The ” Mumbai Terror” is according to me is the last nail in the coffin as far as our patience goes. We have had enough of this. Shobha De speaking on NDTV got it spot on when she said that the Political Ssytem is currently incapable to handle this terror attacks. Our borders are so insecure that it is pretty easy for anybody to do this. When I travel abroad, I am asked by the immigration as to the purpose of my visit. In the case of the slightest doubt on the indentity of the person entering the country they are taken for further enquiries. But When I enter India, The officials barely look at my face and mechanically stamp my passport. The innocent lives lost over the last three days is a testimony to the fact that we have failed as a nation to protect our people. Since 9/11 in the USA , there has hardly been any attact. That is a way a true democracy works. One needs to learn the lessons quickly. If we need to survive as a nation giving true freedom to our citizens , we have to act tough. This is my first cut reaction. I will write more tomorrow. I am to emotional right now……

Barrack Obama becomes the 44th President of the United states of America. What a momentous journey it has been for this African-American. A campaign that began two years ago with just a dream in the eyes of Obama, has today become a reality.Amidst so much of criticism, mistrust and and no precedence whatsoever, This brave man fought his way into the hearts of the American people. His victory today will reverberate in History as a day when America has really found its true freedom. Martin Luther king’s celebrated speech ” I have a dream…..” has now found a voice in Barrack Obama. He is inheriting an America that is in shambles financially. An economic conditon the overshadows the Great depression of the 1930’s. He has got a lot of work to do to restore confidence and trust in his people. But hearing Obama speak today after his election, One gets the feeling that America has found a right man for the job. His poise, dignity and sheer confidence was admirable. After John Kennedy, America is again going to taste the leadership of a youthful President. Cheers!!!!!!!!.

I picked up this book by Aravind Adiga in the Singapore airport last week and finished it in five hours flat. Having just won the Booker prize, the book had a lot of expectations to deliver. I have read a lot of books that have won this prestigious prize in the past and I must confess that from a purely literary angle “The white tiger” pales in comparison. But there is something about this book that holds one’s attention till the end. Its a work of pure fiction, but somewhere down the line Adiga branches into Non-fiction. I completed this book in the flight when everyone around me were fast asleep and I pondered sometime over the subject matter of the book. I took me a while to realise that Adiga has potrayed an image of India which to the Urban crowd no longer exists. The glamour and gloss of IT industry has given the world a make believe image that India has come out of the clutches of fedualism, but the reality reamains that more than majority of the population still grapples with slavery, casteism, poverty and illiteracy.The book shows the slow metamorphosis of the protaganist Balram Halwai from an innocent village boy to a cunning, scheming urban citizen, who has lost all sense of intregrity and steeps himself in every form of debauchery. Adiga minces no words when he describes the activities of Balram and that is the poignant part of the tale. There are some stunning sentences in the book which shakes ones of the reverie that we have been living in.

Read it. It may prove to be an eye opener.

Cheers!!!!!!!!!!