Happy New Year 2015

The year 2014 paves its way to the year 2015. As the old man 2014 bends extending his hand and opens the door to welcome the New Year, it's time for some introspection. A la getting rid off the old cloths for new ones and the soul moving from one body to another as famously extolled by Lord Krishna in BHAGWAT GITA, only the number of the year changes. Nothing else, as more or less the status quo is maintained. We may forget history but we don't forget to repeat it year after year. Similar to this starting stanza of the Kishore's song

EK RUT AE, EK RUN JAE PHIR,

MOUSAM BADLENA, BADLE NASEEB.

"One season comes and another goes,

the season changes not the fateful woes". 

This year came with a mixed bag of good, bad and ugly. Made new friends, revived old ones and lost some ones, once and for all. To me almost all the New Year wishes expressed over the years have been pleasant which makes them forgettable. Our inherent human nature makes us remember the unpleasant ones. I remember one from 1st January 1982. On the first New Year after his marriage to Diana, Prince Charles wished the nosey British Paparazzi " Have a Nasty New Year". Let me repeat the forgettable wish as I do not forget to do at the end of every year, HAVE A WONDERFUL NEW YEAR 2015.

Goodbye M S Dhoni

It was early 2006. India was chasing a sizable Pakistani total in front of a hostile home crowd in Lahore. At a crucial moment India loses its star batsman Sachin Tendulkar, still requiring loads of run. Those days the end of Tendulkar was usually considered as beginning of India's impending end. Nonchalantly walks in this man with long hair, a tyro following a connoisseur. Nobody expected much from this young man from the nondescript, impoverished state of Jharkhand, M S DHONI. In middle of a hostile India baiting (rather hating) crowd, he led a successful India chase staying as cool as iceberg. It's not very common to be newcomer to crash into limelight in a nail biting, pressure cooker rivalry between the arch rivals. Dhoni's performance in Pakistan's own backyard earned praise from no other than then President General Musharaf, not a huge fan of India or Indians by any standard. (Musharaf incidentally told Dhoni not to cut his trademark long hair). Arguably Dhoni was the harbinger of a new era when Indians finally got out the cycles of defeats against Pakistan, not any more the nerve and guts to fight under adverse circumstances.  

 

Dhoni continued to flourish and never looked back since. His biggest contribution to India was his leadership under which India won the World Cup in 2011. An abrupt end to his test career came as he announced an impromptu retirement, arguably on the behalf of BCCI not known for its foresight and professionalism. For long Dhoni was a man surrounded by several controversies and debates around him. But what's not debatable is the fact that the man deserved farewell test match, same as an employee deserves the same after a long stint. He should have been allowed to play in Sydney Test as a fitting finale to an epic career on an epic ground. Such  unsportsmanlike conduct can only be expected from BCCI managed by folks who are more apt at politics than sports. If a person of the caliber and stature of Dhoni doesn't get the farewell he deserves it could be the death knell for the moral of achievers in a nation who sadly can't boast of many in the arena of sports. Hats off to legend and a God to many in a country where cricket is the religion.

Bush vs Clinton in 2016 ?

The Iowa Caucus, the first campaign in American Presidential election is almost a year away. A CNN poll among the Republicans finds Jeb Bush, son of one US President and the brother of another as their top most choice for nomination. For Democrats it's Hillary Clinton. So it could be Bush Vs Clinton again, old wine in new bottle.

A week is a long time in politics, a year is still longer. As the year 2015 is about to begin it will be interesting to analyze the prospects of these candidates. For Jeb the Bush tag is still a liability whereas for Hillary the Clinton tag is an asset. Bill Clinton is still popular, effuses charisma and reminds the Americans of the prosperity times of late 90s. In fact Clinton left White House with a budget surplus where as Bush left with trillions of debt.

Republicans could not defeat a vulnerable Obama in 2012 who was running a reelection with a record unemployment rate. With the US economy in upswing and if stays that way Hillary Clinton starts with an advantage. But we live in a highly unpredictable world. A lot of water would have flown under the bridge between now and November 2016.

Scare In Air

An Air Asia plane went missing, making the year 2014 one of the worst ever in the history of civil aviation. So far it looks like bad weather. The pilot reported severe thunderstorms and wanted to fly at a higher altitude. No other communication came from him ever since. Thunderstorms which can pour half a feet of rain in barely couple of hours with massive cloud vortex up to 50000 feet were located in that area. If the flight entered into it chances are the mother nature swallowed it and is likely to excrete the debris in future.

 

Once in July, 2007 at the peak of monsoon season moments before landing at Bhubaneswar dark clouds started engulfing the plane. The Alliance Aircraft ( a subsidiary of Air India) encountered severe turbulence as it was pelted with powerfully packed tropical air currents. Inside wafted in a calm female voice MAUSAM KHARAB HONE KE KARAN AAP KURSI KI PETI BANDH LIJIYE (because of bad weather please fasten your seat belts). The plane shook vigorously, shaking my confidence to the hilt. For a moment I thought the overhead baggage compartment will break open, spilling the bags on the hapless passengers. The shaky roller coaster ride which lasted a few minutes seemed like eternity. It was enough for the agnostic in me to suddenly turn into a believer. I closed my eyes and started remembering all our 33 crore Gods and Goddesses, whom I had conveniently ignored for long.

 

Finally the ordeal was over as the flight touched the ground in the middle of pouring, torrential rain. Passengers rejoiced by whistling and clapping. Soon I could hear murmurs of HEY PRABHU (O Lord), JAI JAGANNATH from the passengers repeatedly touching their forehead with folded hands. As the flight came to complete halt, I was back to my normal self and my belief in agnosticism. It was so selfish of me. Thankfully winter flights are a lot better in the northern hemisphere. One rarely gets any turbulence beyond the turbulent zone which mostly stays south of the tropic of cancer.

Smartphones have changed the world of communication

Smartphones have changed the world of communication. Right now I am at a place to get my haircut waiting for my turn. I never miss an opportunity to chit chat with my Co-customers. My attempt to initiate a conversation didn't arouse much interest in them. They have all buried their head inside their devices like Ostriches do in sand. Welcome to the world of smartphones.

Power as an aphrodisiac

There is no powerful aphrodisiac in the world than the power itself. This has been true throughout the centuries. Around the time of Gautama Buddha, Ajatsatru the King of Magadha imprisoned and killed his father Bimbisara to ascend the throne. His son exactly followed his father's footstep. Aurangzeb, the Mughal emperor famously said " Kingship is more powerful than Kinship". He killed his brothers including his elder brother Dara who was the favorite son of his father Sah Jahan. Over centuries nothing has changed. Zulfiquar Ali Bhutto, the ex-PM of Pakistan trusted Zia-Ul-Haq. He promoted him over others and made him the Army chief. He thought Zia as a pliable one and often used to poke fun at him in public referring to him as his Monkey general for the later's looks. Zia had the last laugh. He arrested Bhutto in a coup and hung him soon after. Power and betrayal has been synonymous through human history. No wonder the saying goes " Absolute power corrupts absolutely".

Fate and faith in lottery.

With the  backdrop of last week's $400 million lottery winner it revived the memory of our growing up days. If you remember early 80s there was a popular lottery in Odisha known as Rajarani lottery. Apparently it could not sustain long and soon folded up. If you ask someone those days what you would do if you win a big prize money in lottery the common answer was I will put it in a Fixed Deposit in State Bank of India and live off on the interest for rest of my life. Rarely anybody said about investing it to make further money. State Bank deposits were safer and the most preferred mode of investment those days. Mindset of public over the year has gone through a drastic change. People intend to make more money out of money. It has made life a rat race. That's exactly why the business of gambling (lottery is one form of gambling) thrives. Purchasing power of every currency has depreciated over the years. Now-a-days even one million dollar prize money is not big enough an amount to retire. After they deduct the taxes (money earned from lottery is heavily taxed) it leaves you an amount of something over 600K. It certainly is quite a good amount. But not quite good enough to follow my childhood fantasy of putting it in a savings account and retire for life.