The Mahabharata of Maharashtra Politics

For past few weeks.. I have been closely following the updates on Maharashtra assembly elections.. and have been very intrigued by the 'politics of politics' that has been happening in the state. The plot seems nothing less interesting than a Bollywood movie... it has all the elements of a typical Ram Gopal Verma or Madhur Bhandarkar realistic movie. We have actors, directors, schemers, character artists, shady characters. Maybe not everyone in literal sense, but somewhat.

What amuses me the most..is the lack of any proper issue in this race to throne. Parties are nitpicking only single issues to achieve the magical figure of 145 (288 total assembly seats).

BJP-Shivsena is panning the ruling government for the lack of preventive measures against terrorism, which is not completely wrong. But such things happened during the times of ShivSena-BJP too. And, Congress did the same. Held the ruling government solely responsible for it. This will continue...picking each other's collar. MNS (Maharashtra Navnirman Sena) is hell-bent on the 'outsider'/'Marathi Manoos' issue. The Dalit leaders (including the Statue princess Mayawati) as usual are more concerned for the well-being of dalits (or rather say increasing Reserved Category Quota) in the state. NCP(Nationalist Congress Party)-Congress, well I believe they still don't have any strong issue to raise. Their main issue will always be.. Which party will have their CM and Deputy CM ? Pre-Nup agreements for NCP-Congress marriage :P . What say guys ??

What about farmer suicides ( this is just like another news-feed for us - like military attacks in Kashmir), lack of electricity supply (10-12 hrs of cuts in rural and 5-6 hrs of cuts in urban areas), corruption (self-explanatory), slum- improvement (the likes of Danny Boyles don't have to pay anything for shooting another 'Slumdog Millionaire'), urban mis-management (it took aeons to make the Bandra-Worli Sea link..Metro Rail project is in hibernation) , flooding (26/7 are common sights in 'Bombay' or rather 'Mumbai'...hope Raj is not reading this), improving the education system(it is no way at par with CBSE and ICSE boards), and terrorism (26/11 issue fizzled out very quickly) ??... the list follows. But apart from one or two, no one's bothered about the umpteen problems this MahaRashtra (great State) has.

The influx of North-Indians, preserving Marathi heritage is a big issue for some. But what one needs to understand is that my merely speaking Marathi language all the time, printing Govt. docs and decorating signboards in Marathi is not going to help tremendously. Things has to come by respect, not by force. What about the Maharashtrians who settle in other states ? Are you asking them to do the same ? Anyone taken effective communications training ? Mass-Media.. any takers ?? I will continue to write on this...and can end up writing another post.. this is very sensitive issue and needs to be address, but by proper means.

The inter-winding stories of this elections has many complex plots. The main story being "The Long-Lost Brother" or cousin I would say (the Thackeray clan) . The legacy of one of the prime and adorned leader in the state is completely divided and they would be themselves responsible for cutting each other's vote. And yeah..another similar story of the Dutts....Sanju Baba is the face of Samajwadi Party (they woo the Muslim voters) , while his sister sitting Congress MP. Clashes and slanderous remarks on one other during election rallies continue between these blood-ties.

"I'm Prince/Princess Charming" story is prevalent in Bollywood . We know the likes of Fardeen Khan, Zayed Khan, Tusshar Kapoor, Khannas, Aroras and Shettys cannot act and they still feature in big-budgeted ventures. Nepotism. And it exists here too... Big Mom-Dads ensures that their kiddos get the party tickets..who cares what work they have done for the constituency. As long as you have a surname - Deshmukh, Pawar, Patil (yes.. the President fame), Munde, Rane, Alva... you're good to go. The current CM Mr. Ashok Chavan has already entered the record books for being the first father-son CM duo in the state.

"STATUEry Warning" .. flicked from some website...and there ain't anyMayawati involved here. Not a very significant election issue..but very interesting. A humongous statue of Chattrapati Shivaji Maharaj on the lines of 'the statue of liberty' is planned and billions of rupees will be flown for this..eventually it will all flow into the sea..cuz that's where the statue is planned. Congress wants this to be a symbol of celebration, commemoration of their great rule (they think this will be their Taj Mahal). Here's the twist, Mr. Bal Thackeray is not in favor of this. Yeah, after renaming all the stations and airports, and already having similar statue at the Gateway of India..who needs another one..that too in deep sea. Just changing few thousand documents and doing the renaming process doesn't cost billions.. Right :P ?? But look at new angle, we could have more tourists for this amazing thing. And how about the ride to this statue and charging few dollars for the visit. Dollar influx baby.

"The NCP-Congress Alliance" no need to say anything about this. The say they are together and they still fight internally. What NCP needs is assurance of the CM berth(they have been eyeing this for past two elections) and they will change sides with the snap of finger. This alliance rests on such weak foundation that neither have any similar ideologies nor principles, just for the numbers they are together. Infact, NCP was formed because Mr. Pawar didn't like to report to a person of foreign Origin (Mrs.Gandhi) and what happens..he joins hands with Congress the same election. But snapping ties doesn't look a plausible situation.. given past two elections and number crunching by few channels.

"The Dalit Votebank" is never considered a threat for the deciding the winner. The platform, which was brilliantly laid by Dr. Ambedkar was never taken properly by its leaders. Divided leadership and so many parties fighting for their rights (reservations - 'Jai Bhim Bolo Andar Chalo') have muddled things up. The Atahavales (of RPI- Republican Party of India), Mayawati (who calls herself "Dalit ki Beti"...lolzz) and other leaders (including Ambedkar's grandson) have only one task to take up. No one should defame an Ambedkar statue. You know what follows next..stone pelting, riots, bandhs, and school holidays (yippee). Other parties also dwell on same logic to stay in limelight.

"The Bollywood Saga".....now that election rallies will begin...pretty lasses and blue-eyed boys will do the party endorsing. Its fun to see Neha Dhupias, Zintas, Khans, Kapoors et al at rallies and media covering it extensively. Poor people.... they also have to suffer from these same parties when their movies inadvertently offend any religious sentiments under the pretext of Malapropism.

"Thriving on the Left-Overs" - Congress has been making a living out of it esp. in Maharashtra. The deserted leaders like Narayan Rane, Sanjay Nirupam (from Shiv Sena, BJP) have benefited Congress exceedingly... like getting the Konkan region votebank from Rane. And with likes of Raj Thackeray who can join them (if his Marathi Manoos issues are addressed)..things look good for Congress.

Congress has hardly faired any better in administration in their two 5-yr quotas and people may look for change. But, more or less any party is just the same. Differences in ideology doesn't necessarily mean not the same functioning. All work in same way. Sluggish, Defensive, Self-Plaudits..thats how everyone is.

There can also be a scenario of 'hung assembly' (96' case) ..100 crores already betted on this. And it would fascinating to see how the independent parties exchange their seats for some portfolios. Oct 22 is the result date...and the movie ending looks very open ended.

Sorry for writing this huge essay :)..but felt strong about this. And had lot of material to cover. Thanks for reading the epic post.

Disclaimer: Being in the States and not able to vote for past few elections..doesn't make me an outsider. I still care for the things that happen and this is my personal opinion. Nothing to be taken too seriously for knowingly/unknowingly offending any person. I guess I will have to change this disclaimer later and add more apologies :P.

BootCamped

Don't be flummoxed by the title 'bootcamped'. No no, I haven't been to any of those military bootcamps, wherein I had to go through the rigorous sessions of physical activities. Nor I have got any special training in military combat. It's just another flashy term used by Amgen (where I work) for the 4-day induction program to the newly hired/intern IS employees. Did I just use IS and not IT ? Many would argue that there's hardly any difference in these two. But they do differ slightly, after I googled it :). IS (Informations Systems) related organizations are more of those dealing with the management of technology (IT) and not exactly developing it. So does that mean I'm not developing anything. Naah..it's complex analogy better I don't go deep into it.

So Amgen is an IS company ? Haha, not at all. One of the biggest biotechnology company in the world, who manufactures drugs/medicines for grievious illness (cancer, arthrithis of various forms, anemia, severe asthma, kidney diseases ..etc). And IS forms one of the bigger groups at Amgen supporting the technology and research. Back to the bootcamp. There is this theory that 'Bootcamp' must have been coined by either the CEO or CIO (both with military backgrounds), but it's not the case.

What was this bootcamp all about ? A series of seminars, lectures, campus tours, team building events, ice breakers and lot of fun. And the best part you get paid for doing all these :). But only 4 days. Day 1 and 2 were great in sense that I got to know lot of groups and sub-groups in the IS. The Directors, EDs, VPs, all came and talked about their division. What work they do, how they do, who are the people involved. And most importantly, why their group is important for running Amgen. Yeah, we know that. But what was important in these seminars that you get to hear lot of different speakers and distinguished individuals. These individuals, who have been at the forefront of some technology or atleast organization/team. I did manage to sit through all these lectures, but with different enthusiasm and feeling. Some were boring, some animated, some truly professional, some personal account and some with accent :P. What was amazing that I didn't know you need so many teams in a Biotech company to have so many IS groups. Damn..that was some piece of information. For rules and regulations, operations, webservices, client support, global operations, enterprise solutions, data recording & tracking, cross-functions ...you have an IS team for carrying all those functions.

Also fun, were the team building and icebreakers sessions, where individuals with different backgrounds and talent eventually end up in IS :( . And its good to know these individuals, their likes dislikes etc. And teaming up with different set everytime to carry some task.

But the highlight of the event was the entire day lecture by 'Jeff Bass'. A truly amazing character. I would say 'character' because he's taken more than 14 years to complete his formal bachelor's education (in which he studied microbiology, ancient greek history, languages, computer science and most of the derivates of science that is offered) and still managed to drive a Rolls-Royce to his school. Wow! I wish I could do that. A person who has a charter plane and who donates millions every year to the arthritis foundation. And who is complete geek and doesn't look like one and also served the military (with two gun-shots). This is a character who has studied all, done all the crazy stuff, earned and donated millions and still looked so bloody humble. One of the greatest public speaker (undoubtedly) I have heard in my lifetime. Try googling him, you won't find any mention... cuz he likes to be behind the scene. And, he was asked to take biology lecture to IS individuals, who cannot understand the basics of biology. DNA sequence, chromosome, mutated cells etc. And he managed to explain us the DNA sequence in our terms (IS terminologies). Like DNA sequence is nothing but sequence of binary (amino acid types combinations) in different repetitions... 30 tera byte times. Some fascinating stuff and now I understand why two different individuals have different DNA. Interesting Fact: many ask why mice has always been used as the sample to test drugs. Because it's a mammal, it's cheap (2 cents/mouse) and most importantly it matches the DNA structure of humans by 96-99%. People like Jeff work at Amgen because of the great work the company does and the lives it has saved or improved. It's really great to realize that you're part of this noble journey.

I'm always intrigued in knowing the stories. Stories that are true...and stories that have some sort of adventure, exhilaration attached to it. And I have heard lot of them in these 4 days. When we were touring around campus (part of bootcamp) it was nice to see the different research areas at Amgen...the biology lab (where mices are cut :P) , the pilot plant lab (where cells are grown), the data centre (where huge networks, servers are managed) ..every part has something different to tell.

At the end of the bootcamp, we were invited by our CIO - Tom Flanagan to his house. And I won't bore you giving out details about how great his house was. But what was important that he invited a bunch of newly hired employees to his house... and played basket ball with them. Just amazing.. I don't know how many other companies would have their "C's" doing that.

Since now the fun part is over (for me) I again go back into the not really interesting, but more or less same job of IS..and I know there are many people standing with their stick waiting for my arrival...gossh... I have loads of work to do. But nice to have such breaks in between.

It's also amazing that you managed to read all these and still not bored (or other way round)... but I managed to keep my promise.. I have been back with something after 2 weeks (it didn't take 2 years :) ).. Thanks for staying...

Second Innings - I'm back

Alright. Here we go. For all the non-followers of my blog (which includes all) and by no public demand I have decided to start blogging again. It's been almost two years that I published my first and only post. Hopefully, this doesn't remain the second and last one.

So suddenly, why blogging again ? Many reasons.

1. Its 12.30 am in the night and I'm unable to sleep. This looks a good option to while some time.

2. Everyone's blogging these days. Why not me ? Atleast for myself. So that I can come back later to see how stupid and immature my thoughts were.

3. My orkut and facebook profile doesn't have any personal webpage link. Its good to embellish the profile page with your blog link.

4. I feel I need to sermonize the world with my philosphies and give them priceless 'Gyan'. Also, to create awareness among masses how deep thinker I'm. :)

5. And for all nonsensical reasons that I can't think of right now.

So, welcome to the world of calipornay. I sincerely hope that I will be now regular in making posts. Or else, wait two more years for me to make another astonishing comeback.

Nostalgic Experiences - Just Before Flying

Finally, here I come with my own blog. Especially for my friends who want their very own govzz, pornay, chandaal, certi guy..etc etc to share his rich experiences. Rich..hmmm... I dont kno...but I'm definitely rich in weight... the baggage weights. 32kgs is my per baggage limit and I'm excessively exceeding those limits. For the ignorant fellas I'm flying to University of California, Santa Barbara for my MS by Singapore Airlines scheduled on 16th Sept. 12.30 am IST. Although Singapore Airlines have been very generous to me for allowing me to take more than 100 kgs. But even the prescribed 103 kgs dont suffice my needs. Thanks to my shopping spree for the last few months I'm facing this problem today. Constantly checking the weights with that old spring balance just to make sure I'm not charged xtra by the airlines. But leave it cant help...I have left my baggages aside..yes they're overweight. Lets see how I carry them.

Now sitting here just two days before the flight I'm counting my life experiences....especially the 4 years of engineering. Though I vividly remember my school experiences and it was fun too. Still the degree experience has been imprinted and embossed in my mind. Here, I recount all those moments which has been somewhat instrumental in shaping my career and life too. Friends I made are the ones whom I will never forget. The classroom experience was just too
memorable. Sitting all the way round till 2 pm for the boring lectures to get over. And anxiously waiting for some indulgent prof to come in between so that we could make all sorts of noises. Those music sessions, mimic sessions and assignments sessions too. The Utsavs, the Sphurtis (the winning moment in Cricket) and many more such things are just so much that I can go on and on enlisting them. Better I wont coz then you wont take all long to read this blog.

People usually are very excited about going to US. Great country, hot babes, good opportunities, exotic locations blah blah..you must be knowing what US has to offer. But weirdly this US thing has not got into my head at all. Not understanding the intensity of the moment. Guests, relatives have already started pouring since last week only to bid farewell to me. Its like a huge thing for them...yeah for me too..but I'm all chilled up. US is like just another country for me.. thats what I'm presuming. But I know it is gonna be a helluva experience. I will have to meet new challenges everyday. It will be a roller coaster ride for this lazy bum who has been only upto watching TV and sleeping in this mini vacation of 4 months. Hoping for a better stay in US. Will write more from there. Adios till then.