You may not find this news on newspaper before a few more years

Rome was not built in a day. Perhaps it is because its rulers were intelligent enough to understand that it could not be built in a day. For all those who aspire to see Delhi become as a picture perfect European City by the Commonwealth Games in 2010, can think hard again.

The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation(DMRC), arguably the frontrunner project in making the capital an European replica, has reported loss for the second year in a row. In the financial year of 2004-05, the ambitious project of the State has able to manage a revenue of Rs. 72.26 crore against the expenditure of Rs. 148.59 crore, which makes the total loss amount to Rs. 76.33 crore. It may be recalled here that the loss for the last fiscal year was Rs. 32.45 crore. Hence the loss this year stands to whooping 135.24 percent greater.

The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation which is estimated to be Rs. 400 billion worth project will be spread over 350 Km. Out of the entire length about 205 Km will be through elevated corridors. This is despite the fact that today all over the world elevated tracks for Metro Railway is considered as an obsolete technology.
It must be born in mind that the current situation is despite the fact that DMRC is earning revenues not only from operations, but also consultancy and rental of properties.

However if you are thinking that the back to back financial failures have discouraged the government then you are wrong. For very recently, the government sanctioned more money from a Japanese bank to go ahead with the next phase that runs from IIT to Mehrauli through Green Park, Hauz Khas, Sarvapriya Vihar, Malviya Nagar, Saket, Ambedkar Nagar and Andheria More. Plans are also sanctioned for laying bridges over Yamuna to take the metro upto Ashok Vihar and Anand Vihar.

If all these sounds nice, then I am afraid that they only sounds so. The practicality of such a huge project based on public money can be questioned for the Metro will support only a mere 130,000 passengers daily out of a total Delhi population of 19 million. Hence it is pretty obvious that DMRC has no hope to make profit even in the near future.

But as if this is not enough, Municipal Corporation of Delhi has blamed that DMRC is using about one lakh square feet of land in commercial purpose. These plots which were lended to the Metro Rail for their project, has been illegally lended to promoters for developing shopping malls and other commercial structures. While this has resulted in a loss for MCD, the metro management is said to have drawn income from it. It must be recalled here that MCD has earlier failed in getting property taxes frm DMRC.
As if this is not enough, CAG has accused the DMRC of tampering with the balance sheets, which rested into the understatement of current liabilities.

But with a tremendous cost of Rs.270 crores per km for underground and Rs.110 crores per Km. for elevated corridors, DMRC will continue making a mockery out of public money. And also don’t be surprised if the massive failure does not hit the headlines in all national dailies, at least till 2010.
Rome was not built in a day because its rulers never tried to do so. But then there were no Common wealth games in Rome also.

The Gospel Code vs. The Vinci Code

“Was Jesus Christ married?” I asked Nikunj as I stretched myself on the office seat in a pre lunch session. “How do I know? I was not invited” came his reply, as ususal in an annoying voice. Sometimes he really seems to get annoyed by my drive of inquisitive hormones, which result in a series of questions. “Not that. Actually I wanted to know, would it make any difference to you to know that Jesus Christ was married?” I guess this was enough. He gave me a queer look and then questioned back. “Why? Can’t he get married? Was the poor fellow did not have those special moments of testosterone drive?”
The rest part of the conversation perhaps would not qualify to be posted on a public space but Nikunj, like any general twenty first century human being, still is not clear about what a grave mistake had it been and how had it been so derogatory to the Catholics if Jesus Christ is found to be married.

The conversation between Nikunj and yours truly may not be something very isolated. Though Nikunj was not aware of it yet the controversy around ‘The DaVinci Code’ has evoked many in this secular country to start talking about the great saint’s so called secret marriage. The bestseller novel by Dan Brown that has been in the market since long back suddenly finds itself in the center of controversy. The novel brings out the fact that defying popular myths that all great men are unmarried, Jesus married. Cardinal Francis Arinze, who also is said to be in the race of ‘the next pope to be’ asked Christians to take legal action against the movie. Vatican City which once made Galileo drink poison for explaining the truths solar system and subsequently took a few decades to accept it as a mistake, this time played safe and called for a boycott of the film rather than banning the film.

But in this great democratic secular India things do run in their own way. Even though a latest survey by The Times of India show that candle light vigil to be the most favorite protest option for the common people in India, it seems their sample size included fewer people from Christian community. Christian Group in India has asked for a ban on the film and threatens to go for a hunger strike otherwise. The unhealthy way of protest, which listed last in the survey, seems to be a favorite among this group. As if this was not enough, a former Mumbai Corporator goes a step ahead to declare prize money to anyone who brings Dan Brown to him ‘dead or alive’! This reminds me of a UP politician who declared prize money on the Danish Cartoonist who depicted the derogatory pictures of Prophet Mohammed, thereby resulting into the great hue and cry among the Muslims all over the world. It brings us once again to the age-old debate of whether or not there should be a regulation on creative expression. India have witnessed unfavorable incidents happen over this issue in the past when at the release of Jo Bole So Nihaal some Sikh groups tried to express their grievances through bomb blast in New Delhi’s two cinema halls. Similar protests were also demonstrated by the Hindu fanatics when Deepa Mehta started shooting for Water or when Maqbool Fida Hussain used his imaginations to paint Goddess Saraswati.

For many like me who are hardcore Tom Hanks fan, will perhaps keep away from the theatre hall next week fearing some disturbances. Though the protest does not find much space in the front pages of the newspapers, courtesy Arjun Singh and his reservations gimmick can erupt as a volcano once the film is released. The official website of Dan Brown boast of positive reviews from at least twenty big names and anybody who has read The DaVinci Code knows some of his arguments does hold water even though he has termed his work as a fiction. While the film based on the novel is scheduled to be released next week (19th May, 2006) Dan Brown grabbed the media attention as early as in 2003 when he released his book based on the theory of Jesus and Mary Magdalene’s marriage. Apart from the theory of Jesus’ marriage the book contains many more (equally dubious) claims about Christianity's historic origins and theological development. The fact that the entire western civilization till date remained silent and suddenly rose up in protests against the film raise serious intentions about the movement in totality.

Whether or Not Dan Brown written this fiction and even if he did whether or not Tom Hanks should have transformed it into a work on celluloid is debatable and should be debated but in a peaceful manner. Let the audience decide whether the theories belong to Brown’s imagination or the ‘facts’ support it.

The organizations in India who are going overboard with demands of banning the film are forgetting that Christianity for long has been seen as a religion of Love, Tolerance and Forgiveness. ‘Blow against religion’ or ‘creative freedom’ whatever may they say, to today’s generation a film means ‘popcorn-pepsi and good time with friends’. Nobody really bothers about Jesus being married or not, for nothing on the earth is going to change because of it.

As Nikunj says, after I explain the entire thing to him, “Who cares?” something that we all should perhaps say to the religious fanatics who are just trying to spoil one of our good Sunday evening.

Will India have more sports person if Mathematics becomes an optional subject?


A Recent proposal from the Youth and Sports Ministry to the Ministry of Human Resource Development brought allegations over the former of making an attempt to tamper with the country’s primary education. The Sports Ministry is of the opinion that after Class VIII, Mathematics should be made an optional subject in all schools and colleges. It may be mentioned here that in the current scenario Mathematics becomes an optional subject after Class X. The Sports Ministry is of the opinion that this will lessen the burden off the tender shoulders of the children who can then concentrate on Sports, thereby India producing more world class Sports person.
Now let me not bore you by arguing whether Sania Mirza or Narain Kartikeyan would have been just another No.1 from India in their respective fields, had Math not been there at all, but view it from a more logical angle.
Math is undoubtedly a very tough subject. Those who master it with ease and have fared well in their exams may not agree with me. I know persons who have undergone this grueling process may not also support at the thought of seeing their next generation relieved of this Mathematics fever. But I am confident to find a greater number of supporters who believe in the fact that they would have beaten the so-called intelligent lot in final results had Math not been a subject in their Secondary Exam. The Maths Syllabus in Class X in India includes Arithmetic, Algebra, Trigonometry, Basic Statistics, and Geometry etc. Now all those who belong the school of thought that every student needs to learn each and every part of this monstrous syllabus, as a basic education should be think again. A student who merely manage to get a pass mark in Mathematics in the Class X Board Exam and thereby opt for an Arts Stream have obvious reasons to celebrate- not because of getting pass marks but perhaps because he/she wont face this demon ever. In his life probably he goes ahead to become a journalist if he is a boy or a housewife if he is girl(just ignore the gender bias here,because we are discussing more important thing), and never ever use any Pythagoras Formula yet be successful in their respective careers. Now for all those science graduates who need to search your memory for Pythagoras Formula is unknowingly is supporting my theory i.e. there are certain things in the class X Maths syllabus that we seldom use.
“All arguments and No Fact”- that is what you are thinking right? So here I go with some figures- Drop Out rate of Class X is 62 percent. Drop Out rate of Class VIII is 54 percent. According to CBSE almost 48 percent of students who fail in Class X is because of Maths. So does that give a picture? We are scaring too many kids out of education just because of Mathematics. These poor kids could have studied other subjects and helped India, in their own ways, to shine.
“So what is the guarantee that these students will not drop out if Maths being made an optional paper?” – is this your next question? Well, here I would like to take up the example of National Open School. Since the time Mathematics has been made an optional paper here drop out rates have come down substantially.
“What is the guarantee that these people will join Sports if the burden is lessen?”
Now here is a place I don’t have an example to support my argument with, but simple logic. There is no surety that people will go ahead and become interested in Sports once Mathematics is being made an optional paper. The equation is not so simple. A recent study has shown that in the present era little children prefer computer games to outdoor games. Children wake up all night and feel groggy in the morning (TOI, 27th April, 2006). The fact that the various Sports Authorities in India is full of corruption and bunch of inefficient jokers do not help too. A recent 4-athlete team from India in the winter Olympics saw 20 officials escorting them. The scenario was no different in Commonwealth Games also with more officials than sportsperson visiting the event.
But my argument is that even if these students do not join sports let them have their share of relief. For those who still think in an orthodox manner and believe that we should not tinker with the country’s primary education and let India shine, I would say, India will continue shining even if the journalists, call center agents, receptionists, painters, actors do not know what Pythagoras Theorem is(ok, ok …for all those who are still scratching your head over this, Pythagoras Theorem is a basic formula that says in a right angled triangle the sum of the square of base and perpendicular is equal to the square of the hypotenuse.)
“All Bogus. Everything should remain as they are.”- Is that what you are thinking now? Well don’t worry, my friend. At the end of the day you win. Because the HRD Minister is at present quiet busy in tampering with IIMs and IITs, looking for a reform in the primary education is perhaps the last thing in his mind. So you can forget everything you read till now and skip to the next article.

Dalmiya and Ganguly-The panache of Leadership


Jagmohan Dalmiya and Sourav Ganguly arguably two strong pillars of Indian Cricket at one point of time today are in the exile at the silent corners of their room. Though being separated by 30 years, the two veterans have much in common apart from being their hometown. This article is an attempt to study how the two controversies’ favourite children handled their life with panache.

Jagmohan Dalmiya was born in Kolkata, India on May 30, 1940. Born in an well do Marwari family Jagmohan went ahead to complete his education from Scottish Church College,Calcutta. More than 30 years later Sourav, the youngest son of bengali brahmin family, graduated from the St.Xaviers’ College in the same city.
Both of them started their career in club cricket. While Jagmohan entered the field as a wicket keeper, Saurav was a left handed batman. In the long run Jagmohan Dalmiya, basically a businessman, could not survive in the field with his club level talent. But his short stint in the arena of Indian cricket let him smell the big mullahs. Saurav Ganguly was a 15 year old kid when Jagmohan Dalmiya the assistant of N.K.Salve, the the-then BCCI president, played an important role along with his team to bring the World Cup Tournament to India-the first time outside England. Few years down the line Ganguly’s double century against the English in Lords made him establish as a dominating cricketer in the team.
These two went ahead to become the center of controversy for more than one way they held up their pride, especially against the British. During his tenure as the ICC President, Dalmiya was the bad boy of the English Press who even denied to let the Queen do the honour of presentation ceremony during the World Cup saying that it is a norm to given away by ICC Presidents. Not only that, his instant solution “we will start the presentation ceremony two minutes late during which Her Highness can retire” was not taken well by the British Media for obvious reasons.
Sourav Ganguly rather chose a quiet non verbal reciprocation to the British Team when he flew his jersey in the Lord’s dressing room and termed it as reply to similar gesture by Flintoff in Eden Garden.
In 1992, Dalmiya single handedly brought back the World Cup tournament to the peninsular soil. The first comment to the British Press after a very successful bidding was “I don’t understand how you guys ruled us”.
When Sourav took charge of the Indian Team as a captain it was laying in the deep dark dungeons of betting scandal. Quiet similarly when Dalmiya took charge as the President in 1993, BCCI was reeling under a deficit of Rs 80 lakh a year. By the time both of them were forced to leave the arena Indian Cricket had an army of Blue Brigade better known as Team India whose television right alone fetched around $300 million for a five year deal. If Dravid today is banking on Yuvraj to be a match winner he cannot deny that it was the after effect of Ganguly’s captaincy. Similarly if Pawar today is announcing that an international cricketer will be earning 8 crore a year, he cannot deny its just the spilling effect of what Dalmiya has started.
A former wicket keeper and a batsman with club level talent, a Marwari capitalist who lived among the Marxist, a vegetarian who also owns a tannery-if Dalmiya is the man who struck gold in Indian Cricket then a natural right hander who converted to the southpaw stance just to use his brothers cricket instruments Sourav was the man who taught his team to strike back with a vengeance.
Both of the veterans faced an abrupt decline in 2006 and perhaps it is more than a coincidence that they both lost their seats to people from Maharastra. Though in the worst of conditions both of them, one for fitness and the other for legal matters, yet their ability to rise from the ashes and strike back is feared even today. Perhaps that is why the even the strongest of the foes when contacted has only one thing to say “No Comments”- a dialogue that was seldom used by these two people.

Who is going to take the chair next?

The Music has started…The countdown has begun…The gossips are making their round in all relevant circles…… and perhaps some bookies are getting interested in it too.
No I am not talking about the coming World Cup Football. Nay, not even about how many days left before Indian Cricket Team fails oversees and Ganguly comes back in the team. I am even not talking about my next door ‘I am ever sixteen’ looking beauty getting married.
I am talking about something more serious (or may be not). I am talking about India’s Presidential Selection. If any of you readers are surprised, then I would say that you have stopped counting days long back. Not even a year is left before our ‘favorite to all’ Mr. Abdul Kalam Azad is likely to vacate the office.
So who is it going to be? Some of the names floating in the air are of Karan Singh, Arjun Singh, Shivraj Patil, Sushil Kumar Shinde. A very recent article in The Telegraph(dated April 15, 2006) saw another name to be thrown in for debate – Dr. Amartya Sen. Some followers also come up with questions like Why cant Kalam be given another term?
Now Kalam, a nice man that he is, knows for himself that in today’s scenario it will not likely that he gets another term, a honour that till now has only been extended to the first holder of the office, Mr. Rajendra Prasad. So lets give the old man some rest and seclusion to work on his poetic skills.
That brings us to the rest five contenders. Mr Arjun Singh and Shivraj Patil have the greatest length of service in the political industry (did I hear someone exclaim?). Arjun Singh is also trying to make a mark in the history by pressing for some quota reservations in IITs and IIMs. Had Presidential Selection being an open election he surely would have pitched his proposition by promising to reserve seats for even the Jarowas (of Andaman Islands) in the two institutes. But the question remains does that make him score over Karan Singh who is a polished person in his language skills and dressing sense? Or does Karan Singh scores over Sushil Kumar Shinde who is a dalit candidate and that too from the politically influential state of Maharastra? As if the confusion is not enough, Mr.Ramchandra Guha, the renowned writer, have sparked up another debate saying ‘Hey dude why not our very own Amartya Sen?’(not exactly in that lingo though). Ghosh has made an attempt to establish his views by supporting them with a series of reasoning. His article in The Telegraph could have raised the proposition in a better manner but for the portion where he said Amartya Sen’s selection as a President will be better for all Bengalis and after Ganguly been controversially removed from Cricket Captaincy this could be the only healing. Now anyone who have read Amartya Sen’s ‘Argumentative Indian’ knows what a genius this person is and supporting his candidature by Bengali sentiment is not only stupid but also derogative to the Nobel winner’s image.
Now what I feel that since The Telegraph is a Kolkata based newspaper Guha thought that such an argument would have find favour with the audience. But Bongs are intelligent people and I don’t feel that they need any special representative to add onto their list of achievements.
But I do agree with Guha’s third reasoning where he said that Sen can act as a bridge between the left and Congress in Centre. Now, it is true that even with its miniscule percentage of seats in the Parliament, by the virtue of Indian Democracy, Left is today a force that you cannot ignore. You can call them deterrent to Indian Growth, Stubborn Old Men’s party and all sorts of other things but you just cannot deny the control they posses over each and every decision taken by the Manmohan Sarkar. In such a scenario perhaps Sen could be a savior. But I am not sure if Sen will get its support from all wings of the Parliament specially the opposition.
Whether Sen’s name is proposed or not is still yet to be seen.
Now I heard someone seeking my views. What do I think, eh? Well, as any other common man in India, I do not have a clear idea of what the Indian President do in all its term, apart from receiving thousands of letters during some grave social injustice, but any day I am subjected to any injustice I will feel safe to write to a Nobel Laureate rather than some veteran politician who will first look into my surname and try to judge whether I belong to any Quota and whether saving me will solve any political purpose.
Does that answer your question, buddy?

Today is my birthday. Today is 18th January 2055. Today is my 75th Birthday.

I woke up in the morning and went out for a wheelchair drive. I cant walk long these days, not after I was admitted in the hospital for a leg fracture last summer and the doctor operated my stomach by mistake. He left the his pair of scissors inside me....by mistake. Poor fellow- I guess he got very nervous to see inside my 75 year old crippled intestine. He confessed to me later that he got into his medical exam through a ALBNSM-BC(a little but not so much backward class) quota. But I dont regret. Rather everyday I thank God for how lucky I am. Many around me have much more problems than I have.....so no regret.

I walk past the buildings and trees. At these age everything seems so very familiar to me. Yet at times I fail to recognize them. I came across a very big building..ahh! I remember. In my childhood days, some 50 years back, it happened to be my school. I remember how proud we were to be the student of that school. I dont know what happened to it now. The last time I heard they have converted it into 28 seperate sections in each class for various quotas. Yet the school remains closed mostly because of public demonstrations against the idea of reserving some more sections for another 59 categories. I smiled....some things never change. I remember how some foolish election commission once raised the debate of goverment reserving seats for only one OBC category when I just started working.

Last month my Grand Son passed out from IIM. He bagged the highest salary package. Rs. 530 per year+ 70 days leave. It was a foreign multinational. These days foreign companies dont usually turn up in IIM campus..they call it Indian Institutes of Morons...but cant blame them..they dont find much students also. There were only 3 students for placements this year. Apart from my grandson the rest two were from Andaman Islands. They got admission through the reservation for Jarowa tribe. The company did not consider them for placement because they were not wearing clothes during the interview round with the Vice-President. In today's newspaper I found that the Union Minister for Jarowa Development strongly objected to this saying that candidates should not be judged on attire but merit. I cant agree more.

I passed across a small house. There were posters of some new Bollywood Movie on the wall. I cant recognize the Hero. He seemed of dark complexion,very short heighted(even less than my 5 ft 4 inch frame), bald, with hairs growing out of ears. I remember my granddaughter mention something about the reservation in Bollywood this year. This year it is the turn of VEST (very extreme scheduled tribe) category people to be heroes in the film industry.

I came to the river side. This happened to be a very romantic place in our childhood. I have beautiful memories of dating my first girlfriend here. But these days every seat here is reserved for some category. To get your turn to the seat of your quota you need to book a year in advance. Its good that I have my wheelchair..

I took a deep breath...today India has 109 categories namely VEST(very extreme scheduled tribe), NSEBM-ST(not so extreme but moderate scheduled tribe), MBBFT(moderately backward but forward tribe) etc etc. with seats reserved for each of them..in hospitals,educational institutes, offices,riversides and even stock markets.
I took a deep breath again....maybe someday they will reserve a portion of this air also for some unknown category..

I turned back...I have to reach home in time...today my son is playing his first match in international cricket. Since I was a NSF(not so forward) category and my wife a NSB(not so backward) category, he was NSF-NSB category. He was the only one of that kind. So I hope you all understand how tough it was to get a reservation for him in the 11 member squad...I have to reach home fast........