Terrible politics

If Modi does not win in Gujarat, he come sneaking into Delhi, which is terrible. The only good thing is he will be silent for some time. I sincerely hope that Modi wins in Gujarat. Dearest Gujaratis, please go out and vote Mr. Modi to power. If this gent does not get 64% seats like last time, it's doomsday for him. If he wins, he stays put in Gujarat, which is such a relief. I have my fullest sympathies for the people of Gujarat, but you guys have suffered him for 10 years, another 5 should be a walk in the park for you. [Remember, he is a development-oriented chief minister] Of course you should get him elected. A pox on you if you dont. Between 51 - 63% seats should be able to settle him comfortably in Ahmedabad for another 5 years. That should be enough to make him go out of circulation, even in BJP. The RSS, curse on them, is working against Modi, which is just pure bad timing. The fact that he has not had a "Maut-ka-saudagar" moment is too galling. Because on issues, he would have got booted out. But on rhetoric, his is just sooo good.But which is just fine. Gujaratis don't need so much interference as much as non-interference from the government for them to thrive. So Modi can continue to throw barbs at the "Gandhi" family and generally act the fool.

Since there is no danger of Modi winning by the highest number of seats this time, the only other option available is that he loses, which would be such a pain, frankly.

Modi vs Tharoor on Sunanda Pushkar

You try your fancy punches on someone who was Under Secretary at the UN and this is what you get. Mr. N. Modi should at least have known to keep quiet on the subject of wives and girlfriends knowing how vulnerable he is to questions on his own "wife". He thought he had asked a smart one, but obviously, it boomeranged! :-D

Christmas - A Cradle of Love

Please download:

Note: There are lots of lots of rests. Please listen till the end and note the timeline to get a grip on when to enter and when to exit.

A Cradle of love - Soprano
A Cradle of love - Alto
A Cradle of love - Tenor
A Cradle of love - Bass
A Cradle of love - 4 Parts
A Cradle of love - Full Music.

A slow, melodic number but with pleasant harmony interspersed with speed and change in scale. Do learn fast.

Shifting s(t)ands

Tarun Vijay in this article asks the people to come out on the streets to protest against FDI.

In an article that does no justice to the shifting stands of both major political parties, Mr. Vijay casts aspersion on the language of the PM rather than on the merits of the speech. 

Nothing surprising in Mr. Vijay's assessment. After all he represents the traders, who have traditionally been BJP voters. And we would have believed you to a far larger degree Mr. Vijay, if the Cabinet note prepared by the BJP government while in power had not allowed for 100% FDI in retail. This can be accessed by the simple route of RTI. You can talk of roar and morality and about votes and even about corruption. But the fact is neither you, implying BJP nor the congress are any different in your assessment either about the country or about the countrymen. Barring very few, all of you are cloistered monks living in fancy land, living to a dangerous degree on the fat of the land that has been built up by the toil of the industrious.

You will raise your voice when it suits YOUR interest, not the interest of the common man or as is so fashionable these days to call, "the aam aadmi". And that goes for the congress too.

The people are engaged with the government of the day in more vibrant and interactive ways than ever more. The media must reinvent its calling and calibre. These will ensure that the government cannot ignore the voice of the people. It might still be that the government goes ahead and takes unpopular decisions. But the process of dialogue will ensure that there is transparency about the decision. Governments can and should rise and fall. This ensures that complacency does not set in. And between the devil and deep sea, the people have fabulous wisdom to elect the better of the two. The previous elections over the ages have shown it.

Deathly power!!

Background: Vilasrao Deshmukh died on 14/8/2012.

Christmas 2012 - taarakae nee

Taarakae nee enthae nishchalayai

Noteworthy file (3 stanzas in transliterated Malayalam)
pdf file (Print purpose; 3 stanzas in transliterated Malayalam)

Midi file (All parts - One stanza)
Midi file (Soprano - One stanza)
Midi file (Alto - One Stanza)
Midi file (Tenor - One Stanza)
Midi file (Bass - One Stanza)

Christmas 2012

Minnum Minnum taraka minnum

Noteworthy file (3 stanzas in transliterated Malayalam)
pdf file (Print purpose; 3 stanzas in transliterated Malayalam)

Midi file (All parts - One stanza)
Midi file (Soprano - One stanza)
Midi file (Alto - One Stanza)
Midi file (Tenor - One Stanza)
Midi file (Bass - One Stanza)

God as man is ridiculous. Or probably we are!

There was once a man who didn't believe in God, and he didn't hesitate to let others know how he felt about religion and religious holidays. His wife, however, did believe, and she raised their children to also have faith in God and Jesus, despite his disparaging comments. One snowy Eve, his wife was taking their children to service in the farm community in which they lived. They were to talk about Jesus' birth. She asked him to come, but he refused. "That story is nonsense!" he said. "Why would God lower Himself to come to Earth as a man? That's ridiculous!"

So she and the children left, and he stayed home. A while later, the winds grew stronger and the snow turned into a  blizzard. As the man looked out the window, all he saw was a blinding snowstorm. He sat down to relax before the fire for the evening. Then he heard a loud thump. Something had hit the window. He looked out, but couldn't see more than a few feet. When the snow let up a little, he ventured outside to see what could have been beating on his window.

In the field near his house he saw a flock of wild geese. Apparently they had been flying south for the winter when they got caught in the snowstorm and couldn't go on. They were lost and stranded on his farm, with no food or shelter. They just flapped their! wings and flew around the field in low circles, blindly and aimlessly. A couple of them had flown into his window, it seemed.

The man felt sorry for the geese and wanted to help them. The barn would be a great place for them to stay, he thought. It's warm and safe; surely they could spend the night and wait out the storm. So he walked  over to the barn and opened the doors wide, then watched and waited, hoping they would notice the open barn and go inside.

But the geese just fluttered around aimlessly and didn't seem to notice the barn or realize what it could mean for them. The man tried to get their attention, but that just seemed to scare them, and they moved further away. He went into the house and came with some bread, broke it up, and made a bread crumb trail leading to the barn. They still didn't catch on.

Now he was getting frustrated. He got behind them and tried to shoo them toward the barn, but they only got more scared and scattered in every direction except toward the barn. Nothing he did could get them to go into the barn where they would be warm and safe. "Why don't they follow me?!" he xclaimed. "Can't they see this is the only place where they can survive the storm?"

He thought for a moment and realized that they just wouldn't follow a human. "If only I were a goose, then I could save them," he said out loud. Then he had an idea. He went into barn, got one of his own geese, and carried it in his arms as he circled around behind the flock of wild geese. He then released it. His goose flew through the flock and straight into the barn -- and one-by-one, the other geese followed it to safety.

He stood silently for a moment as the words he had spoken a few minutes earlier replayed in his mind: "If only I were a goose, then I could save them!" Then he thought about what he had said to his wife earlier. "Why would God want to be like us? That's ridiculous!" Suddenly it all made sense. That is what God had done. We were like the geese--blind, lost, perishing. God had His Son become like us so He could show us the way and save us.

As the winds and blinding snow died down, his soul became quiet and pondered this wonderful thought. Suddenly he understood why Christ had come. Years of doubt and disbelief vanished with the passing storm. He fell to his knees in the snow, and prayed his first prayer: "Thank You, God, for coming in human form to get me out of the storm!"

Values and Valuations

There was once a woman who was approached by a man for favours of a physical kind. The shocked woman lambasted his audacity and moved on. The persistent male kept up the persistence and openly offered a million dollars if she would consent for a night. A million dollars was of course, a large sum of money. The woman, probably swayed by the amount of money on offer considered long about it and later acquiesced to his overtures for a night. Upon which, the male brought down his price to a few hundred dollars. The woman, plainly offended, said, तुमने मुझे समझ क्या रखा है? मैं ऐसी औरत नहीं हूँ| The guy replies, तुम क्या हो, इसका तो फ़ैसला हो चुका है. अब हम सिर्फ़ तोल मोल कर रहें हैं|