Laziness Personified

The Modern Beggar

Beggars . They are everywhere. Portfolio of ills – men , women , children in tattered and dirty clothing , some without arms , some without legs , victims of leprosy , scurvy or polio walking on their hands or rolling down the crowded sidewalks in skate- carts .Their legs twisted behind them .

At first I gave money to anyone who stopped at our door or stretched out his arm as I passed the streets.Later , I realised the misery of the beggars is endless and infinite . So , I tended to be more selective with my finite wealth .In the process , learnt to calibrate the extent of misery and donate accordingly. I do not give them anything now. Years have made me realise I might be playing into the Great Indian Begging scam .

I call it scam because begging is carried out in well organised groups now. Teamwork and collective responsibility makes us easy prey for them . For a certain territory , the beggars deposit a significant share of their earnings to a ring leader or the local goon . Beggars choose not to work because they make more money from begging .

Popular begging scams include renting baby from their mothers to give their begging more credibility. In Kolkata (near the Indian museum) in particular, visitors are often approached by a child or woman wanting some powdered milk to feed a baby. You will be taken to a nearby shop that sell tins or boxes of such lactogen. But the milk will be priced much higher than actual and the shopkeeper and the beggar will simply split the proceeds between them.

Begging is prevalent where there are tourists – railway stations , monuments , religious sites and even major traffic intersections . Their target segment – vehicles while the lights are red .

If you are the very generous and caring NGO guy with a heart and pocket of golds , you may give them old clothes , towels , bed sheets and food too . Giving them money is worthless because they would spent that up in alcohols or drugs . You may also direct their children to local NGOs and schools for education.

Next time you come across a beggar , I am sure you will recollect this post . How to deal with them is ofcourse your personal choice .

UP Politics

Mulayam's Puttar


UP election saga was quite interesting. I was tempted to give it a second look to seek the finer aspects.


Achilles oops Akhilesh is clearly the winner. He defeated competition within and outside of his party. Now, he is ready to take the beacon of leadership from his dad. So what made him standout – Well, his choice. He chose not to abide by conventions. Instead, generation Y inside him brought closer to the voters. He was committed to clean the party image by dropping veteran goons. Tech-savvy image of him carrying laptops & iphone backed by intensity and km-driven campaigning helped his cause. He travelled more than 3000km campaigning for the party. A sitting MP, he strengthened his connect with the aam junta and emerged the strongest. SP veterans (some unwillingly, though) projected him as the CM. Well done Akhi. Law & order is your biggest challenge now.

In a victory, the winner’s virtues are equally important as losers’ vices. I will take the losers one by one. First, the BSP . You can it on the anti-incumbency factor. Although , law & order improved drastically and efforts were made to revamp the administration , but the support of the Muslims , upper castes and may be even dalits could not be sustained.Mayawati did not do anything special to let people give her a second mandate. She was never a Modi or Nitish. The resurgent SP, multi-cornered politics, infighting and disconnect with the people buried the nail into their coffin. But going by numbers, they still remain a formidable opponent.


Congress. The less said the better. Its struggle at the centre was reflected in the UP elections. Not only was it demolished badly, dynastic politics gain hit a road block. Rahul Gandhi’s prime ministerial ambitions will be finished for now. UP proved again the lad’s failures to assess politics & mood at the ground level. He could not capitalize on the mileage he gains by the virtue of being Gandhi scion. Other congress leaders were also relegated to sidelines.


BJP would never learn. Its brand of core competency no longer works. Proof? Look at the Goa elections where the party gave tickets to Roman Catholics. All of them won. Development, infrastructure and industry , finally , a refreshing leader is what BJP needs . Hope , BJP will learn from itself only. When will the winds of change blow!!!


Overall, elections in UP is arguably the toughest polls. With, four parties fighting in nearly all seats, SP did a splendid job. Kudos to them!!!

Doing Business in Bharat

It had been a long time since this blog saw a post . I have redesigned the look and feel of the blog with a promise of regular postings . Today I took up - Entrepreneurship in India .

Becoming an entrepreneur is one of the most cherished dreams of all ambitious people . Consider India and it is a Herculian task .For those who find it hard to believe , let us look at the stats. As per ' The ease of doing business ' ratings , India ranks a dismal 132 out of 182 countries( ref : http://www.doingbusiness.org/rankings ). Just to give you an idea of what rank 132 means , look at these rankings of our neighbour : Nepal 107 , Bangladesh - 122 , Pakistan 105 . Shocked ? Well , I was shocked too !

You might wonder about government creating policies to remove hurdles but for each hurdle removed , another is added (dekhna hoga na policy kyu ban raha hain - votebank or business) and let us not forget the kickbacks and patronage networks.

Leftists do shout that the business policies in India are highly skewed towards big businesses but then , did they not rule one famous state of eastern India for 30 years and the results are there for every one to see (No offence please).

Businesses are money churners for governments in the form of taxes , excise , VATs - but people even don't know where , how and even why to pay taxes. And so not so surprisingly , India ranks 147 in terms of 'Ease of paying taxes'. Our governments are not even eager to collect the same. Don't remember last time when Indian budget showed a surplus! Can anyone tell me what are they doing in the administration ? Maybe hereditary or some other hidden motives ( hey , I'm not talking about ministers watching porn:P:P).

Before we shout - ' FDI FDI FIIIIIIII ' , we need some good policies . Reforms . Policies that would would act as a bait to start businesses. Millions of Indians would be able to stand on their own feet and it also offloads the subsidy or reservation burdens off the shoulders of the government. Silent reforms may not grab the newspaper or TV headlines as say , Volkswagon wanting to invest in Bengal but people would be empowered to buy one of those cars .


( You can mail me your feedbacks to santanudas@engineer.com )

Vodafone & Airtel in India

Not bad - the Endless Goodbyes and Street Performer ads.In its bid for the emo connect, airtel succeeded this time too.Might be that airtel has brought the 'firangi' connect in its ads , but then lets not forget the Zain acquisition . Airtel has gone international now .
Nevertheless , the new ads are making way into ringtones and desktop wallpapers meaning they are high on the publicity and emotional connectquotient .Isn't that emotions is the primary factor that drives purchase , impulsive or not .Reasoning and logic , are only after thoughts of purchase .We all know, 80% of decision-making is emotional. Only 20% is rational. Reason leads to conclusion, emotion leads to action . So next time , when you go to buy something you might recollect these lines . But I am sure , you will give in to your impulse and see the point proved .Humans we are !

not so-different logos



With Vodafone and Tata Docomo , closing on the heels , the rebranding was necessary. To critics , the rebranding could have been on the 'desier' side , given airtel has a customer base of 200m only in India ! But then change is the constant , especially if intercontinental providers like vodafone storms into your bastille and grabs your pie .



Zoo zoos...Endless Goodbyes...Street Performer...Do the new... Flatteners at work!
High mobile density and penetration , lower rates , 3G services ..good for India and the world!

Africa...

Never Been to one but have heard from friends that it is wonderful . Yeah . The African Safari - the ultimate destination for honeymooners , photographers and wild life enthusiasts . It has something for all .One such safari is the Masai Mara Reserve of Kenya .The gentle rolling grasslands ensure the animals are never out of sight . Such is the density , that in a radius of five miles , you can see congregation of all sorts of anilmals and their antics - elephants drinking and splashing water , herds of zebras , giraffes and buffaloes , pride of lions positioning for hunting a gazalle , alligators waiting for their and even the birdlife is also prolific . Live Discovery Channel.

But the best of all is the "The wild beast migration". The sensation is unparalleled . Ten million or even more cattle migrate from the Serengeti in the south to the Masai expanse in september every year .


Driving in the midst of these great herds is an unimaginable experience. Whilst the eyes feast on the spectacle, the air carries the smells, the dust and the sounds of hundreds of thousands of animals. There is nowhere else on earth to compare with this wildlife marvel. But the trek is costly. The herds' draw ravening packs of predators, especially hyenas and lions, and thousands of the lame, laggard and sick never complete the cycle.
More die, by drowning or by the teeth of the cunning crocodile, while trying to cross the swirling muddy waters of the Mara river.
A well worth it and recommended activity in the Masai Mara National Reserve is the balloon safari. Early in the morning, you will be woken and driven to the departure site. Once in the air, the view of the surrounding landscape, the rising of the sun between the mountains and the congregation of the animals at the river is beautiful.

Cant wait to realise the experience live !

Tiger Text

Wonder what is Tiger Text ? If you go by the name , it kind of resembles Tiger Woods . Metaphorically speaking , Tiger Woods would have loved to be wary of the smart phone application , TigerText before his scandals hit the news headlines!
TigerText allows its users to send text messages to other Tiger Text users that disappears after a set period. The text would live in the recipient's cell as long as the sender desires. No sooner does that time elapse , the text disappears. The catch is TigerText message cannot be forwarded or stored unless one takes a snap of the same



fyi ...there's even a delete on read setting that counts down 59 secs from the time , the text is opened and erases it at zero . Wonderful huh !
It is the third most popular iPhone utility and the company maintains the name indicates tiger's stealth rather than the Woods brouhaha . So its all happening in the jungle - the tigers and the woods !