Three Days of Terror

Last three days everyone was glued to their television sets watching the live coverage of the terror attacks at various locations in south Mumbai, covered by all the news channels across the globe. The whole operation took more than 50 hours to be over and that was done by only 10 armed and well prepared terrorists, who managed to kill cops with more experience that their age. DO you think it was their preparedness that allowed them to hold for such long, considering there was no hostage situation or negotiations? I think it was more of our lack of preparedness rather than their preparation that helped them hold so long.

When it all started everyone thought it's a gang war and by the time we could realise that it's much bigger than what it seems, we were clueless what to do. Nobody seemed to be equipped with the necessary skill or training to handle such situations and that's when we are constantly under terrorist attacks for last so many years. Looks like we don't want to learn from our mistakes. Every time there is a terror attack, we talk about spirit of Mumbai and how it bounces back. Does Mumbai really has a choice than bouncing back. Since Mumbai bounces back, we forget to prepare ourselves for next such attacks. I mean how ridiculous it is that in case of terrorist attacks in the financial capitol of the country, we have to bring in NSG commandos from Delhi. By the time these commandos arrive terrorist would have already done the damage and taken secure positions. Lack of decision making ability of our politicians actually allowed terrorists enough time to make bunkers inside these fine buildings.

The worst thing Congress government has done to the democracy that it has given us a spineless Prime Minister and Cabinet. I wonder why these office bearers in the cabinet consult Sonia Gandhi every time they have to take a decision. I think they are taking decisions as an office bearer of Cabinet and not as a member of Congress working committee and as per my knowledge Sonia Gandhi doesn't hold any office in the cabinet. She is just an MP and there are more than 500 for that matter. In such situations decisions need to be taken at the blink of eye, others can be briefed about the decision later, if need be. As per my understanding a Union Home Minister is fully capable of taking such decision on his own and if anyone needs to be consulted are the NSA and their staff in such matters and not Sonia Gandhi. I doubt if he has consulted NSA before taking the decision instead he preferred consulting Sonia Gandhi as if she is an expert in handling such situation. Asif Ali Zardari, President of Pakistan, when heard about the unfortunate incident (as if he didn't know about it already), guess who he calls up. Your guess is as good as mine, Sonia Gandhi. I find it unfortunate how President of ruling party has become more important person that Prime Minister and that's the kind of democracy we keep on bragging about.

I have so much to write and don't think all my feelings can be covered in one post. So that's all for now. Will take this further in my next post.

Divide and rule

I was speaking to a guy few days back about recent Raj Thakarey fiasco and realised how easy it is to influence the common man of India. It was the day Raj got arrested and for obvious reasons I don't subscribe to the tactics (not calling is ideology) employed by Raj to gain political mileage. I asked the guy, why so many people are supporting Raj and going around burning buses and beating harmless people. The answer I got was "wo jinke liye lad raha hai, wo log uska sath denge hi." I mean people really believe Raj Thakarey is fighting for Marathi people's rights and that is why they are supporting him so violently. On the above answer I asked, "buses jo jalayi hai wo Maharashtra me hi jali hain," so how can you fight for Marathi people by destroying public property in Maharshtra. For a moment I could not believe the answer I got for this. The guy said, "wo to government ka loss hai." As if those buses were meant only for government or non-marathi's.

If there are people like these there will be many more Raj Thakarey's and he is not to be blamed for whatever has been happening in recent times. It's the people who are following him without giving it much thought. Indian public gets influenced too easily. I may not be able to pin point the exact reason for the same, but in my opinion, it's lack of education and employment. You would have heard of old saying "Khali dimag shaitan ka ghar." I don't think anyone who has a job to do and earn breads for his family would have even thought about what Raj is saying, till it was blown out of proportions by our news-deprived media.

I think it's the lack of education that we have a political party by the name of Maharashtra Navanirman Sena and there are people who would actually vote for it in next general election. My only question is, how can a political party be called Sena (army), and since when armies started participating in Navnirman, they have always been known for destruction and what kind of Navnirman these MNS people are doing by destroying the public property. On the expense of sounding funny, they are actually justifying their name, they are fighting (which armies do) and destroying property so that same can be replaced by new establishments thus making the path for Navnirman clear.

Bachelors not allowed

I am sure this would have happened to a lot of people looking for an apartment to stay in Mumbai. You walk into a housing complex looking for an apartment and someone tells you "bachelors not allowed". I wonder what's wrong in someone being a bachelor, I mean all those so called family persons were bachelor some day.

Renting a flat to a bachelor is much more convenient than renting it to a family. Why? Bachelors don't crib for small small things, they just come home during the night mostly just to sleep, hence the furniture and other stuff is less used, they don't have any problems in leaving the flat in case required, because families form an association with the flat because their kids are studying in a particular school, which has to be changed in case they change the flat. So many positives of renting a flat to a bachelor, still so many issues have been created out of nowhere.

There could be some things associated with bachelors, which probably these family men used to do when they were themselves bachelor and think that all bachelors are like this. The problem has to be with some things, which are associated with bachelors and not any person. If this is the case don't allow those things, why deprive of bachelors staying away from their home and family of a roof.

I have noticed, most of the times it's not the owners of the flat who have a problem, it's the society. If you ask these society people about the real issue, they always fail to provide a logical explanation for this ridiculous demand. Some site some hypothetical or real incident/experience they had with some of the bachelors staying in one of the flats in the society, well I also can share many such incidents involving married people. Just because one person behaves in a particular way does not mean everyone is same. In the end each individual is different and has different behaviour and attitude.

In the end only one thing, most of the bachelors looking for a flat in Mumbai want to live with their family but they can not afford a flat alone, with the rent so high, to keep their family with them. That is why they decide to share the flat and rent with their colleagues or friends and sometimes even with people whom they have never known before.

We (me and couple of my partners in crime of bachelorhood) wish to build a huge high class housing complex with all the facilities and rent it to bachelors in half the market rates. In case some family man wants to rent a flat in the complex they will have to pay the market rates and will have to go through an interview before they are be allowed to stay in the locality. We might be married by that time, but still we don't want bachelors to go through all the trouble just because they are not married. In fact looking at the population in the City/Country, we should be encouraging the bachelors instead of forcing them to start a family just for this very idiotic reason. Common guys, think about the future.