Toll Free?

Had a pleasure trip last week towards ECR with my family..Enjoyable to the max but the journey of 150 Kilometers from my hometown to ECR, chennai took me across five toll gates.....yes five toll gates and a cool 150 around bucks to get thru all of them....Really odd to find out that taxing the few, more and more seems to be the mantra now!
If you are an indian tax payer, you wonder if anybody is paying more than you in the whole planet....Tax on all food items purchased (all our super-duper departmentals have no choice), tax on phone bills, electricity, water, house, vehicle registration tax, insurance, roadtax, toll tax, to even tax on eating your favourite sandwiches to teas....plus on the official front, professional tax, income tax, fringe benefits (which bird goes by that name is anybody's guess) and whatever you have left and want to spend, you cant do a single penny officially without paying an associated tax, unless you were indulging on a road-side dhaba or some non-fancy restaurant (namma hotel maams aka bismillah hotel or something), be ready to be taxed...
If all that is scary, there is more to come when you even think of starting a simple business...you cant sell a single biscuit packet without paying a tax....what with all the STPI and SEZ, its common middle class guys like us who bears the brunt of this skewed taxing rules....after all this the finance minister gives a breakdown and claims that 20% of our national income comes by debt....if only there is an end of corruption...!!Ah!
No wonder the rich dont pay, ( they only deposit offshore in some tax-haven), the poor dont have a means to pay....its only us who are left to fend for ourselves....Hope some sensible finance minister coems into the cabinet next time and takes a realistic approach to solve our taxing tax.....

Laloo - The quality that matters!!!

Its amazing how one can easily fill the hearts of everybody watching with a sense a humour that one can feel as though calming amidst a tornado!!!!

I was watching laloo videos on the net regarding the budget and it struck me to see him enact his wizardy over the entire session. (believe me...these guys are not too easy to please)...so spellbound are the listeners, that they have nothing to do but? Laugh What else along with the  rest of the nation....

No matter what the CBI, opposition, detractors and "others" say about him, laloo, to me stands for optimism. The reasons are simple....no need for brouhaha over his past legacy and his so termed tainted rule and all elitist opinions about him, he has stood the test of times.....

of course, lots of good things were happening before in previous administration of railways, but this gentleman is a cut about the rest. For his courage (propogating secularism), determination (fighting CBI cases), intelligence (remember his master piece in making his wife the chief-minister), managerial skills (railways turnaround folklore), his bone-tickling speeches and his indomitable spirit....I am his FAN!!!!....just for his incredible quality to charm his way through detractors.....

PS : care not to explain if there are not convincing for others and for people who have other opinions about laloo...everyone has an opinion, so do i

Here comes the fun!!!

            I have always been amused by what people can do when in the face of serious consequences. Like the feb 14 drama played out and promises of free marriage to any guy being around a beautiful woman. (enticing but really damn bad and a bad joke from me too)
            Everyday, we see news of "this day" or "that day" but the greatest thing is nobody bothers about others choice of celebrating a particular day. That is the whole point...we just leave people to be on their own and not force our will upon them
            sadly this whole debate about feb 14 shows one thing. The inability of the people to accept other's choices and the inability of the affected parties to let go.
            A "pub roko" cannot be fought by a "pub bharo" campaign. If anybody bothers to even listen, both are not our (Gandhian) way of doing things. When the apartheid dogs threw him out of the train, he did not launch a train bharo campaign. Its high time we donot flame up these small incidents into something unpleasant.
            "There is always a better way of doing things"

OBAMA!!!

Back from a long hiatus....
work, laziness or anything else i don't know and can't comprehend...but still i am back.

Stranger things have happened these days. but none stranger than "the skinny guy with a funny name", whose journey has inspired one and all and continues to take people into a sort of dream people desperately need in these hard times.

The one thing that sets apart the Yankee from the rest of the mortals is this belief of "we can". How else could one explain the low savings rate, over consumption and other luxuries?

But the real issue which is being missed is?

Obama was the best qualified person for the job. I dont give a penny to this african-american heritage business. Lets not take the credit away from OBAMA, the man himself by layering his qualifications with race.

Having said that people are inspired by him, one should also not be too ignorant of everyday happenings around us which we tend to neglect and which are far more inspiring.

All around us who are geniuses in their own right. From the daily wager, for whom the presidency is one day's wage and to the millions who eke out a living around the world. These too are inspiring for me. The daily struggles, the constant threat of hunger, disease and all sorts of deprievation. Still they are alive! Long live the human spirit !!!

And hightime we start appreciating these stars also.....

trying to get back to blogging

i am bored out of my wits guys....

wanting to blog about some interesting things but not finding good time for it....

anyways will keep you guys updated from now on....

Ramzan and taqwa

Back again....
long since last posting but just leaving it to post some better stuff....this is the month of ramzan....the month of fasting...and loads of graciousness from allah....
one major and important thing that needs to be acheived thru fasting is taqwa...so if somebody can practice taqwa "fear of allah" then allah says that he will give him rizq from a place that he doesnt even imagine..
so please make sure you dont spend this month just like any other month with empty stomaches....

I am Back ---reflections of a piognant moment

Just back to blogging after a long time...work and that most coveted one-time work of our lives..Marriage....my nikah was on 11th may 2008 and sorry for being stereotypic...its has been the best day of my life

Well unique as our customs are, though being a realist, i thoroughly enjoyed it....
sorry for being artistic again, i had to say seeing the bride for the first time only after nikah is an unforgettable experience...

i must say there are somethings which we can never fully coprehend and nikah should be on top of that list....two perfect strangers...one nikah ceremony....then the transformation to being the ultimate companions aka soulmates....

my life now closely resembles that fanta softdrink Ad....where a guy is blasted by an orange ball....dishkiyaon....

one thing that stuck me after all this is there is a better, clean, halal way to do everything that we desire however worldly it might seem....and that as a consequence works out to be the best choice....

without being philosophical, lemme add that marriage is not just the satisfaction of our inclinations but the culmination of all things important for us in our lives.....


ok now for the marriage resolution....
" Before marriage, there are lots of relationships we are involved in like the relation with your parents, extended family friends etc., and after marriage, there is again a superlative bonus of new relatives like your in-laws and associated assortment of relatives....my understanding is that both have their own places and their rights and the resolution is to maintain and sustain their rights without infringing on each others rights and egos"
It does sound challenging but thats the way to go about it