Gandhi - How long can you keep protesting against whatever is written in the Times of India ?

Itarsi

1 December 1933

Bhai Shri Vallabhbhai,

I am writing to you from a dharmashala in Itarsi at three in the morning. Meera Ben has gone to wash her face. After this we will have prayers. Immediately after that we will have to take the train to Kareli from where we will go to Anantapur. Yesterday we were in Betul and from there we took the train to Itarsi where we slept in the dharmashala.

I got your letter. How long can you keep protesting against whatever is written in the Times of India ?

- From Chai, Chai (page 117)

Chai, Chai is a book written by Bishwanath Ghosh. The author while visiting Itarsi discovered this letter written by Gandhi to Vallabhbhai Patel at a dharmashala.

The TOI must have been pretty "hot" even then to melt the iron man of India.

"We should now stop pin-pricking each other like Mylapore mamis ..."

As I had hoped after my Beijing visit, the India China PMs meet in Thailand has brought back some sense into relations of the two countries. We should now stop pin-pricking each other like Mylapore mamis, and look at the macro-significant events of Asia and the globe that affect both of us.

PRESS RELEASE OF DR.SUBRAMANIAN SWAMY IN 2009

A couple of other Swamyisms from the Janata Party's press release page:

The demonstration thus was halted half-way on the advice of retired Professor P.V.Indiresan, whose knowledge of electronics is dated and does not extend beyond soldering of two electric wires. The EC officials promised to reconvene the meeting after a fresh authorization from Mr.Navin Chawla to permit out dissembling the EVM placed before us.

...

Mr. Chidambaram, dressed like a head waiter in a five star hotel in his “suit-boot”, had to walk half a mile to the parking lot to take the car.

...

It is then the Kashmiri Pandits will get justice just as Draupadi got for her humiliation only after the Mahabharat war.

Nooo............

I always wonder at human frailty, when it comes to stock markets. There are occasions when everyone agrees that, at some point, the markets are very expensive. How many actually sell? Or how many actually go short on the market at this stage? Surely, no one does this consistently. At some level, you sell your shares. Do you again buy them when the market comes off? I always wonder. No list of names of the world’s rich ever includes any stock-trader. Warren Buffet has probably never sold much and what his fund owns are significant chunks of many companies. Bill Gates owes his wealth to one stock—of the company he founded. This leads me to think that stock-traders are not all that productive in what they do. They are part of the ‘make-believe’ world that the media creates for pulling in an audience.

- Adding Zeros

What ?? You can't get super rich by sitting in front of a computer or TV screen all day long ?

Is That What People Think About Newspapers ???!!

I was on the phone the other day with a seemingly bright young guy. A recent IIM graduate who is now with a reputed (so far) financial services company.

Our current media mechanism isn’t structured well so I want to set it right, he told me with enthusiasm that is usually inversely proportional to age.

Our company is launching a new product and we want to ensure it gets good coverage, he began, as I steeled myself to listen to the spiel we journos hear only a few hundred times a week. Little did I know how unusual the call would turn out.

After droning on for a few lines, he suddenly said something I would remember for a long time.

So how much do we have to pay to get the news published on the front page of your newspaper? he demanded, his tone-very much business-like, no doubt tutored well by one of the best business schools in the country.

I cringed the moment I heard it. Rewinding and playing it a few times again in my head only made it worse.

What pay? I blurted out feeling the sense of an impending disaster of a conversation.

Payment Ma’am, he replied in the same tone. Cost to get our news item on the front page headline.

There is no such cost I muttered under my breath and cut the call. I took a moment to compose myself before slumping into my seat with disbelief.

Is that what people think about newspapers???!!

- Archana Mohan in Business Standard

Either the lady is feigning outrage or is like one of my ex-colleagues who till recently could not accept the fact that the software business is as greasy as any other business or like millions of middle class parents who declare 'எங்க பைய்யன் அந்த மாதிரியெல்லாம் பண்ண மாட்டான்'.

வாங்கய்யா வாங்க, நீங்க ஒருத்தர் தான் பாக்கி

இடம்: Odyssey Book Shop, சென்னை

Metaphysical Chennai Mamas - It's The Turn Of The Traffic Police

For a while now, the traffic lights at many major signals in Chennai have started turning blank instead of turning green. Blank is the new green. It can't be that many traffic lights simultaneously started malfunctioning; besides orange and red are still displayed. Needless to say this is confusing to ordinary mortals, but the clued-in realise that this is a case of மௌனம் சம்மதம் .

Half Of The Last 16 Chief Justices Were Corrupt

Supreme Court lawyer Prashant Bhushan makes some depressing observations about the judicial system in India:

I have been witness to judicial corruption in the courts for a very long time. I know decisions are passed for extraneous considerations, but it’s difficult to get hard evidence of this. There have been high profile impeachment attempts, for instance, on Justice Ramaswamy, Justice Punchi and Justice Anand. Yet, they all went on to become chief justices. In my view, out of the last 16 to 17 chief justices, half have been corrupt. I can’t prove this, though we had evidence against Punchi, Anand and Sabharwal on the basis of which we sought their impeachment.
(via Tehelka)

Packed Lunch or Preached Advice Never Last Long

Packed lunch or preached advice never last long. So, it is important that each one learns to listen, question, analyze and make their own judgment on which way the market is heading, what is their vision of the future state, how they perceive the company’s role in such future state and plan accordingly.
- Kumar Vembu

Still scratching your head ? "கட்டி கொடுத்த சோறும் சொல்லிகொடுத்த சொல்லும் ..." என்று தொடங்கும் கிழ மொழிதாங்க :-)