BLURRED VISION: October 2015

Newsletter 3.

Dear Family n Friends,

On Gandhi Jayanti day, the though upper most in my mind is:

Do we still live in Gandhi’s India; or for that matter in Tagore’s India?

Let me first dwell on the Macro issues concerning the polity that we live in. I am a confused over the actions n policies of the GOI. I must confess that I had healthy respect for NaMo’s administrative acumen. Yet the functioning of the Government has shown lack of coordination between various arms. To wit Finance Ministry and RBI; Committee on P Notes n SEBI n the flip flops; MHA awaiting details of the Nagaland accord. And a lot of ham handedness: Maggie Ban, Porn Ban, Mynmar Hot Pursuit. And all this despite the oft heard complaint that there is utter centralization of all power in PMO and other Ministries are throttled.

UPA would have been hard put to find Scams in the regime of avowed corruption fighter NaMo. But they managed to corner two senior lady BJP leaders and a Chief Minister. Vyapam in MP has been a case study of how deep corruption prevails in every walk of life. It is so deep that I despair of ever finding my beloved country free of corruption. BJP has managed to tough it out and refused to do anything about the issues raised by Congi. Absolute Power corrupts absolutely.

Finally the penny dropped as to how a life long Sangh pracharak has shown so much interest in things digital. Smart cities; Digital India. Google, Facebook n Silicon Valley. The IT boys who were on Obama Election Team, had joined NaMo Team prior to election. Having won the election, they are now the Golden Boys and get to steer the PM. Hence the high priority to things Digital. Crowning glory is the Mecca of Digital world. Silicon Valley.

On the other hand, the super fundamentalists are going berserk: Ghar Wapsi, Porn Ban, Beef Ban and criminalization of the disobedient, nay, lynching the ‘suspect’ disobedient

The Telecom Mission had really brought the Digital age to the villages, without becoming the be all n end all of the UPA regimes. But all things Digital, is hardly the priority for India. Bread Butter Issues vs Digital; Domestic issues vs International. I confess, I am not able to fathom the wisdom.

I only hope n pray that all this will come together to be the salvation of this Country.

People had lots hope that AAP might become the 3^rd option. Alas! Hopes are dashed. Inexperience will tell.

Dear Family and friends, that should be enough of the Political. Let me update you on the personal arena.

The apartment at Lavasa is now ready… bar a bed for the guest room and some small details. Finally we bought the white goods/TV from Croma Bandra; they managed to deliver thru Croma Aundh and handled the installation quite efficiently. DTH Tv has yet to happen; it is promised this weekend. There is no internet cable service here. I manage with 3G on my phone and visit the Maintenance office to do any important transactions that require wifi for the Mac.

Around that time, Harjit Singh, Sukhjit’s brother was here and paid a visit to Lavasa. He helped with the lay out of the furniture. More importantly, he brought with him the painting of Guru Nanak Dev Ji, which was commissioned by the late Baba Nand Singh ji of Kaleran. It has been in their family and is a treasure. Thereafter Gurbir Singh, their younger brother had joined us for a short trip. We celebrated Sukhjit's birthday at Ashiana. Luckily Dr and Mrs. Hozdar and their friends were at Ashiana. They dropped by in the evening loaded with Parsi delicacy: Patra ni Machhi. We contributed Sukhji Gaothi Chickedn from a Marathi dhabha they had suggested. Lovely evening that was. For the record, I acknowledge their contribution to our acquiring the apartment at Ashiana.

We were hoping that Gurbir would give me company as I camp in Lavasa. But, it is not worthwhile since my coming here was delayed due to delay in commencement of the repairs to the Mumbai home. He returns home on Sunday.

Ganpati Festival and Mount Mary Fair have gone by. Anu and Vicky had brought (a green) Ganesh ji at home and it was a nice interlude. The ‘service’ of the volunteers at the Visarjan of their Bappa was so awesome:- two boys took the idol beyond the tidal line, jumped into the deep and immersed… to avoid the tide bringing the idol back. And Vicky had to call them over to give them some money. They never asked for it.

With the 2^nd home being operational, we have vacated the sea side wing of the Mumbai home and structural repairs have commenced. I have come over to Ashiana Utsav Lavasa, in order to be saved from the dust that the repairs will surely entail.

It has been a horrible year for my lungs: I have been continuously sick most of the last 6-7 months. It is really a serial occurrence. I am hoping that a longish stay at Lavasa and its pollution free air, should help to break the cycle. I should be here most of October. Meanwhile Sukhjit is holding the fort in Mumbai. Fortunately neighbours are very helpful and that eases her task a little bit.

On my part, I am busy learning household duties: a bit of cooking, operating washing machine, supervising the cleaning maid et al.

Lavasa seems to have a weather system all its own. Today the temperature during the day has been in mid 20s. and we had thunder n rain. All this, while nearby cities continue to sizzle. Thank you Mr. Sharad Pawar for dreaming up this new Hill Station.

By now Simran and Harkirat have got back to University. Harkirat has joined Queens at Kingston Canada and seems to be enjoying himself. Simran is enjoying his status as Senior at Wharton. God Bless you Boys.

Tomorrow, I expect to welcome to our 2^nd home, Mrs. Tejaswini Joshi, a Twitter friend from nearby Satara and her son Bhibha. Look forward…

That is it for now.. More later.

I have some pix to accompany this. I shall post them later.

Some political cartoons reflecting the current unrest among non-bhakts. Of course for the Bhakts, NaMo can do no wrong. I am hoping that NaMo Sarkar's policy steps will come together at some future date and the naysayers will be proved wrong.