"A SHIP ABOUT TO SINK@ -- Pritish Nandy

Dear Veronica,

 

It is sad that this article written by Pritish Nandy in March-2011 is still doing the rounds with a lot of Wow...Wows... I agree that it has been written well, and that much of its contents were relevent at the time when it was written, and I am as enraged and worked up over the scams exposed. But today, sixteen months after and a lot of water has passed under the bridges...(including the insufferable 'Anna' movement by by so-called crusaders with questionable agenda.... and much as I am all for seeing the scamsters all meet the ends of justice....... to me Nandy's good writing sounds no more than rhetoric with an agenda too - and so falls totally flat.

 

The problem with our country is that it is so easy to jump on the band wagon to pull down a government! Had Nandy said one word in his entire piece on what or who is the alternative - whether we can really have the luxury of pulling down governments without concrete steps at preventing bigger rogues from taking over, I am sorry....

 

For me a known rogue is a better bet than an unknown rogue!

And as everyone agrees (...Pritish Nandy too), Manmohan's credentials are still better that others'. He is not a crook or a rogue - and to me he is better than the crooks (known or unknown) waiting for opportunity round the corner....

With regards,

 

Maxie

------------------------------------------

 

 

On 22 July 2012 15:42, veronica peris <veronicaperis2009@gmail.com> wrote:

A SHIP ABOUT TO SINK --- Pritish Nandy
A very well-written article! Please read all the way:

I like Manmohan Singh. He has immaculate credentials. It's these
credentials that have seen the UPA through its most stormy years. If
Singh wasn't Prime Minister, the Government would have collapsed a
long time back. No, not because of its inherent coalition
contradictions but because it's simply not possible for so many crooks
with conflicting agendas to loot the country together, almost as if in
perfect unison. The Indian Political Philharmonic Orchestra must be
the world's most amazing cacophony of rogues, rascals and robbers.
Luckily for the UPA, there was always Singh to fall back on. Most
middle class Indians refuse to be cynical. We know exactly what's
happening around us, we criticise it constantly, but when it comes to
the crunch we all rally around the nation and the flag. We are not
bat-brained paranoids. Neither are we wide-eyed innocents ready to buy
into every ridiculous explanation thrown our way to explain the loot
that's taking place in broad daylight. But the latest season of scams
has flummoxed all. This is not just Alibaba and his chaalis chors.
Everyone among the chaalis chors is another Alibaba with his own forty
thieves. That's the way the pyramid of crime operates today. But
because Singh, soft spoken and self effacing, is the face of this
Government, India has kept faith.

But now, enough is enough. Neither Singh nor Pranab Mukherjee, nor
anyone else is capable any more of saving this Government. It's neck
deep in its own sticky sleaze. What's worse, you haven't seen anything
yet. All these scams are but the tip of the iceberg. Talk to anyone and you will get an instant dhobi list of scams in queue to break. No, I am not saying this. Congress leaders are, in private.
Look at Singh, wan and waylost. Or Mukherjee going apopleptic in faux
anger because he has to defend what he knows is indefensible. They
look less convincing than Rakhi Sawant playing Joan of Arc.

The problem is: We have voted into power the stupidest bunch of thieves. They are such losers that they can't steal a hamburger without leaving ketchup stains all over. Yet they are constantly trying to pull off
the biggest scams in history. From Rs 64 crore in Bofors, they have
upped the ante to Rs 170,0000 crore in 2G and no, I am not including
hundreds of aircraft Air India bought while sinking into bankruptcy
and preposterous sums spent on arms deals that have made India the world's second largest arms buyer when we can't provide food and healthcare to 60% Indians. Our leaders are making deals on the sly with greedy builders, land sharks, illegal mining companies, corporate fixers, shady arms dealers and, O yes, US diplomats who want to manipulate our political choices. And, what's more amazing, they do it like bungling idiots. Even Inspector Clouseau can outwit them.
But that doesn't mean they are not malevolent. These are people who
are destroying India from within. They are not just robbing you, me,
and the exchequer. They are destroying institutions, subverting laws,
vandalising our heritage and history, and trying to build a dazzling,
amoral edifice of crime and corruption unprecedented in the nation's
history. It's a scary scenario that could turn the land of the Mahatma
into one gigantic Gotham City with a flyover to hell.
But my question is more basic: Can we trust these idiots to run this
great nation?
If you travel and meet people across India, you will realise that for
every scam that breaks—and currently there's one breaking every
week—there are ten more waiting in line. The media has never had it so
good! And it's the same gang whose names keep coming up. Kalmadi,
Satish Sharma, Sant Chatwal, Ashok Chavan. The NCP lot.
The DMK. And everyone, in private, is protesting his own innocence,
pointing fingers at someone else. It's a sure sign of a collapsing
regime. It's what happened when Rajiv with a staggering majority in
parliament lost his mandate to govern. Rats alone don't leap off a
sinking ship. So do everyone else.
So even though Singh, like Pontius Pilate, may wash his hands off every scam that hits the headlines, the fact is: The longer this Government stays, the more compromised the Congress will be, and the less capable of coming back to power. You can't allow the sovereignty of a nation to be compromised just to win a confidence vote. You can't bribe MPs to get your way in parliament. You can't allow a shady hotelier, with CBI cases against him, to play roving diplomat and, worse, give him a Padma Bhushan for it. You can't appoint a tainted bureaucrat as the nation's CVC. You can't file a FIR against a corrupt CM and then allow him to melt away. You can't let the prime witness to the nation's biggest scam, who offered to turn approver, be murdered in broad daylight and pretend it's a suicide.
If this is the best this Government can do, it's time to step down.
Pritish Nandy

Whiskey

To all my class-fellows of yesteryears.......

This calls for a peg boys.

An old one but still worth a repeat

You don't have to enjoy whiskey to love this.
If the story is not apocryphal it'll only prove that politicians will be politicians - speaking from all sides of their mouth at the same time.

Subject: Whiskey
*Here my friends is a choice between the devil and divine!*
Choice is yours, no one can explain it better than Armon did half a century ago.
*WHISKEY*
In 1952, Armon M. Sweat, Jr., a member of the Texas House of
Representatives, was asked about his position on whiskey. What follows is his answer, taken from the State Archives:
"If you mean whiskey, the devil's brew, the poison scourge, the
bloody monster that defiles innocence, dethrones reason, destroys the home, creates misery and poverty, yea, literally takes the bread from the mouths of little children; if you mean that evil drink that topples Christian men and women from the pinnacles of righteous and gracious living into the bottomless pit of degradation, shame, despair, helplessness, and hopelessness, then, my friend, I am opposed to it with every fiber of my being.
However, if by whiskey you mean the lubricant of conversation, the philosophic juice, the elixir of life, the liquid that is consumed when good fellows get together, that puts a song in their hearts and the warm glow of contentment in their eyes; if you mean Christmas cheer, the stimulating sip that puts a little spring in the step of an elderly gentleman on a frosty morning; if you mean that drink that enables man to magnify his joy, and to forget life's great tragedies and heartbreaks and sorrow; if you mean that drink the sale of which pours into Texas treasuries untold millions of dollars each year, that provides tender care for our little crippled children, our blind, our deaf, our dumb, our pitifully aged and infirm, to build the finest highways, hospitals, universities, and community colleges in this nation, then my friend, I am absolutely, unequivocally in favor of it."
This is my position, and as always, I refuse to compromise on
matters of principle."

--
Maxwell Pereira IPS (Retd.)
3725 Sector-23, Gurgaon-122017

9871263322

Understanding Women.....

WOMEN'S REVENGE 'Cash, check or charge?' I asked, after folding her purchased items. As she fumbled for her wallet, I noticed a TV remote control her purse. 'Do you always carry your TV remote?' I asked. 'No,' she replied, 'but my husband refused to come shopping with me and I figured this was the most evil thing I could do to him legally.' UNDERSTANDING WOMEN    (A MAN'S PERSPECTIVE) I know I'm not going to understand women.   I'll never understand how you can take boiling hot wax, pour it onto your upper thigh, rip the hair out by the root, and still be afraid of a spider.   WIFE VS. HUSBAND A couple drove down a country road for several miles, not saying a word. An earlier discussion had led to an argument and neither wanted to concede their position..   As they passed a barnyard of mules, goats and pigs, the husband asked sarcastically, 'Relatives of yours?' 'Yep,' the wife replied, 'in-laws.' WORDS A husband read an article to his wife about how many words women use a day, 30,000 to a man's 15,000.   The wife replied, 'The reason has to be because we have to repeat everything to men... The husband turned and asked, 'What?!' CREATION A man said to his wife one day, 'I don't know how you can be so stupid and so beautiful all at the same time. 'The wife responded, 'Allow me to explain. God made me beautiful so you would be attracted to me; God made me stupid so I would be attracted to you! WHO DOES WHAT A man and his wife were argueing about who should brew the coffee each morning. The wife said, 'You should do it because you get up first and we won't have to wait so long to get our coffee. The husband said, 'But you are in charge of the cooking so you should do it.' Wife replies, 'No, you should do it, and besides, the Bible says the man should do the coffee.' Husband replies, 'I can't believe that, show me.' So she fetched the Bible, opened to the Old Testament and showed him at the top of several pages, where it says, 'HEBREWS'. God may have created man before woman, but there is always a   rough draft before the masterpiece

Fwd: The Gingham Dress....A True story

 THE GINGHAM DRESS

A lady in a faded gingham dress and her husband, dressed in a homespun threadbare suit, stepped off the train in Boston , and walked timidly without an appointment into the Harvard University President's outer office.

The secretary could tell in a moment that such backwoods, country hicks had no business at Harvard & probably didn't even deserve to be in Cambridge .

"We'd like to see the president," the man said softly.

"He'll be busy all day," the secretary snapped.

"We'll wait," the lady replied.

For hours the secretary ignored them, hoping that the couple would finally become discouraged and go away.

They didn't, and the secretary grew frustrated and finally decided to
disturb the president, even though it was a chore she always regretted.

"Maybe if you see them for a few minutes, they'll leave," she said to him!

He sighed in exasperation and nodded. Someone of his importance obviously didn't have the time to spend with them, and he detested gingham dresses and homespun suits cluttering up his outer office.

The president, stern faced and with dignity, strutted toward the couple.

The lady told him, "We had a son who attended Harvard for one year. He loved Harvard. He was happy here. But about a year ago, he was accidentally killed. My husband and I would like to erect a memorial to him, somewhere on campus."

The president wasn't touched. He was shocked. "Madam," he said, gruffly, "we can't put up a statue for every person who attended Harvard and died. If we did, this place would look like a cemetery."

"Oh, no," the lady explained quickly. "We don't want to erect a statue. We thought we would like to give a building to Harvard."

The president rolled his eyes. He glanced at the gingham dress and
homespun suit, and then exclaimed, "A building! Do you have any earthly idea how much a building costs? We have over seven and a half million dollars in the physical buildings here at Harvard."

For a moment the lady was silent. The president was pleased. Maybe he could get rid of them now.

The lady turned to her husband and said quietly, "Is that all it cost to
start a university? Why don't we just start our own? "Her husband nodded. The president's face wilted in confusion and bewilderment.

Mr. and Mrs. Leland Stanford got up and walked away, traveling to Palo Alto, California where they established the university that bears their name, Stanford University , a memorial to a son that Harvard no longer cared about.

You can easily judge the character of others by how they treat those who they think can do nothing for them.

--- A TRUE STORY By Malcolm Forbes

Making a difference: Truly Inspirational!!!

Making a difference:
As we get older we sometimes begin to doubt our ability to "make a difference" in the world.  It is at these times that our hopes are boosted by the remarkable achievements of other "seniors" who have found the courage to take on challenges that would make many of us wither.
 Harold Schlumberg is such a person:
 QUOTE FROM HAROLD:
"I've often been asked, 'What do you old folks do now that you're retired?' Well...I'm fortunate to have a chemical engineering background and one of the things I enjoy most is converting beer, wine and vodka into urine. I do it every day and I really enjoy it."
 Harold should be an inspiration to us all.

first words on gramaphone

The First Words recorded on Gramophone.....

Not many are aware of this!

 

HMV Company had once published a pamphlet giving the history of the gramophone record. Gramophone was invented by Thomas Alva Edison in the 19th century. Edison, who had invented many other gadgets like electric light and the motion picture camera, had become a legend even in his own time.

When He invented the gramophone record, which could record human voice for posterity, he wanted to record the voice of an eminent scholar

on his first piece. For that he chose Prof. Max Muller of Germany, another great personality of the 19th century. He wrote to Max Muller

saying, "I want to meet you and record your voice. When should I come?"

Max Muller who had great respect for Edison asked him to come on a suitable time when most of the scholars of the Europe would be

gathering in England.

Accordingly, Edison took a ship and went to England. He was introduced to the audience. All cheered Edison's presence. Later at the request of Edison, Max Muller came on the stage and spoke in front of the instrument. Then Edison went back to his laboratory and by afternoon came back with a disc. He played the gramophone disc from his instrument. The audience was thrilled to hear the voice of Max Muller from the instrument. They were glad that voices of great persons like Max Muller could be stored for the benefit of posterity.

After several rounds of applause and congratulations to Thomas Alva Edison, Max Muller came to the stage and addressed the scholars

and asked them, "You heard my original voice in the morning. Then you heard the same voice coming out from this instrument in

the afternoon. Did you understand what I said in the morning or what you heard this afternoon?"

The audience fell silent because they could not understand the language in which Max Muller had spoken. It was `Greek and Latin' to them as they say. But had it been Greek or Latin, they would have definitely understood because they were from various parts of Europe. It was in a language which the European scholars had never heard.

Max Muller then explained what he had spoken. He said that the language he spoke was Sanskrit and it was the first sloka of Rig Veda, which says "Agni Meele Purohitam." This was the first recorded public version on the gramophone plate.

Why did Max Muller choose this? Addressing the audience he said, "Vedas are the oldest text of the human race. And Agni Meele Purohitam is the first verse of Rig Veda. In the most primordial time, when the people did not know how even to cover their bodies and lived by hunting and housed in caves, Indians had attained high civilization and they gave the world universal philosophies in the form of the Vedas."

Such is the illustrious legacy of our country!

When "Agni Meele Purohitam" was replayed the entire audience stood up in silence as a mark of respect for the ancient Indian sages.

This verse means:

"Oh Agni, You who gleam in the darkness, To You we come day by day, with devotion and bearing homage. So be of easy access to us, Agni, as a father to his son, abide with us for our well being.

It is sad that such a GREAT civilization has degenerated today into a country brimming with lost values, corruption, and discord in every aspect.

Jokes from Trilochan: 30Jun2012

Smart BOY.....Humour

 

NEVER UNDERESTIMATE THE SMALL:

A young boy enters a barber shop and the barber whispers to his  Customer, "This is the dumbest kid in the world. Watch while I prove it to you."
The barber puts a five rupee coin in one hand and two one rupee coins  (1+1=2) in the other, then calls the boy over and asks, "Which do you  want, son?"
The boy takes the two one rupee coins and leaves.
"What did I tell you?" said the barber. "That kid never learns!"
Later, when the customer leaves, he sees the same young boy coming out  of the ice cream store.
"Hey, son! May I ask you a question?
Why did you take two one rupee coins instead of five rupee coin?"
The boy licked his cone and replied,
"BECAUSE THE DAY I TAKE THE FIVE RUPEE COIN, THE GAME IS OVER"
MORAL - When you think the other person is dumb and smaller than you, you are making a fool of yourself!
-----------------------------------------

 

FEMALE BRAIN
Last night I was sitting in the living room, talking to my wife about life... In-between, we talked about the idea of living or dying.
I told her : Darling never let me live in a vegetative state, totally dependent on machines and liquids from a bottle. If you see me in that state I want you to disconnect all the contraptions that are keeping me alive, I'd much rather die'.
My wife got up from the sofa with this real look of admiration towards me....and proceeded to disconnect the TV, the Cable, the Dish, the DVD, the Computer, the Cell Phone, the iPod, and the Xbox, and then went to the bar and threw away all my whiskey, rum, gin, vodka & the beer in the fridge...
I ALMOST DIED!!
The female brain works on a totally different wavelength from the male brain.....