We are planning to go to HK, Shenzen and Shanghai for vacation in early July – about 2-3 days in each of the cities. I am looking for recommendations for:
Thanks!
If you want a movie that combines the Mahabharat and Indian politics, Rajneeti is just the movie! The scripting is done very well, and the performances are excellent. In a year that has seen few good movies, Rajneeti stands out.
The first half is very gripping, though it does take a bit of time to figure out all the characters and the relationships between them. The second half is a bit more melodramatic at times as it gets to the climax. But overall, the film is one which should be seen.
I was talking to a friend the other day – he took a flight wherein the flying time was 45 minutes and then the aircraft spent 75 minutes hovering over Mumbai before it could land. This is plain stupidity. I can understand congestion happens -with airports like Mumbai, it is a daily affair. (They cannot expand the airport because the land is encroached upon by ‘voters’ who cannot be moved.)
In the US, they let you take the delay on the ground rather than in the air. Air turbine fuel costs a lot of money and there is no reason we should be burning it like this.
While on stupid decisions, here is another one: The toll booths on the Bandra-Worli Sea Link have been so designed that they need two people to collect the money and give the toll receipt. Why can’t we learn from other countries who have done these designs right? I can understand we have a billion people, but surely there are more gainful ways to employ them than, quite literally, passing the buck.
Thanks to Abhishek, I have been seeing many parts of Mumbai that I never explored during my four decades of living here. Like, the other day, we took 135 and went to Ferry Wharf. And the time we took 63 and went to Chunnabhatti. Many of these places were just signages on buses — now there is something more that I can associate with them.
Our travels are mostly on weekend mornings. Abhishek wakes up early and has a reasonable idea of where he wants to go — having done some of the homework on this excellent IIT site (which presently seems to be down for maintenance). The BEST’s own site will, hopefully, have a better, updated and more interactive route network soon.
Bus rides are fun. They are the cheapest form of sight-seeing. Besides, the bus routes are a good initial collection for a kid to learn and memorise! In addition, for me, they bring up memories from my teenage years – going by 81 to school and college, and returning by 122, for one.
Abhishek’s vacations have just started. Hopefully, we will doing more of the bus travelling. After all, his current goal in life is to become a bus manager, so “he can change the routes.”
A post from a year ago about the role of the Internet and mobile in the Elections:
This week’s links:
What I have outlined may seem quite simplistic. But it is a start, and there is much more to it. What I wanted to do is get us start thinking about change. And that change is not about a generational shift from one member of a dynasty to another. It is about doing away with dynasties altogether since India’s troubles can be traced back to policies set by members of the dynasty. And those who have got us into the mess are not the ones who can get us out of it.
What we need to start doing is to stand up and be counted. Stand up and say, Yes, I am willing to do by bit to help change India’s political and policy climate by 2014. And then, look around. You will be amazed by how many people you will see standing. Today, we sit and think – and so do many others. And so, we don’t see anyone else.
Middle India is waiting for real leadership. We can either continue on the dismal path that India’s past leaders have set India upon, or we can create a different path that leads India to its true destiny. It will not be an easy path – it is a road that will have many twists and turn, and obstacles at every turn. We have do take this new path if for nothing else but to be able to look our children in the eye and say, “Yes, my dear, we did what we had to do and we did it well.”
Second, Middle India needs to create a base in every constituency that does three things. First, each member agrees to vote. Second, each member agrees to vote for the candidate selected by the group in that constituency – a candidate who stands for the ‘pretty good principles’ as outlined previously. Finally, each member agrees to be counted.
Now look at the scenario. There will be in every constituency a Middle India group consisting of 1-2 lakh voters, all agreeing to vote for the candidate from one of the two national parties who is committed to upholding the “pretty good principles.” Given that each of the parties has an existing support base and most of this Middle India haven’t been bothering to vote in the past, this 1-2 lakh voting population is the swing vote that can transform the election in an irreversible way.
No longer will people be able to say that their vote does not count.
Continued tomorrow.
First, Middle India needs to agree on a set of principles that it believes in and which lie at the foundation of good governance. Think of these as “Pretty Good Principles.” (Thanks to my colleague, Atanu Dey, for this phrase.)
So, what can these “Pretty Good Principles” be? Here is a starting recommendation.
Continued tomorrow.
India has 543 Lok Sabha (Member of Parliament, or MP) constituencies. Out of them, about 150 can be considered as urban (with about 50% or more urbanisation). Each constituency has about 1 million voters. In the general elections, the average victory margin is about 70,000. Only about 50-60% of eligible voters cast their votes. A significant proportion of middle class Indians don’t bother to vote. They have essentially disenfranchised themselves.
To bring about change, one has to work within the boundaries of the political system. We have two national parties. It is well near impossible to create a new national party in the country in anything less than 25-30 years. And our deadline for change is four years from now – 2014, in the next Lok Sabha elections. Because we do not have more time to lose.
Imagine, if we can get 100+ ‘good’ people elected into Parliament in the next elections. These candidates would have to be from one of the two national political parties. Assuming that party can win another 100 seats in rural India, it would have 200+ seats in the Lok Sabha – and we in Middle India would have influence on half of them.
For this to happen, Middle India needs to vote. It not only has to vote but it has to vote for good candidates. And most important of all, it has to vote as a block and become a “vote bank.”
Continued tomorrow.
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