Brand Gandhi

Every city, big or small, has one MG road - street named after Mahatma Gandhi. As far as my knowledge goes, these streets are the most important and well maintained streets in every city and it happened quite naturally as independent India became republic.

Many heritage buildings/institutes having British given names were renamed; the famous ones in Mumbai being Victoria Terminus station that became Chatrapati Shivaji Terminus station, college Victoria Jubilee Technical Institute (VJTI) became Veermata Jijabai Technical Institute, etc. Such heritage buildings, and so the brand value, are again naturally preserved.

Mumbai's land-mark structure Bandra-Worli sea-link, suffered a lot due to lack of political will. State govrnment had delayed payments to Hindustan Construction Company, the builder of the sea-link, and escalate the costs. The delayed cost escalation for the bridge was nearly five times, from 350 crores to whopping 1,634 crores. When it came to inaugaration, NCP chief Sharad Pawar suggested Rajiv Gandhi's name to the esteemed project in an attempt to mollycoddle the Congress, after latter's unexpected victory in the last Lok Sabha elections in May 2009. BJP's suggestion of naming it after Veer Savarkar, as the freedom fighter stayed close by in Dadar and has history relating him to sea, met stunning silence after Congress's nod to Pawar's suggestion. This is an example of how sycophancy is proliferated in Congress.

The above mentioned project was named after the initial phase of the project was through. But there seem to be projects being named after the Gandhis that have gone bad, that the "Gandhi-led" government in the centre has recently ordered to sparingly use Indira and Rajiv Gandhi's name as projects turn out to be shoddy and at times ill-maintained.

If we go to the crux of the issue, it has many dimensions to it. First being corruption, due to which projects become sub-standard and turn bad. Second being breeding of sycophantic Congressmen, who name projects after the Gandhis for political mileage. Third and the most important being the above order, in which the Congress has asked it's ministers to sparingly use the Gandhi name instead of ensuring that the project meets all standards and corruption is eliminated completely. What matters the most to the Congress is the brand image of the Gandhi family and not the project or brand India for that matter!

Positive Journalism

Somebody has rightly said, "Pen is mightier than sword"! How are we, in this society, using this power! Are we missing something; do we need to improve?
Just before the commonwealth games there was a lot of noise in the media about how well India is prepared for the games. Be it the press or the electronic media, national or international, they were right behind CWG organizing committee taking and reporting updates. Oops! Fault-finding updates. The roof is leaking! Approach way is water logged! Bridge construction activity is running behind schedule! Footprints on the bed! Stinking and dirty washrooms.. so on and so forth! But did it mean that everything else apart from what was show-cased by the media was perfect! Nope, that wasn't the case either. The good thing that came out of this was that the organizing committee felt the heat and the work got done better and sooner. There was also a negative side to all this. The world was watching! Many got the false impression that India is nowhere near the world standards in organizing events. India's image was tarnished. Many conveyed their denial to participate in the games. Much to their awe, the opening ceremony was fantastic!
A lesson to learn! Media should be properly balanced. It should condemn the bad, but at the same time appreciate and show-case the good. Showing the right picture is very important.
The other day I read about an accident on Mumbai-Goa highway near Panvel. A biker was hit by a truck; while he fell on the road another truck ran over his legs. He was alive, unable to move, lying in the middle of a busy highway and just outside a very famous restaurant. People passed by, parked their cars and went in for snacks, but nobody bothered to attend to him. Finally, after half-an-hour the police managed to arrange for an ambulance and took him to a nearby hospital. But it was too late to save his life. This is another example of how the patrons should not be! Media does report incidents like this in bold. But if on the other hand, had anybody quickly helped him and saved his life, it would have gone unnoticed!
The point I am making is... positive journalism! Media does report positive things as well, but too little for the mass to hear. My opinion is to have a dedicated section in every daily, just as we have sports, economics, national, international, local and page-3, on the good things that's happening around us - motivating and inspiring patrons every single day. Reporting good things makes one aware of how beautiful this place is, how kind and helpful people around are and he/she also will also act accordingly.

Terrific Tuesday for Indian Sports!

It had to be a very calm, cool, composed, a man with wonderful temperament, God of second-innings-on-day-five on with the job to sail India through and get an unassailable 1-0 lead against the once solid and unbeatable Australia. Yeah, it had to be our very own Very Very Special Laxman.
Aussies were on top of things and favorites for last one-and-a-half days of Mohali test. India finished day-four with 55-4 on board and with a target of 216. Though Tendulkar was at the crease with Zaheer, the top order including Gambhir, Sehwag, Dravid and Raina were in. I knew if India were to win the test from here, it had to be because of Laxman. It happened so, India lost Zaheer, Tendulkar, Dhoni and Bhajji much before lunch on day five, with a hurricane task of 92 runs still to get on Laxman, Ishant and Ojha. Laxman and Ishant put up a splendid 81 run 8th-wicket partnership, giving India a miraculous win. Not to forget, Laxman had a bad back all through this test, came in 8-down in the first innings and 6-down with Raina as runner in the second. But as Farooq Engineer said later during the day.. with bad back or with no back, Laxman was always going to be too much for the Aussies to handle!

I saw the final overs of this nail-bitting finish. Laxman was not only getting the runs, but also managing which singles to run for, which ones to let go and when and how long to expose the tail to the Aussie attack. One instance, when Ojha was trying to get a run not called by VVS, made our calm and cool guy lose his temper. This only showed how desperate he was to win the match for India.

VVS got unbeaten 73 off 79 balls (SR 92.4) with 8-boundaries and Ishant scored 31 off 92 balls, which happens to be the highest number of deliveries faced by an Indian in second innings of this test. With this win India proved they are number one test playing nation. Ponting also will now have to wait longer to register his first win as a test-captain against India in India, having played 6 games already and losing 4 off them.
For Laxman this wasn't the first time. He has done it time and again and that too against the mighty Australians. His 281-run memorable contribution with Dravid's 140-odd to win the Eden Garden test against the same opponent way back in 2001 was the greatest of all. India then were on a follow-on and Australia were on a winning streak, having won 16 tests before getting a beating from India in Kolkata. It is against Australia that he has got his top-four best scores; his average in the second innings is 50 - there's something very very special about him. Ponting also later during the day added that it was only Laxman that they were worried about.

This Tuesday hasn't been only about cricket! India won 5 gold medals in commonwealth games today! Two in shooting, one each for Abhinav Bindra and Gagan Narang, and three in wrestling for Ravinder Singh, Anil Kumar and Sanjay Kumar. All Indians are proud of their achievement and stand to salute their heroism.

Bappa Morya!

Ganapati Bappa - Morya ||

Mangal Murti - Morya ||

Ganapati has a special place in every Hindu's heart in Maharashtra. Come Ganapati festival my memories take me to my childhood days in Pune, and there in our housing society we used to have ten days of "dhamaal". We were about a dozen boys of same age group and some elders in their twenties, who used gel up very well with us.

Preparations for Ganapati used to start a week before Ganesh Chaturthi with contributions. Then came erection of Ganapati "mandav" (which was done by elders). We used to have the same Ganapati idol every year (as is the practise in Pune), along with a small idol, which is later immersed in water. After returning from school and after getting refreshed I used to dash directly to the Ganapati mandav, where everyone used to assemble at the end of their working day. Then came activitities like cleaning and decorating the mandav. Girls on the other hand used to enjoy rangoli and garlanding for the lord. As I used to go to bed quite early, my day usually used to end after Ganesh arti - around eight thirty. Arti used to be fun, with guys fighting for bells first and then usual pranks. Prasad distribution after arti was another attraction. I used to like distributing prasad, which used to be voluntarily sponsored by different families.

Once during the period of ten days we used to have games like musical-chair and passing-the-parcel. I remember having won a beautiful flower-pot in a musical chair competition, that within a couple of days somehow fell on it's own and was shattered to pieces. Another occassion worth a mention was in the game of passing-the-parcel. In this game participants sit to make one big circle and a parcel, usually a soft toy, is passed on and on until the music is played. The person in whose hand the parcel happens to remain when the music stops, picks up a chit from a bowl and has to follow the instruction therein. I always used to be a bit afraid as to what I would be come to me. I always used to put myself in place of the person picking up the chit, thinking how I would have handled that part. On one such occassion a girl, a bit elder to me, was told to recite a TV advertisement. As per my habit, I quickly came up with Nirma ad (now I wonder why Nirma ad, I used to like Nutramul ad those days) in my mind. But the girl asked for time to think and was permitted to recite the ad in the next round along with the next person. She recited a very simple Onida ad later - "Neighbours envy, owners pride". I thought over this; as to who doesn't remember a TV ad! Why did she ask for time and chose an ad in which she hardly would mess up with. I thought it is more about building one's image in the public. When my chance came that year, I was asked to seek the blessings of all elder to me by touching their feet. Guess those blessings are still helping me!

Then finally on the day of immersion, we used to have all household Ganapati's from our society join us to engineering college boat club, hardly a walk of about 20 mins. With it came bursting of crackers and lots of fun. I used to like the boat club. Have a lot of good memories associated with it, of that of my engineering days as well.

Ganapati was one off many festivals celebrated by our extended family together. I should say that only truly blessed people get first-hand experience of all this.

At this defining moment change has come to America ...

Mumbai, 20th Jan 2009

I am at my desk after a normal working day. Time is ticking on, its sound unusually more pronounced against the low background noise of Arnab Gosvami on television, waiting for the "change" to start. As Mumbai is preparing to sleep the night through, there on the other side of the globe, the world is awakening to a new day, the day that promised change to America and to the world.

It's freezing cold on Capitol Hill in Washington D.C. and over two million people are out on the street anxiously waiting for something the world was waiting for till this day. Barack Obama is the man in the spot light.

“I have a dream” were the words that echoed throughout America and that King Luther had dared to dream this day long back in 1963.

America has made history today. As President-elect Barack Obama rightly said in his presidential speech, America has a lot to fight for and to stand up, dust self to get a brighter and better tomorrow for Americans and the world. America is proud to have its first non-white president.

Mumbai, 2nd Sep 2010

It is more than a year and a half now. Who was going to be the best bet - a very a promising president for America, the most powerful man on the earth, has done little for his country and the world? Too early to say!

With all the problems that the US was and is facing, President Barack Obama has managed to do a good job? The economic meltdown for one and ill-effects of the Afghanistan and Iraq war on the other hand – has drained American economy. America now has high levels of unemployment, unstable housing market, and above all the towering budget deficit. White House has been taking a beating when it comes to world politics as well. Americans are not happy with the way Obama administration has been taking small but important decisions.

President Barack Obama has now put an end to the Iraq war. I still remember having seen banners on the streets of America, protesting against the loss of American lives in Afghanistan. Loss in Iraq must have been many folds in comparison to that in Afghanistan. Well done President!

President Barack Obama and his team have been strict on bonuses paid to bank employees/expenses of banks and financial institutions which have had the infamous bail-out packages to the tune of 1.5-trillion dollars in all. What started off with Bear and Stearns takeover in Bush administration in March 2008, then bloated by Lehman Brothers melt-down, Merril Lynch buyout, followed by bail-out packages for Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, AIG, Citi, Washington Mutual, BoA and many more. I still have fresh memories of how it all started for Lehman Brothers, a 156-year old Wall Street giant – nobody had anticipated a melt-down of this magnitude. Looking back at this America has come a long way back on this front.

Jai Hind ! Jai Maharashtra !!

True to it's name Maharashtra, in yester-years and today, has shown signs of being a great state. It has produced some (some? in fact many) great personalities. To name some very prominent ones - Chhatrapati Shivaji Shahaji Bhosale, Lokmanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Veer Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, Chaphekar Brothers, Jyotiba Phule, Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar... and this is just the beginning, the list goes on.

Hinduvi Swarajya was established by Chhatrapati (King of the Kshatriyas) Shivaji Maharaj (1642-1680). What started on 6th June 1674 at Raigad fort, Shivaji Maharaj built and expanded the empire. The empire, as in the map (1758), covered most of today's India. Shivaji was an able administrator, who in his government had modern concepts such as cabinet, foreign affaris and internal intelligence. His strong and able army was well organised too. And above all he respected all religion.

Lokmanya Tilak (1856-1920), a social reformer, leader of Indian Movement of Independence and one of the first and strongest advocates of Swaraj... his famous words quoted "Swaraj he maazhe janma siddha adhikaar aahe ani to me milavnarach!" which means "Swaraj is my bithhright and I shall have it!". British authorities called him the "Father of the Indian Unrest". He knew the importance of education and co-founded the daily - Kesari with Agarkar and colleagues. He enhanced social gathering by starting the famous Ganapati festival.

Veer Savarkar (1883-1966), a Hindu revolutionary, a politician who fought for Indian Independence, was educated in India and England. He organised an armed revolt against British empire and was sentenced to 50 years of imprisonment and was transported to infamous Kaala pani - Cellular jail in Andaman and Nicobar islands.

As I mentioned, this is just the beginning and shows how great people carved the state of Maharashtra. Maharashtra was formed on 1st May 1960 from what was mainly Bombay state in British Raj. Reorganization of British-formed states were done according the Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar's opinion of "One state - One language" and not "One language - One state".

Maharashtra, with history one should be proud of, is the third largest state of India, is second most populated state of India, is first in GDP (in 2006-07), is first in tax revenue generation, is sixth by literacy rate and first in the capacity to generate power. Jai Maharashtra!!!

Where are we lacking? It is an established fact that we are on the top as far as Indian states are concerned, but we should be the one leading India. There is no state level competition, is what we miss out on. Our current leaders, like leaders of yester-years should take the real work in hand and fight the problems India is currently facing. Nation first, then the state... should be the way for us Maharashtrians to go and other states to follow. Chhatrapati has shown us the way, Lokmanya has taught us, Veer's blood flows in us... it was "we", it is "we" and it has to be "we" to drive the nation to where it is destined to be. So as always, it is ...

Jai Hind! Jai Maharashtra!!

"Bharat - Ek Sone Ki Chidiyan"

The News:
-  10,000 tonnes of paddy rots in Punjab

The Woes:
-  India has 50% of world's hungry people,
-  52% of India's children go to bed without food daily,
-  7% of India's children are malnourished,
-  India ranks 66th off 88 countries in battling hunger

With all this and more, we still allow 20K tonnes of food stock rot each year. This is just the official figure. The unofficial figure is somewhere around one lakh tonnes of food stock. Reasons being ...

• Lack of covered godowns to store the stock,
• Lack of good supply system,
• No accountibilty and then the blame-game between central and state government,
• India's full-time agriculture minister, who is responsible to feed 1.2 billion people, is also food minister, consumer affairs minister, heads and looks into his party affairs and is also a full-time ICC president.

India's problems till late 80s were not the same as today. There used to be a deficit in food stock. In fact, Late Former Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri had urged the nation to fast on Mondays. Even the so-called Indian middle-class was poor. But last couple of decades... India has become self-sufficient in food. On the other hand, there has been this criminal wastage of food stock. It neither reaches the hungry nor does it reach the markets, which would ensure price stability and lower inflation. These decades has seen the Indian middle-class prosper and many earning much beyond bounds.

Here is something to ponder ...

"Bachpan mein suna tha ki bharat ek nirdhan logon ka dhanvaan desh hain,

Bharat ko tab 'Sone Ki Chidiyan' bhi kaha jaata tha,

Ab Bharat ek dhanvaan logon ka nirdhan desh ho gaya hain!"

- Vinod Dua in Vinod Dua Live on NDTV India

W RLD CUP in South Africa .. It's waving!

SHATTERING!!!
Quarter finals are on and it is really shattering as the final whistle is blown.. match after match. It was Dunga's Brazil yesterday and Maradona's Argentina today, both my favourites, in that order. Both studded with stars... but Messi messed it, while Kaka lost it all. And both, Messi and Kaka, wear jersey number 10.

German's were simply on top of things. They started with a goal and finished it in style with another. In the first half of the game it looked as if impossible to pierce their defence; and that it was so much closer to the centre line, Maradona's men couldn't do it successfully. Couple of times that they did it was called offside and rightly so. German's strategically placed defence line earned them this stupendous victory, with no goals scored against them. While their intelligently planned and flawlessly executed attacks and counter attacks earned them their four goals. Their attacks today showed the same strategy that was executed brilliantly in couple of counter-attacking goals scored, within an interval of 4 mins, against the Englishmen in pre-quarter final stage. There is very less that Argentina did to save themselves their face.

Brazilians yesterday, were not as bad as Argentina today were, but it simply wasn't good enough to get them through. This was the upset of 2010 FIFA w rld cup. With the likes of Kaka and Robinho, they couldn't score the much needed equalizer. That too when they were reduced to 10, thanks to the red card issued to Felipe Melo, it was never going to be easy. While Sneijder did all that was required for the Dutch. Unlike Germans, the Dutch used all tactics to waste time after they got the lead after 68 mins of play.

I was on the edge of the seat for most of the second half of Brazil-Holland match, just waiting for the equalizer which never came. It was different in case of Argentina-Germany. In the first half after the Germans took the lead early on, I was pretty confident of Argentina coming up with an equalizer and then the winning goal as well. But lost all hopes, I guess like many others, quite early on in the second half.

All in all, it is carnival in South Africa. It is waving and all the teams, still in or out of the w rld cup, can sing with me ...

When I get older,

I'll be stronger,

they'll call me freedom,

jus like a wavin flag...

IT'S FIFA WRLD CUP - 2010 :)

India - A Third World Country!?!?!

A third world country... What do you think it means! What images cross your mind when you come across the term "Third world country"! Of a country that is left out. A country with poor and hungry people. Hmm.. let's dig deeper.

This term was coined during the cold war (1941-91) between the western countries, primarily United States (representing the first world) and Soviet Union and other satellite nations (representing the second world). The cold war was the continuing state of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars and economic competition existing after World War-II. Obviously, other countries that remained non-aligned were referred to as the third world countries. These non-aligned countries were primarily poor countries.

This changed post the cold war period, third world countries are now referred to as developing nations. What changed? Hmm.. something to think about. So is India still a third world country? Consider this...

• According to statistics, number of people below poverty line (i.e. people earning below Rs. 10 per day) is a whopping 30 crores (about 30% of india's population).
• Union Carbide wasn't setup in US, UK or Australia, but in India.
• Sub-standard quality of food grains, which is not consumed by people in developed countries is imported by India.
• Iron scrap containing radioactive material is still imported by India.
• Activities like ship breaking is carried out in India, as its laws on dealing with lead paint, asbestos and general worker’s conditions fall far short of Europe and the US. 

This isn't all in the list... the list goes on. But isn't it time to value our people and treat them in a more humane way!!! Ain't we demonstrating to the whole world with acts like this, that India is still a third world country!!! I would have used a more soothing word "developing country", but it hurts more when we refer to it as a third-world-country. And I think realising that India is still a third-world-country sooner would probably benefit us. Who knows we may all come together, use population to our advantage and turn India to a faster-developing country.

Monday Blues

What is different about Monday! Is it not same as any other day? In fact it should be better than other days of the week, as it is the first day of the week and everybody is fresh and green to work after the weekend. Is it not?

Nope.. is the answer in bold. It should be called the priming day of the week. In short, it is a partial holiday in office, where employees change from holiday to working mode and get used to what they do or supposed to do best. This is widely known as Monday Blues. In our group, we usually tend to "fast" on Mondays. Yep, this is a term coined by us, which means it is a rest day in office.

Does this happen to all? Are all individuals the same? Why doesn't HR or managers account for this? It depends on what work you are into. For a person in a ticket window, a driver or people who do manual work this is totally absent. It is mostly present in IT and where independent individual contribution is done. Monday blue is broken when somebody approaches you for some work. For others who work independently, it continues for a longer period depending on the motivation level of the employee.

A fool's solution to this will to declare Monday a non-working day. A workaholic manager's solution is to login from home on Sunday evening. These are two extremes, what is the intelligent solution? Well, have motivated people and leave the rest the way it is. Time lost in the priming period will be made up in the same week as the week progresses... of course, if the week is long enough :).

Confession: This is written on a Monday morning, in office.

Economics, the tequila way ...

The other day I and my friends decided to have an evening together. It was long since we were deciding and finally the day was here. It was going to be just a booze followed by dinner, so we decided to go to a nearby place having smiley hours. I was happy that we were getting a pint of beer free on every bottle. We were four, off which one of my friend was the odd one out, having only non-alcoholic drinks. We decided to go with 4 bottles of super-chilled beer among three of us. Wow, we were already experiencing the lighter side of life. Beer, of course, with snacks was followed by tequila shots. Two of us were having tequila for the first time; I always wanted to try it and this was the time. What an experience it was! We were told by our experienced third friend to squeeze lemon into it and gulp it all at once, which we followed obediently. And now it was time to experience the never-before feeling of lightness. We had the second shot and it was as if gravity was reduced by half and we were floating in air, a good 6 inches above ground. Our good friend, who was still on ground and who always helps us get home without we realizing it, did his job well that day too :). We were all safe back home. On our way back, we bought ourselves a kulfi each, which I had when I was back home. I had always heard that one should avoid having sweet after a booze, but this was the day to experience. I couldn't sit; I had switched on my computer, which I didn't even bother to switch off and I was off on the bed. The experience that asrtonauts have after travelling all the way to the space, was being experienced by me (probably) on earth.

The following day I just happened to check my wallet, which had the bill we paid. Six tequila shots had cost us a bit more than 800 bucks and it had a whopping 25% VAT on the alcoholic drinks and 12.5% on food and non-alcoholic beverages. The mathematician in me told me how lighter we really were after those tequila shots. One really has to earn 179 bucks (79% tax) to have a booze worth 100 and 161 (61% tax) for the food we have in the restaurant. This is if we only include the income tax that we pay (other taxes are ignored).

Certainly, the income tax is going through a planned reforms phase, but in the mean time government is getting richer at a much faster pace and people are happy with the income tax reduction announced in the latest budget. This is economics, the tequila way; people are happier and lighter as well!

Earth won't lose a bit

Right from the big bang, earth has been evolving. Only thing that is constant is change. What started as volcanic lava soon turned to solid rock, which got disintegrated to soil. With vegetation life came into existence, then slowly over a long period of time countless creatures made earth their home. Dinosaurs, the most powerful of them ruled the earth. Then a celestial object struck the orbiting earth, which marked the end of an era. Dinosaurs and many of the living organisms became extinct. This was about 6.5 crore years ago.

Why am I telling you this? Before I answer lets see what came next.

Fast forward ... and human race came into existence with a lot many creatures. This time power did not rule the earth, intelligence did. Earth is now divided into nations. Man-made nations. This is mine, that is yours. Where do the animals go? Well, there are reserved forests. Yeah, there are. How free are they? How long will they be free? That is a different topic altogether. What's true is man is destructing the earth... burning fossil fuel, polluting the environment, depleting the ozone layer, creating a dark carbon layer around the earth, all this leading to what is known as the Green House Effect. Not the end still. Man has been mining, destroying the forests for various reasone. Madagascar, which has 85% of the species which are found only in Madagascar's forest, has only 20% of it's original forest cover left. What does it mean!

Baobabs trees are found in Madagascar and are believed to be holy. That is the reason only these trees have been spared.

In short, man is the only creature who owns the earth and is destroying it left-right-centre.
Why am I telling you this? Before I answer lets see what came next.

In Madagascar, there is a pyramid built by man in the heart of the forest which was once a city with more than 50,000 population. Where did it vanish!

Earth has nothing to lose. All that the earth loses because of unwarranted destruction will be made up after man's extinction in only a few lakh years. Who is at loss? It is man himself and with man all other innocent living beings.

B=C=B bond

IPL had a mega opening ceremony, Pathan scored a 37-ball-century, Sachin won the game for Mumbai Indians, Gilchrist is leading Deccan Chargers trying to defend their title, it is IPL fever all the way. Cricket sells in India... and that is good news!?!?! Anyways it doesn't matter. I am not a cricketer and I personally do not know a single person for whom cricket is his daily bread and butter. What matters is Indians have developed a lot of interest in cricket and it has a place very next (most probably on the higher side) to Bollywood. And so probably the line between Bollywood and cricket is thinning day-by-day. Cricketers who fail to go on all the way have tried their luck in movies and there are movies on cricket and now there is a third aspect to it which has come into play with IPL, hmm.. movie stars are now owning cricket teams. Wow.. this has developed into a covalent bond as in aromatic organic compounds, sharing more than what carbon and hydrogen (H=C=H) atoms do :). This aroma is attracting people and creating pools of wealth.

Another example wherein this aroma has come into play is in Ashutosh Govarikar's Lagaan and Nagesh Kukkunoor's Iqbal. On the other hand cricket has been played with a well defined script where the aroma turned into foul air; who doesn't remember our match fixer's. I can only say that nothing is impossible in India! But let the aroma hold on and let it spread all over India, entertaining the crowd the way it likes the most.

It's time to be in Bahrain

car

It's GP for me, be it Grand Prix or Grande Punto. I am a GP driver, obvious enough that isn't Grand Prix, I am not in Bahrain and I cannot imgaine myself in the driver's seat in a Grand Prix. Being there-doing that is an experience in itself and I do wonder how Narain and now Karun managed it all. Being an Indian, in India and with so limited resources, it is hat's off to Karun Chandhok and his parents.
The biggest name, of course, which has brought India on the F1 grid is .. yeah, you are right and who cannot be, it is Vijay Mallya. With Force India team's third year into GP, he is on his way to give India it's first GP track. Thanks to Mallya, many Indians can now be in the stands of GP including me. Mallya rocks and India will rock with him!!!

It's a Punto!!

After a lot of research and days of day dreamin, here's the best car on earth (goes without saying ... fitting my budget ;)). Well built, great looks, powerful and comfortable and what .. it is FIAT... that is all the qualities of a great car. Check the pic :D