Silky, the Labrador Retriever ..

Silky, the 20 month old female Labrador Retriever at home ..

Obama and McCain .. any fight at all ??

Finally after months of fighting, Ms Clinton has bowed out of the race for the Democratic candidate nomination for the US presidential elections, paving way for the big two contenders.

Will the charm and patriotism of McCain ( with a stint of 5 years as a POW in Vietnam ) and the millstone of the two lost /losing  wars, an inflationary economy tied to his neck, give way to the  cool-tempered, humoured , first Afro-American contender, to walk up the stairs of the White House ??

Who will be more responsive to a changing world order of decreasing US influence and increasing clout of the Asian powers ? Who will make Americans more outward looking and earn back the respect it had squandered during the past many years ?


ge..

Petrol prices hit thru the roof ..

After the last night hike, petrol is costliest in bangalore, about Rs 58.50 or so in Bangalore. The government has somehow managed to give the impression of not a too big raise, just Rs 5 for petrol and rs 50 for an LPG cyclinder. The prices of Kerosene has been retained for the benefit of the poor sections of the society.

The international prices of crude oil up from $35 two years ago, to $135 presently, is indeed a very alarming state of the world economy, as pointed out by the UN Sec General Ban Ki moon in the recent FAO food summit in Rome to find ways and means to tackle the present world food crisis and the high prices.

But where is all this money going to ?

Some say it is futures trading which is boosting the prices..Speculation in high prices results in a spiral effect. The money which is reaching the Gulf is being diverted back to the western world, for instance funding the Citibank who got badly hit in the sub prime crisis in US is one such instance. Very soon we will find the gulf govts investing in their defence procurements and buying real estate in US and Europe. The money from the developed and develpng govts the world over is now being rerouted to the developed economies.
The continuing high prices of oil, will damage India in more ways than one. First, it will deplete the foreign exchange reserves of the country. Secondly it will result in general inflation going above 10.0 % resulting in an overall appreciation in prices and another round of wage increases, DA increases etc..

A salaried worker will find it difficult to maintain his family and will be forced to cut down on some essential expenses in life.

Politically this may boomerang to give Congress a big hit in the coming general elections if the opposition use this opportunity to to raise public emotions against the govt, even in spite of the inevitables happening.

Let us wait and se...

ge..

Spiritual entrepreneurship, Thanks, Thangu, amma and Yohannans and Dinakarans ....

Spiritual Entrepreneurship, booming business in Kerala ...


The past few days we have been reading about the various successful, partly succesful and totally failed spiritual entrepreneurs in Kerala. Godmen/women. conmen/women, some of whom have gained worldwide fame, name and wealth and some who got exposed with too much of sex and lust. Cutting across religious spectrum, except for the Muslim community, we have seen competitors vying with each other to come to the forefront in this material world, amassing real estate, untold wealth in cash and kind and the appreciation and blind allegiance of thousands of followers within Indian and abroad.

We need to analyse why this pathetic state of affairs in this country of sages, rishis and wise men with a parampara, culture and civilization, perhaps the most ancient in the world, of five thousand years. When the white men were still on trees, our rishis and people of knowledge ( scientists in the modern  terminlogy ) were busy talking of the navagruhas (  the nine planets, it took them hundreds of years to disprove it..) and studying the impact of the position of stars and planets on human life ( something which even the modern Science of present day has not yet understood and hence claims as rubbish..)

Whatever be it, modern day science is under tremendous pressure to denounce such theories for their own survival, existence and acceptance, due to lack of understanding and knowledge of the unknown. Therefore in a spirit of accommodation as in a pluralistic society, we allow these modern theories being propounded by the modern day science to co-exist.

In this materialistic world, it is success and riches which are in great following.  Our spiritual entrepreneurs, both the successful and failed ones, have leveraged or exploited this weakness of our people running after success and material wellbeing. Be it writing an examination and getting a medical or engineering seat, getting a good high paying job, building a palatial house, going in the latest Mercedes, these spiritual entrepreneurs are ever ready to offer succour and comfort our fears, of course at a price. For the recipient it makes good business ation which will get corrected, as it is throwing some money to get more money. In Christianity as in other religions,  the emergence of the recent aggressive, born-again, rock-n-roll movements, extreme charismatism etc to corner all the good things in this materialistic world,  is just a aberration  which will get corrected in due course.

The people of Kerala are smart enough to know this, but the pressure of pursuit after materialistic pleasures, is resulting in the sprouting of such spiritual entrepreneurs ... If we are smart enough, we can avoid these rogues for ever ... ( but some of us will still try to outsmart others..)

Acting together we can live in a better world...

george..

Traffic chaos at Electronic city ph II Bangalore..

You have to see to believe it..!!

The traffic chaos at Electronic city Ph II junction in the morning between 8 and 10 AM. It is madness !!!!!. Even though there are private security guards (totally untrained for controlling traffic) manning the point, not a single police officer is in sight, it is utter chaos ( some mornings an officer in mufti is seen controlling traffic at electronic city phase I stop).

Until the elevated highway is in place ( God knows how long it will take..), the authorities need to do something urgent. Here are some ideas which could be implemented immediately to save petrol and diesel and save the country precious foreign exchange from vehicles idling at the junction for traffic to clear.

1. The immediate need of the hour is to have a traffic signal light installed there. ( vehicles come from all directions and presently they go the way they like causing even the normal traffic on Hosur Road to come to a standstill)

2. The second step is effective policing to catch and heavily fine traffic law offenders. I have seen so called sensible people taking the left most lane and at the junction pushing their way to the right most causing the whole traffic to come to a halt. The vehicle numbers of motorists and heavy vehicle drivers jumping , lights and lane should be immediately noted down and fined.

3. The private people controlling traffic should be properly trained and be given enough authority to confiscate licences from traffic rule offenders.

4. BMTC buses should be asked to stop to embark and disembark passengers only at the extreme left section of the road instead of at the middle.

5. Pedestrian crossing (Zebra crossing) be made very visible at important junctions on the Hosur Road  for the comfort of the pedestrians.

6. The construction co. should be asked to inform the traffic dept of major blocks or realignment on the road to enable planning for smooth traffic flow.

Hope the Bangalore traffic authorities take note of this and do something for restoring normal flow of traffic on the Hosur Road.

george..

Gujjars of Rajasthan take law into their hands ..

It was interesting to read news reports during the past week of a community in Rajasthan, called the Gujjars, ( the Jats ) take to the streets, cause damage and destroy public property and disturb public peace not only in their homeland, but also in other states of North India, notably New Delhi.

The most worrying factor was that the movement of the Gujjars is being led by an army Colonel, Kirori Singh Bainsla, a person who, by his profession, is committed to help keep the rule of law and maintain peace and order in the country. 

The reason for this agitation was that Gujjars were not being branded as Scheduled Tribes ( akin to the nomadic tribes roaming the mountains, wearing only shaddis, with bow and arrow, wild dances and so on). They were not content with the other backward community (OBC) status given to them. (neither have we seen Col Bainsla dancing around the fire in his shaddis..)  They are aware of the spoils and gains from a reservation system being practiced in this country for the past many years. It was really pathetic to see how Col Bainsla after having enjoyed the frills of power during his lifetime, was now fighting for improving the lot of his community, by taking them lower in the social strata, from OBC to ST. What a pity !!

Their reason was that Ms. Raje, the BJP CM of Rajasthan had promised them ST status in her election fake promises. Sadly, the Gujjars took these election promises and , look what soup the are in now....

Kaychittu irakkanum vayya, madhurichittu thuppanum vayya ..

Sadly, this community thinks that it can take the country to ransom.. It reflects the low IQ of the community leaders who still believe they can have their way in this large democracy.
Somebody needs to inject some sense into them.

george....

The money clout of minority educational institutions ..

I happened recently, just last week, to go to the Rajagiri Engg College in Rajagiri valley in Kakkanad, Ernakulam, St Josephs College of Engg, Pala (where our former Principal Dr P J George and DTE is the Project Director) and Christ College here in Bangalore. Mind boggling !! The number of institutions they have and the infrastructure was simply great. Huge buildings and the way they are being run !!

I wonder wherefrom they receive the money to run these Institutions. Is it only in India the religious institutions or minority institutions are so powerful monetarily and politically that they usually have their way through without much of problems..

Have some of the religious minority institutions lost the zeal for service and become truly commercial institutions ?? Viewing everything with a commercial eye ??

Is somebody misusing the long placed trust the public has in religious institutions as being pious and service oriented?

Just thinking loud .. especially when the pubic is sensitised about what is happening in the name of spirituality and so on ..

george..