As Dr. Manmohan Singh broods over the misfortune that has befallen the nucleur deal, he is forgetting some basic tenets of a democratic ruler.

Firstly, as a  majority of Parliamentarians are against the deal in its present format, Dr. Singh should accept that as a democratic outcome of his efforts and not take the loss personally. He should, of course,  try and convince his colleagues on the importance he feels the deal has for the country and leave it that.

So far as the matter of country's prestige is concerned Dr Singh should recollect that it was the US which sneaked in the Hyde Act AFTER they had signed a draft agreement with India. So why should we be bound by that Act which clearly is a breach of the original agreement?. Moreover, he must also try and appreciate that the US Congress also has yet to approve the deal . What happens if India goes thru all the required steps like IAEI approval, NSG approval and then the US Congress turns it down . Will President Bush feel so down cast or ashamed?? The answer is no !!!

So Dr Singh should stop brooding and get on with other necesaarry jobs that a PM has to do  and run the country. It is not the end of the road for him or his party or the country.

Remember, a duck can afford to be lame if it is a good swimmer so forget all that nonsense about being a lame duck government.   

When Mr. Kalam leaves the Rashtrapati Bhavan, he can rightly take pride in having been a people's President. He is a good human being and a good Indian. HOWEVER,

At the very end of his unblemished tenure, he managed to lose touch with the PEOPLE. He claimed that the majority of people wanted him to get a second term and , thus his willingnwess to seriously consider the third front's mischievious  offer. What the good doctor did not realise is that the SMSes and the e-mails he claimed to be getting were not representative of the Indian masses. The penetration of computers and internet is very low and while the number of mobiles has grown , the common man still does not use SMSes to convey his opinions. It is the idle well-off youngsters only who waste money and time on these gadgets. The common man uses his mobile as a necessity for keeping in touch with business associates and family and NOT for sending SMSes to the President.

Anyway, this small blip apart, he was a great President and I wish him all the best.  

How nice it would be if all my Blog-friends decided to do a good deed today. The deed could be very very small but it should make a difference to someone else. It may be  monetary or emotional or material or any other kind of support to someone else. The size of the support is not important. But the deed IS.

I have 19 Blog-friends and that makes it 19 deeds over the next few days. If the blog gets displayed on these friends' Ilands, it could add up to more , even a few hundred good deeds spread over the next few weeks. The world will be that much better for such deeds.

So, friends let us all try and do at least one good deed today.

Why is it that the moment you have a pen in your hand ( or a keyboard ) you wanna write write write ( or type type type).... why does one feel that everbody would be so interested as to want to read whatever one writes..... Why does everyone with a writing passion assume an audience out there waiting with bated breath for his next words...... 

Well, a few are privileged enough to have that kind of an audience ... for one, it is the Rowling woman who is all set to create new records with her last novel in the rather silly Potter series ( Ha, a hero on  a broom. I tease all potter fans). ... In the meantime for the rest of us it is these blogs which give an outlet to our supposed creativity and all those nice bloggers out there who visit your page and read you so that, in turn, you visit them and read them. How childlike can adults become...

As Linus ( of  Charle Brown fame) would say " Blogging is crazy".  

Ever wonder why things become bad just before they get worse. The darkest hour is not before dawn but just ... just before... it becomes pitch black.

Hey, you out there... I was joking...things are not as bad as they seem today, .. don't worry ... the dawn will be here soon enough.  

Thank God, its over.... after  a long long month of high to very high temperatures, the summer heat has passed away and the cruel sun will appear again only next year  i.e. in the year  2008 !!!.
                              
In the meantime, the clouds have gatherered outside making the sky black and beautiful. Our rooftop is again banging away like a mad drummer as the rain drops fall all over its rough surface. Water gurges through the rain pipes and the music from the storm drains  is also very very sweet. 

So let us go out and enjoy the rains as they are meant to be.... viz. in a hearty and inhibited manner...  letting the drops hit your body and face ...also promise to yourself never never to carry an umbrella ever again... not at least when it is raining.   

 The Third Front lurches from one act of mindlessness to another. Without consulting Mr. Kalam, they have chosen him as their candidate. Firstly, Mr Kalam has had his innings - a very good one- and there is no reason for him to be considered again. After all, the highest office in the country is largely ceremonial and we do need to give a chance to all sections of society to have "their" man ( or woman) inside Rashtrapati Bhavan. So Mr. Kalam is out of question.

Lets hope Mr. Kalam continues show the good sense that he always has shown and does not get trapped into the machinizations of the third front.    

 The cynics ( including Barkha Dutt) say that Patil is a compromise candidate and, therefore, loses the sheen of being first possible woman Prez of the country.    I would like to inform such people that healthy politics is all about compromises.  There are, say, a dozen parties who together have formed the present Governement at the Centre in India. All these parties have every democratic right to put forth their viewpoint forcefully and the main party viz. Congress has a duty to try and accomodate all of them. That is how every government should, in fact, be run (even in case of single party governments of 1950s, the ruling Congress had a dozen lobbies and the same situation exists in the US and UK also). 

Therefore, to run down Ms. Patil's candidature on the grounds that she was not the first or even the second or third choice shows a scant disregard  for the democratic process, What is important is that the democratic process ensured that , finally, a good candidate got selected.

Three Cheers Pratibhaji and three Cheers UPA.

Whosoever said freinds are for ever obviously did not have a family or did not care enough about his/her family. Friends come and go but it is Family that is for ever.

Go back to your schooldays. Remember those "I'll die for you" promises. How many of such names ( leave aside the faces) you can even recollect. Go back to college.... not much of a difference. So how do you think your workplace friends are gonna be any different?!  Even if you have been lucky enough to have a few good friends, how are they better than family OR in what way is the family worse than those freinds? And do you really support your family as much as you support your friends?

Think deeply and carefully and immediately decide tio take better care of your family as against your friends.