Rajiv Gandhi Setu or Worli Bandra Link – What’s in a name?

Rajiv Gandhi: That makes my count to 561. I am coming close to you Gandhiji.

Gandhi: Son, Whatever you do, you will never be able to beat my record. I stand at 1000000.

Veer Savarkar: This is just not fair!! I am still crawling at 201. Rajeev, you should have given this one to me. You or your mother takes all the ones at Delhi and I face tough competition in Mumbai from Shivaji. I thought I had a chance for this one.

B.R.Ambedkar: You guys just wait till Mayawati becomes the Prime Minister of India. I will soon become the new father of the nation.

I guess the politicians of this country think that the great leaders of India must be having this conversation in the heaven (presumably). They would be fighting over and trying to make and break records with relation to how many monuments of them are being made, how many roads, airports, bridges are being named after them etc. I can think of only that as the reason why our politicians behave in such manner.

Shiv Sena is hauling Congress for naming the Bandra Worli Sea Link after Rajiv Gandhi, as they believe that, its construction was started by the BJP – Shiv Sena combine and they should get the credit for it and hence, want it named after Veer Savarkar. Mayawati objects to money being spent on Rajghat and the stature of Mahatma Gandhi in the nation and believes that she and Ambedkar deserve better. Never mind that Ambedkar might be turning in his grave when he sees the dire condition of Dalits in the country even 60 years after independence.

To deal with our over zealous politicians, I propose that we have a separate ministry for the purpose of naming and renaming of public property and places, the ‘What’s in a name’ ministry. Then we can have a commission set up for each property that needs to be named, have proper debate and channelize our public resources for such important activity. After all we don’t want a war to start in the heaven and we should give equal opportunity to each ‘neta’, dead or alive.

Return of Sarkari Naukri and Sarkari Babus

A couple of years when all was hunky dory in our recession free lives, my mother had found a reason to get worried about. To somehow get her only daughter married and according to her friends, a NRI working for an IT firm would be the best match. My mother often told me that how the world has changed topsy turvy since her days. During her marriageable days, getting your daughter married to someone working in a private firm was not opined to be a good watch. Parents were also wary of sending their daughters to a faraway land. Where as public jobs were supposed to be the safest, well paid and ensured a life long guarantee. IAS cadres had the highest rate in the dowry market followed by boys working in PSUs.

And how all that changed three decades later. Most of my school/ college gang, were settled in USA with either green card holders or IT NRI’s. I was the only one left and often asked by dozens that when will I get lucky like my friends. To top that my IT employer didnot even think me worthy enough to be sent on an onsite assignment. So I had to live with those additional queries about why I am not being sent abroad when ever far flung relative of everyone else is. Somehow, I managed to escape the NRI’s or you could say the poor NRI’s were saved from me when I met my husband. (prospective husband then!!) Atleast he was from IT and had been a NRI for 2 years, so I wasn’t that off the track.

Now, when I read about IIM grads going for public sector jobs and fathers looking for PSU working grooms and saying a definitive no - no to IT (and if you are a NRI especially in US – dude you have some serious chances of not finding a bride at all), I wonder that I didn’t even had to wait for my daughter’s marriage for the world to turn topsy turvy again. I read interesting news lately, wherein a man asks the court to reduce the alimony that he has to pay to his wife, as due to the recession he has to take a pay cut. So, even for a healthy divorce you now need a PSU working husband who can ensure a lifelong alimony with assured guarantee.

In a matter of few months, like the Sensex, the dowry market has turned upside down too. Sarkari Babus are back in demand with increased price of their shares and my poor IT brethren have become like penny stocks. The economic cycle had given rise to a new eligible groom cycle and I propose that we should also have a groom index now to track the eligibility of bachelors with respect to changes in economy. How about a Groomex??

Railway Budget 2009-10 or a Boxing match

If you have never seen a boxing ring match between a former champion and a challenger, you can view the recent video of the Railway Budget 2009-10 of India being presented in the Parliament. The former champion was our ever entertaining Lalu Prasad Yadav, erstwhile Railway Minister, and the challenger, our ‘didi’, Mamata Banerjee, the current Railway Minister. I can’t tell you who won which round and the whole match, as I don’t think we have seen the end of it. The match will definitely go on.

Laloo was roaring like the lion who has enjoyed an excellent regime but now has to accept defeat and give way to the new king ( or shall I say Queen) of the jungle. Not to be outdone, the lioness roared back with an equally big roar. At the onset, the Queen challenged her predecessor’s claims of enormous profits and revenues, by stating that she has to reduce the estimated revenues for current fiscal at Rs 8,121.48 crore from Rs 10,876.48 crore as presented in the interim budget, as the Railways had failed to meet the target in 2008-09. She has also stated that ministry would come out with a white paper on the organizational, operational and financial status based on the last five years’ performance. This is seen as a direct challenge to Laloo’s claims of running a good ministry in the past 5 years as Mamata is now trying to verify his claims.

Now if you think that by the above actions or by announcing a popular budget, Round one is won by Mamata, then our Laloo is not far behind. How can you expect him to not provide fodder for entertainment? He has gone on the record of alleging that his successor in the Rail Bhawan was a “complex-ridden” person who was trying to prepare her “Vision 2020’’ for the ministry on the basis of his “achievements.’’ He has also accused her of purposefully ignoring Bihar, as Patna is not on the list of the to-be world class stations, only 4 news trains have been proposed in Bihar and it has been ignored in the non-stop point-to-point Turant list of trains.

I can imagine people of Bihar feeling left out, as they are used to being pampered by the Railway ministers who have been from their state since the past few governments. Also feeling left out are states like Tripura, Karnataka, Chattisgarh, Orissa whose MPs and Chief Ministers have shown their disapproval for the budget as they say that their respective states have been left out. I guess it pays to have the Railway Minister from your state and irrespective of which minister won the round one, the people of West Bengal surely look like the current winners.