible BJP-Congress alliance. Though this may seem far-fetched as of now, why can't this be done? Given the current scenario, this seems the only viable way that the nation can get a stable government and maybe (this is just wishful thinking) the politicians will think of development rather than maintaining status-quo. This will also go on to remove the cloud of pre-mature elections in a nation where conducting a general election is a gargantuan task in itself let alone a very very costly affair. Maybe... Maybe... Lets hope...