Comrade Chakra

The day is still to end, but I will stick my neck out and consider this a good budget day. Every year around February there is much brouhaha and balderdash about the budget presentation by the Finance Minister (FM) in the Indian Parliament . This is telecast live on TV and being a finance professional, it is obligatory for me to join my professional colleagues and watch the event. In the initial years of my career I would sit with my colleagues and try to learn as much as I could from the Finance Minister’s speech. In later years, my efforts would be focussed on hiding my ignorance during the FM’s speech and trying to sound intelligent in the half-baked discussions that would inevitably follow. Now a days, I do not feel it obligatory to sound aware or intelligent when it comes to the budget. If you ask me something about the budget and I do not know, I’ll tell you exactly that- “I do not know”, the most cathartic response to any embarrassing question. I have finally arrived. Prior...

Luke Skywalker: I'm not afraid. Master Yoda: Oh. You will be. You will be. ---- The Empire Strikes Back =================================== It was late in the night. The city, variously known as the Garden City, Silicon Valley, IT Capital was eerily quiet and dark. There was no moon out that night, and the few street lights that were on, threw long shadows, much like sentinels guarding an ancient city. A steady stream of vehicles could be seen making their way quietly towards a ramshackle building. It was dark. No faces could be seen inside the helmets or the tinted window panes of the cars. Had the faces been visible it would have stunned the onlooker. Stern faces with fixed unblinking stares looking straight ahead. Not looking to their right or left, it was as if these people were driving by instinct towards the building which bore its name on a broken, much weathered wooden plate " M’soft ". A solitary owl followed one of the cars and let out a gurgling hoot as the...

Well, Australia is in the news once again. No, I am not talking cricket. Australia has my vote for having the Best Church in the World . “Riverside Church pastor Andrew Newbold and his wife Megan have launched a four-week series on sex, marriage, adultery and pornography. They have in fact gone ahead with advertising about this seminar on a flyer that reads: "the best sex you'll ever have." Read full report. Now I have, in the past been in disagreement with the action of a certain church in England. Read blog here . However this time I have no reservations in doffing my hat to M/s Newbolds from the Riverside Church . They have hit a pot of gold. Sex up religion, yes dudes go for it. The last guy who did that real well was our own Osho and we know the limitless success he achieved in his lifetime. Other assorted Gurus sprouted in the Hippi era of 60’s and early 70’s in the US propagating sex as the way to salvation (especially when laced with LSD ). And who better to...

Here’s a quick wrap-up of some of the more interesting happenings in the recent past. The Chinese New Year is the Year of the Rat and Malaysian women developed a taste in a particular type of linen. "Malaysian Chinese women are snapping up red panties with mouse motifs for good luck as they prepare to usher in the Year of the Rat, a news report said on Sunday." Read full report . First things first, what’s with the Chinese new years……last year they had the year of the Pig, this year the year of the Rat!!! Are there no better animals? I mean a pig in any language would serve as a fairly all embracing abusive word, and rat….that certainly cannot be flattery whether you are a Chinese or an English man. Should we not expect a year of the Tiger or at least Dragon!! Ofcourse with my usual objectvity and broad-mindedness, I find nothing worng in Ganesha’s vahana (consort) ….now is that a rat or a mouse? And let’s move on to these Malaysian women. A mouse motif on your inner-ware?...