I live in a rented flat right at the end of a lane measuring about 400 metres in length. At some unknown time in the past the Municipality decided that the lane was to be cemented with concrete. As with everything done by any government agency it would have taken a considerable amount of time to call for tenders and award the contract to the stupidest person but none of the residents had a clue about the decision until suddenly a few poor labourers started digging up the lane around the middle of March, 2007. Three months have passed and the work is still in progress. The lane has been impassable for three months and it seems that it will take another month. I have been unable to take out my car in all this time which has caused me enormous difficulty. My repeated requests to allow me to drive out once or twice a week have fallen on deaf ears. Instead these sadistic creatures taunt me with big smiles every time they see me walking with bags of groceries or vegetables. I have talked to other residents but have received no support. I have pointed out that if any person developed a heart attack there would be no way of getting the person to hospital because just as we are unable to take out our cars, no ambulance would be able to get in. There is no righteous indignation in North India. Majority of people here have no sense of right or wrong. Lies and immorality provoke no sense of outrage. These coward wimps never protest against official arrogance and wrong doing. Instead their attitude is ' sab chalta hai ' or ' everything goes '. Unforunately these people outnumber Indians from east, west and south and so have been misruling the country since independence. Since the ratio will remain the same for the foreseeable future what hope do we have? Depressing what?

Why is the Congress Party against President Kalam? He is a scientist interested in education. He does not belong to any political party and is probably neutral. Their is no corruption charge against him and, as far as we know, he has not accumulated millions in black money. He is popular and children love him. Apart from his barber the man does not need to change anything to be perfect for the President's post. Why then is the Congress dead set against him? I have a vague memory of him returning a bill which he thought to be against fundamental rights. So is it pure vindictiveness or are the Congress leaders scared of his popularity? What if people people start demanding that every one should be as honest things could quickly get out of hand. Instead Mrs. Gandhi has recommended a faceless apparatchik who will do as she is told and already there are allegations of financial irregularities on her part and of murder against her brother. It is time that the President of India is elected directly by the people so that we are not shamed by little people occupying the highest office. Meanwhile Ms. Mayawati has declared assets of Rs. 520 million and she is the self proclaimed leader of Dalits. 'Dalit' means 'oppressed'. Can a woman with half a billion rupees describe herself as oppressed? Daughter of a postal clerk she used to be a teacher in a govt school. Where did she get so much money? Has she paid taxes on her wealth? Also she has become Chief Minister of UP without standing for election and will get in through the Upper House. As Trinny Lopez sang, 'Woe is me. Shame and scandal in the family.' Despair is our lot.

A congratulatory article, featuring a photograph of the Finance Minister, in an English daily on 23rd June claimed that inflation rate in India has come down to 4.28% and proceeded to give a list of all the items whose prices are holding steady. In an interview with Sharanjit Leyl on the programme, Asia Business Report, on the BBC on 21st June a finance executive ( forget his name ) said that while wholesale inflation has indeed dropped to below 5% consumer inflation was more than 8%. So much for our freeloading press. In the view of this expert India needs to cut down growth rate to 7% from the current 9% for inflation to start falling. This, he said, could be achieved by 1. letting the rupee appreciate further in value, 2. increase interest rates and 3. increase the cash reserve ratio (CRR) for banks. Already the garment industry is losing customers to China and Bangladesh and further increase in the rupee exchange rate will seriously hit export industries. Also by making imports cheaper domestic producers will also see pricing pressure. Auto sales have fallen because of increasing interest rates and any further increase will hurt all companies. Increasing interest rates and CRR may hit the property bubble and cause a collapse in prices. Since the Enforcers and friends have invested a large portion of their black money in property any collapse in prices will seriously inconvenience them. Yet lies will not convince the aam aadmi who is bleeding because of inflation and elections are coming up. What are the economic terms for a rock, a hard place and the deep blue sea?

Yesterday a fifteen year old boy performed a Caesarian section on a woman in a private nursing home in Tamil Nadu while his doctor parents watched. Apparently the lives of the woman and the baby were endangered because the parents want the boy to be listed in the Guinness Book of Records. An editorial in today's english daily was very indignant about risking a patient's life without informed consent. I fail to understand what the excitement is about. Surely India has the largest number of quacks in the world, people without any knowledge of anatomy, physiology, pathology or pharmacology calling themselves doctors and prescribing any drug with complete impunity. Fellows with dubious degrees in homeopathy, ayurveda, unani even acupuncture have clinics with huge boards proclaiming Dr. So and so with a string of meaningless letters after their names intended to fool the illiterate and the gullible. A semiliterate fellow owns a large nursing home in posh Saket area of Delhi. The board outside his room says Dr. -- . MD which apparently stands for Managing Director but patients naturally think Doctor of Medicine. Physiotherapists and chemists call themselves doctors and treat anyone with any illness. Sadly the biggest quacks are my surgical colleagues. Most surgeons are stupid enough to think that they can be physicians and do not refuse medical problems such as tuberculosis, hypertension, diabetes or coronary artery disease. Mistakes are common and when things get out of hand they quickly get rid of the patient. Everyday we see patients on inadequate, inappropriate or plainly dangerous medicines but there is nothing we can do. As a life member of the Indian Medical Association I have asked the office bearers to improve patient care in the country but no one is interested. For the politicians, who have been unable to provide even basic medical care to the aam aadmi, quacks are heaven sent. If the aam aadmi is stupid whose fault is that? Meanwhile what of our 'Dougie Howser' and his parents? Some people must be ecstatic today, imagine the scope for bribes.











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A fascinating game is in progress. Fellow called Biti Mohanty from Orissa has been charged with rape of a woman. He jumped bail and has gone into hiding such that Rajasthan Police are unable to find him. His father B. B. Mohanty is DGP ( which means Director General of Police? ) of Home Guards in Orissa. Rajasthan Police allege that he was instrumental in his son jumping bail and is actively helping him to avoid arrest. The police obtained an arrest warrant for dad but when they reached Orissa they found that he was on medical leave and they returned without serving the warrant. Today's paper says that the police have obtained another bailable warrant for Biti but, of course, since they have no idea where he is they will be unable to serve the warrant. Meanwhile the woman, whose life was destroyed by the rape, must be laughing her head off at all this fun and games. If I were her I would be mystified as to why another bailable warrant has been issued for a person who has already jumped bail. How can a serving police officer be helping a person charged with a heinous crime? Why is he not being sacked or given other types of punishment such as losing his pension? Will the court take this behaviour as admission of guilt when the fellow is eventually arrested? Meanwhile Mr. Sonia Gandhi, who is effectively running the government, is busy trying to get a female nonentity selected as President of India. Surely India is the funniest country on earth.

Oops the Central Bureau of Investigations (CBI) failed to get big Q again. This time it seems India will have to foot the bill for Quatrocchi's defence as well. Who cares? What is a few million dollars when we have already spent God knows how many pursuing him through St. Kitts, Malasia and several other very beautiful tourist spots. These Italians sure have taste. Must be a pleasure to have such a worthy opponent who is not only slippery than an olive oiled eel but chooses the most exotic places to get caught in. Imagine if he had surfaced in Zimbabwe or Afghanistan or in the middle of Sahara. No five star hotels, no belly dancers, no beaches with sun tanned naked women. Don't our sleuths and civil servants deserve to relax after all the hard work they put in for the tax payers? Who wants to play with Dawood Ibrahim? He used to live in Dubai which may be a very rich Arab state but can hardly be compared to Buones Aires for entertainment. Now he is hiding in Pakistan which may have very good biryani but is otherwise a very down market. Spoilsport. Big Q, on the other hand, loves to play and in very expensive places. He may have made a lot of money from the Bofors deal but he is putting it to good purpose. By surfacing in exotic places from time to time he is teaching the CBI fellows and lawyers about the places where the rich hang out. This is invaluable knowledge which will help in all the scandals that are to follow. I am not suggesting for a moment that our CBI men are enjoying all this running around. I am sure they will be concentrating on their goal all the time and will have no time for entertainment. Keep at it chaps. After all we Indians love Italians do we not?

The Enforcers are deciding a new tax on the escalation of property prices. Apparently property prices go up if infrastructure is improved in an area and they think that people should be taxed on their good fortune. What about the extortionate taxes that we already pay? If sewers are built so that people can have toilets at home rather than defaecate like animals along railway lines is it not what the government should provide anyway? How do taxes help the aam aadmi? Let us take a very aam couple who work as daily labour in construction of houses in Delhi. They live in a slum and barely survive on a combined income of around Rs. 3000 a month. They want to attend a cousin's wedding in Mumbai in three months' time. These days low cost airlines offer cheap tickets even for Rs. 100 if booked well in advance. Unfortunately, taxes being fixed, the price of a ticket becomes Rs. 1000 which means for a round trip our couple will have to spend Rs. 4000 which they cannot afford. Also the tickets are non refundable which means that if for any reason they are unable to go they lose Rs. 4000, a risk which they cannot take. Rajdhani tickets will also cost about the same so the only form of travel they can realistically afford and avail of is in an unreserved second class where they will have sitting room only and no air conditioning. So taxes on things that the Enforcers claim are luxury, actually deprive the aam aadmi from ever enjoying them. Of course middle and upper classes can also avail of such cheap tickets but surely the difference between middle class and aam aadmi is merely what each can afford. Ergo, if taxes disappear aam aadmis will be able to afford middle class lifestyle and automatically become middle class. Problem is they will not need hand outs any more and the Enforcers will lose their hold. Unthinkable.

Mandira Bedi was a co host at the recent Cricket World cup and, like any beautiful television person, wore separate designer clothes everyday. One of her designer saris featured the flags of all the countries including that of India. Unfortunately for her the fall of her sari resulted in the Indian flag touching her right knee for which a case has been filed against her charging her with insult of the national flag. I remember a little story I read some time ago. When Bhagirath was guiding the Goddess Ganga down the mountain towards the sea her waters disturbed the dhyan (meditation) of a sadhu. He was angered by this and drank up all the water in one gulp. Distressed by this turn of events Bhagirath expressed his sorrow and did penance and was able to melt the sadhu's heart. As was the custom in those days the sadhu wanted to grant him a boon and Bhagirath asked him to free the Goddess. The sadhu was in a bind. Ganga could be freed in one of three ways only. Cutting open his stomach would kill him and would be sinful. The Goddess would be insulted by vomiting or urinating her out and that was unacceptable. So the sadhu made an incision above one knee and the waters of Ganga flowed out again. Since the 'knee' is known as 'jaanu' in Sanskrit so Ganga is also known as Jahnavi. This is the Goddess who was so angered by being asked to leave her normal residence in Heaven and come down to this dirty world that she threatened to jump down hard and shatter the earth to pieces. To prevent this happening Lord Shiva cushioned her jump by taking her onto his head and allowed only one stream to escape so that she could not drown the earth. If Ganga is happy to be known as Jahnavi surely our flag cannot be insulted touching a knee.

Mr. Blair wants Russia to adopt European values and principles. What values is he talking about? Perhaps a little list of what British and West European values are all about will help us understand. 1. Lying about Iraqi Weapons of Mass Destruction raining down on Britain in 15 minutes . 2. Following the US like a poodle into an illegal war resulting in 600 thousand Iraqis slaughtered. 3. Setting up commissions to whitewash state misdeeds. The British are masters at this game. Bring out a retired judge called Lord Whatever who, being paid handsomely with taxpayers money, produces a report of some twenty volumes of waffle that will induce coma in anyone trying to read it. For example reports of many enquiries on Bloody Sunday when British troops massacred unarmed catholics, the Horton enquiry which looked into the suicide of scientist critical of official policy, or the enquiry into the cold blooded murder of the Brazilian electrician, De Menezes, in an underground train. 4. European colonisation of Africa leading to fantastic values like apartheid. Notice how African countries are divided by straight lines cutting across tribes and still producing war and famine to this day. 5. Centuries of savage wars including the two World Wars and even wars lasting a hundred years. 6. Promising ethical foreign policies and then halting an enquiry into bribes paid to a Saudi Prince. 7. Lying, twisting, even threatening poor countries at the WTO negotiations to get extortionate terms of trade. 8. Refusing to ever appologise for many massacres of Indian women and children as in Jalian Wala Bagh. My father talked about Metro Cinema where dogs and Indians were not allowed. Ah yes, Mr. Blair look at your dirty hands before you start preaching values to others

The Americans must think that the people of the world are stupid. They want to set up a Missile Defence Shield in the Czech Republic, right on Russia's, doorstep and are claiming it to be aimed against Iran and North Korea. They were quite happy when the drunken buffoon, Yeltsin was in power and Russia was reduced to bankruptcy by the International Monetary Fund but faced with a strong leader, in Putin, and high oil prices making Russia richer by the day they are trying to create trouble. It was Ronald Reagan who first started this concept of Star Wars type defence shield and, if we are to believe the pundits, drove the old Soviet Union to bankruptcy because of the collosal increase in defence spending. But these are different times. America is tied down in Iraq and its lies will forever be known as the Weapons of Mass Deception. Those old tactics will not work again. I fail to understand what they are saying anyway. Will the radar based in the Czech Republic have an angle of only fifteen degrees aimed at Iran or will it rotate 360 degrees as radars generally do? If they pick up a Russian missile will they not attempt to shoot it down? What if the missile is aimed at some other country and not the US will they let it go? Having made the world infintely more dangerous by their adventures in Iraq they now want to poke the great Bear in its buttocks. If they are that stupid then should India get into a nuclear treaty with them? For once I think that opposition politicians are right to question the whole deal. We should go over every clause, every line and every word to make sure that some future lunatic or moron (take your pick) does not find some excuse, however lame it may be, to attack us.

Times of India. A huge advertisement occupying twothirds of page eleven, from Central Board of Excise and Customs, thanks tax payers for paying Rs. 2.42 trillion in indirect taxes. Under the heading 'Your taxes are working for you' we are given some figures of how some of the money is spent. Sarva Siksha Abhiyan Rs. 10.671 billion, Mid-day Meal Scheme Rs. 7.324 b, Integrated Child Development Scheme Rs. 4.761 b, Rural Employment Schemes Rs. 14.800 b, Accelerated Rural Water Supply Programme Rs. 6.700 b, Indira Awaas Yojna Rs. 4.040 b, Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojna Rs. 6.789 b, total Rs. 450.85 billion. With so much money spent you would think that poor people would be plump and happy. Surprise. Next to this huge ad is a three inch news item with the heading 'Child welfare plan to be revamped'. Seems that the number of malnourished children has dropped from 46.7% in 1998-1999 to 45.9% in 2005-2006. The Supreme Court has asked for the Integrated Child Development Scheme to be extended to all children below the age of six years. I find it puzzling why the Court has to be involved at all when we apparently have a Women and Child Development Ministry. So much money spent and still nearly half the children malnourished. I am stupid. I do not understand why.