Thank you Mr President

So today Pranab decided to pay Bangalore a visit. And as is the custom with politicians, VVIPS and top bureaucrats, he landed in the middle of the city, next to our place - the old Bangalore airport. And as is usual when these visits take place, we are cutoff from 80% of the city for a great many hours, thanks to our cowardice as regards Bangalore traffic. So today I was muttering insinuations against the guy and thinking how these political landings should compulsorily be made at Devanahalli, when I realized that this was the reason that nightmare aka road outside Leela was repaired overnight! And I couldn't help but thank Mr President! Because notwithstanding Siddu's promise of a pothole free Bangalore road scene, we continue with life as usual.

I think I will dare Siddu to drive on the Wind Tunnel Road-Yamlur-Kariyammana Agrahara-Kadubeesanahalli stretch, that is what a hardened driver maketh!! It is a literal roller coaster!!

Finally, Aadhar has no Aadhar

Yesterday I read a most welcome news about an SC ruling on Aadhar cards and how they should not be made mandatory for public services. Finally!

The Aadhar card in my opinion is the most polished scam of UPA to date. Giving it the face of one of the honchos of Indian IT, it attempted to pass off an impossible data mining effort with little to no effort made to understand long or short term implications.

My reluctance to apply for yet another form of ID proof (read data selling method) was only strengthened, when the government, in conjuntion with the ceiling imposed on the subsidized LPG cylinders also decided to make everyone pay the non-subsidized amount first and then force them to link bank accounts to Aadhar card so cash transfer for the subsidy amount can be made. So where I used to pay 400 for the first 9 cylinders, I now have to pay 1000, and then give them my Aadhar card and bank details so that they can remit the 600 back to me. This is like the age-old complication of showing your nose, not directly but by winding your hand around your head and trying to touch it. Not for me! I wondered why more people did not protest against this added complication to an already complicated bureaucracy.

Also, when I heard about how data was forcibly being made public even where applicants chose to keep data private - something was fishy, there are any number of people willing to buy personal data and I was not about to hand some more to the UPA government.

So there, I did not apply for it, in spite of massive nudging from my government, drives at office for enrollment, nagging and pestering emails from banks to link accounts etc. Of course it helped that our gas connection was in my father in law's account and he already had an Aadhar card, in case they made it compulsory in Karnataka like they did in AP (thanks to the CONgress government there)!

I am relieved and have renewed faith in our SC now.

Logging back in :)

Today I went to work after five months!! It was weird, and good at the same time.

A big thanks to my mom, she has once again stood by us as a pillar of strength, and without her around, I would not have been able to do it, the younger one is yet to get into the daycare;) Thanks to her assurance I am also now considering delaying his admission into the daycare till he is at least a year old.

The five months came and went, and here we are already! This maternity leave was vastly different from last time. For starters it was much longer, 5 months vs 3 months. Plus because my mom and father in law were around, I was actually able to catch at least one hour of sleep during the day most of the days unlike last time when I was alone with the baby and also inexperienced to boot, so never caught a wink during the day. Caught up on a lot of Bollywood movies too and in general relaxed much more than last time! Plus did many usual chores like picking up Rohan from the daycare in campus every evening, working out from week one and so on and so forth. The highlight though has to be that I actually managed to complete critical work items like budgeting, ordering, appraisals for the team etc by myself :D!

I met with my team today and also boss and his boss. I think the team was happy to see me back - or so I hope at least ;) Met up briefly with lunch gang too.

All in all, good to be back, albeit for a few hours :)

Finally! The run to 2014 is on!

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The BJP declared its PM candidate yesterday, and it was a much-awaited news!

Many thoughts on this so penning them here in no particular order:

I wish all folks who can, will go out and vote at least in this election. If there was a time this country needed all it's citizens to rally around for it, it is this elections. Much more than the post-emergency election. UPA-3 will be an unmitigated disaster for us.

I have seen some reactions on FB comparing the euphoria in the country to that of when Obama got elected (and boy, has he turned out to be such a disappointment, worse than Bush I think). There is a danger of too much expectation from NaMo, yes, I am scared for him that he wont be able to deliver overnight or all alone, but given two or even one stable term, I am sure, the processes will improve significantly. And the country can hope to get out of the rut.

I have new found respect for Rajnath Singh and RSS (yeah you can go right ahead and call me a Hindutva stooge, I am a proud Hindu and there is no two ways about it). How he has managed to shake up BJP ranks, bring in discipline and show acute political acumen, he deserves the same respect (if not more) as Modi.

Finally, a conversation on Facebook - so anyone who wants to comment on a) LK Advani being side-lined by Modi (boy, do I hate that stance, people make it sound like some coup in what has been a perfectly democratic internal election, a model, the Congress would do well to follow, but no, people seem to want to see the BJP as the family fiefdom of someone or another and that someone is LK Advani for now!!) or b) Gujarat's "fake-progress-claims" or c) lament about "we are sad there is no political future for this country" without actually proposing a solution, will do well to reserve their comments. You already know my thoughts below. I hope my friends on FB do not mind :)

BJP announces Modi, finally!

    XXX and 9 others like this.

    RC At last!!

    SD Baap re! no!

    RR What is LK Advani's actual problem with Narendra Modi?

    ME SD- you don't sound happy?:)

    ME RR- Advani is the reason BJP has gone to the dogs in many states. He is so obsessed with being the one man face of BJP that he killed any budding leadership in BJP's ranks. Except till Modi came by, this is one guy's stronghold he could not touch in his turf state, so, naturally, it pains him.

    ME RC uncle, yeah!!

    SD DH- No i'm not. I have my reasons to oppose the BJP and NaMo in particular. That said I don't trust the congress at all! Oh, and I don't think even NaMo presents a viable opposing figure!

    ME SD I guess you are happy you won't be voting:) Seems like you won't have much to choose from;)

    VA Advani and also I guess to some extent Jaitley ...

    SD I am not comfortable with the Hindutva shit that BJP used to peddle. And I don't buy Modi's medicine as well, Gujarat has always been a wealthy and upwardly mobile state.

    ME SD I don't support everything that BJP has done either but there is simply no one else I trust in today's politics. And we desperately need a pillar to lean on, upa has left us on the streets. Who would you be rather voting for? Lok Satta? They will gain one or two seats and rest will be business as usual, look at what happened to Kukatpally/AP. Or maybe I should vote for some party like SP? We can all go to the dogs then. The question is not whom do you not like but who will you vote for?

    VA Its only improved big time atleast Infra.. I was in Gujarat back when i was doing engg. i.e. Keshubhai Patel`s tenure (1993-97)... The roads were pathetic and I mean it... Last year X-mas break i went again and we toured almost entire Gujarat i.e. AHD - Dwarka- Somnath- Diu- AHD by road.. and they are comparable to US express ways.. lot of activity around using Non-conventional energy... AUTO base is being shifted from Pune to North Gujarat.. I certainly fore see him as progressive leader.. leave aside religious views.. i do not see that in any other leader as of now though.. .

    ME Also, India used to always be a prosperous nation (this is a proven fact, not Hindutva shit peddled by folks) so the same logic of Gujarat might even work;)

    SD No way would I vote for Cong, they have looted the country. Lok Satta is not viable, especially not if I even say BJP int viable I don't know, I am definitely sad that there are SO MANY political parties and none strong enough to bring Cong down!

    ME VA Kudos man!! We need more such facts!!:) not the bs that our media peddles:)

    VA Unfortunately.. ours being parliamentary form of democracy one needs to be associated with party form majority unlike in US were its presidential form of democracy.. so he needs to be part of group to make 273 number

    ME SD exactly my point, so rather than waste my vote by being a spoilsport whining about how no one is good, I am picking the least worse of the choices I have, BJP. And the fact that the man NaMo inspires patriotism in me like no politician has so far, makes it a lot more attractive to me!! I say anyone who helps BJP win this time will be contributing big time to the betterment of this nation from the squalid depths it has fallen to, a great act of patriotism and I'm not going to miss this chance!!

    RR We were in ahmedabad in 2012, when we lost power early in the morning 4 am or so. My dad called the electricity board hotline, and it was fixed by 5 am, and I didn't even have to wake up from the discomfort

    ME :)

    VM With CONG scams all over the place; their recent AP division politics..etc...Lets give a Chance 2 BJP with New Leader( of course with hung & support of local state parties) & Lets hope for some Change.

    VA @Rekha: true.. AEC (Ahd Elec Comp) is class apart...