Take a WALK

Take a walk... literally I took a walk today.

After leaving the car at the mechanic, I thought to kill the time (since it would take nearly 3 hours for the car to be ready) by going for a movie, then something struck me, I really dont know what, but I decided to walk from Minister road (this is hyderabad) till The central (Punjagutta), it was long long time since I had walked so much, (I used to do regularly when during my engineering days when there was just one bus during morning and if you miss, one had to walk for nearly 5 kms). All through the duration of walking I felt I was part of the city unlike when u are inside a car. I stopped almost at each and every nook and corner and found so many small shops that sell things which you need and wouldnt find otherwise. At punjagutta there are so many jewellery shop, I have seen earlier but this time counted, there are nearly 20 shops. During the walk I notice so many billboards, more than 60% were for Ads, the remaining was from political parties with Congress ruling the roost and found less sign boards to help the motorists.

I cant say that the walk was very comfortable or totally enjoyable, but it was something different and I liked it, it made me go back many years, feel much younger and felt that I could connect easily with the people (sounding philosophical... maybe).

I think it is a good idea for anyone to just leave the machines that carry us and take a walk, and feel the difference... it did to me and I believe it will for you also.

The walk was around 6 - 7 Km.

De-Traumatising the education system

We have done it again, tweaking the education system for the good.. I am not sure why there was not this much of tweaking or debate during my school days, I clearly remember that actually there was more complain that the syllabus was less tough and we are studying less.. so on and so forth....
I wish we had a Kapil Sibal during our time, who knows I could have had got into IIM without much tension and concentrating what is required at higher level rather than struggling at the 10th level.

I know there will be lot of debate whether this is actually good for our future or not, and I will be keenly reading all those, but personally for me this is a really good move to centralize the education system and ensure that a kid doesn't unnecessarily bother that there are students from other state who are having undue advantage because of the syllabus.

There are few issues like, in Karnataka most (95%) schools don't have 11th or 12th and this kind of rule is of no consequence for them, since they anyway have to take the 10th exam since the college wont accept them without exams... so in general it is benefiting only around 5% of the students.... I wish Mr Sibal fixes this also.

Thanks Mr Kapil Sibal, I hope your intentions is noble and you implement Yash Pal report in its entirety.

Some changes do matter.

Elections Over:Clear mandate by people

Finally curtains have been drawn to the biggest election of all time. We can all proudly say that this has been a fairly conducted election and kudos to the Election commission for making this happen without any glitches.

My only worry before the results were due was that what if Congress and BJP both end up having almost same numbers say 150 - 155 and then it would have been difficult for anyone to have had a successful govt for the next 5 year since each would feel they have a chance, but good thing has been that the difference in seats between 1st and the 2nd largest party is 90 seats and the pre-poll alliance of UPA has been given clear mandate by the people to form the govt, this is really a very good development, if the same had happened with NDA also I would have been happy; finally all we need to see is a stable govt to run for 5 years without anyone pulling them to the left or right of them.

This election has put forward so many tough questions to the political parties, all most all candidates with criminal background have bitten the dust (even though they were staging proxy candidates), those who wanted to do good things in the fag end of the 5 year term have been sent home to cool their heels, those who involved in mud slinging at others have also been shown the door; all the parties should have a proper agenda and fight for them rather than trying to pull some other party/person only then shall we see India on the rapid growth path.

I always believe if there needs steady and proper growth, then a strong opposition party is very much needed, I wish that people continue to give a similar mandate they have given this elections ensuring that no single party will get absolute majority and thus needing support from regional and other small parties, so there is a check within the govt and not only the opposition party; Till BJP became a super power, there was no one to question Congress, hence there wasnt much progress for nearly 40 years of our independence, only after BJP making inroads and established itself as a major party that can and eventually displace Congress, which made it to wake up from its slumber and we saw economy revolution, infrastructure growth and moving away from the slogan roti, kapda aur makan to Bijli, Paani aur Sadak, I wonder where India would have been if we hadn't had a major party like BJP which can challenge Congress and take away the vote anytime; for the better of India I wish we continue to vote so that we not only have one party as the clear leader, we also have a second party which can become the leader anytime.

Nandan Nilekani delivered this talk on TED - Ideas for India's Future, a worth watching one which clearly defines the growth path for India and also mentions why India cannot be and should not be ignored.