And Then One Voted

What I had to go through to get my voter ID card will take up two and a half blog posts, but after having cast my vote now, I feel it was worth all the effort.

Here's to Indian democracy -







Wrong finger?




















Thank you very much, DNA. Huh.




















Old Airport Road, Bangalore at 6:45 am.
































The Polling Station











List of candidates and alternate ID proofs.
















The polling booth at 7 am. There were problems with the EVM and polling began only by 7:15.






















Heartening to see the queues getting longer!















Do follow our analysis, opinions, agreements, disagreements on these polls on the election blog - http://indiapolls2009.blogspot.com.

Dear Aniruddha Bahal, It's Not Funny

Dear Aniruddha Bahal,

Not a week passes in my life without I mentioning strongly recommending Bunker 13 to people I come across and who seem even remotely interested in reading among those. If I were deeply religious, one would have observed that I go back to Bunker 13 more often that I go to the religious texts. Of course, one needs the kind of madness that made MM the man he was. When I die, I will be glad that I introduced you and your writing to a lot of people around me. While I most eagerly look forward to another Bunker 13 and another MM from you, I really can't understand the need for you to invent Tony M at this moment. Yes, we Indians are starved for quality humour and what we are being served now does no justice to our discerning intellect, but I will remain skeptical of this attempt of yours till I watch the said show and find out if it really deserves you. Tehelka was excellent work and I admire you not only for what you brought to the rot to light, but also how you withstood all the persecution that followed. I really admire Shankar Sharma and Devina Mehra for the same. Please convey my best wishes to them and to Tarun as well. One need not look beyond you guys for inspiration on how to fight back in the face of all odds and come back and come back doubly strong. You started Cobrapost much before those of us in the web 2.0 infected world starting throwing about terms like RSS feeds and news aggregators. For all we know, Cobrapost might just take off and make a strong comeback if you spend more time on it that trying to humour us by being Tony Bhasand. And what is this? Is this what Aniruddha Bahal has become?

Is your absurd sense of humour your forte?

Humour is not the fort. If the truth in the joking then the peoples laughing and spreading all over out from the Naini fort on the river.

I really hope you and your publisher are working on another Bunker 13 and you won't disappoint your followers and readers. Maybe your following is a billionth of that of Sharukh Khan and you are not Arundhati Roy, reading whose work kids think they become intellectuals overnight and go around telling the entire world about it. We are you fans by choice, not by the lack of it. Hope you know that.



Maybe I'm over-reacting just on the ten questions you answered for the Outlook interview. But I hope you understand that you are at your best when you are either stinging or you are writing. And please don't meet Vipul Shah or Akshay Kumar, otherwise we'll soon be watching a movie titled Stingg is Kinng, with the unnecessary extra alphabets and there is also the threat of them wanting you to write the script.

Hope to see you back to writing soon.

Regards,
Nikhil


PS. I must mention here that I immensely enjoyed reading A Case of Exploding Mangoes. Just a note that you now have some competition in fiction writing about military, politicians, war, spying and espionage in the sub-continent.

Image Credit: Outlook

Welcome (to) Ashok Mishra

Just when we thought no one except Gulzaarsaab, Javedsaab, Kirkireji and to a certain extent Neelesh Mishra could write enjoyable songs for Hindi movies, we have a welcome addition to this honoured club. Let's extend a warm welcome to Ashok Mishra. Ashok Mishra debuts as a lyricist with Welcome to Sajjanpur. Forget all this nonsense about how the songs try and put the cool back in the gaon, or how the songs try and show that it's all happening in the hinterland, or even how the album really tries hard to bring out the latent “gaon-waala / gaon-waali” in all of us. Just sit back and take a good listen to the songs and I'm sure you will come round to appreciate the talent that Ashok Mishra is. And it definitely doesn't harm one's chances if he's in the good company of Swananand Kirkire and Shantanu Moitra and moreover for a Shyam Benegal movie. If I were to start writing songs for Hindi movies, this would be my dream team to start working with.



You can listen to the songs here or better still, buy the CD. Or download the songs and make sure you at least ten people around you listen to each song! My picks are Sita Ram, Aadmi Aazad Hai and Ek Meetha Marz De Ke.

PS. Found out that there was no Wikipedia entry for Ashok Mishra. Here's the page I've created. If you more information about this talented lyricist, please go ahead and add it to the page.

The Real Hero of Rock On !!

None of the following are the real heroes of Rock On!!

Farhan Akhtar

Arjun Rampal

Shahana Goswami

Prachi Desai

Javed Akhtar(Only he can write both - Zehreeley Zehreely Kaale Neele Peele and Jo Tum Ho Toh Hawa Mein Bhi Mohabbaton Ka Rang Hai with equal ease. Yes he wrote Dard-e-Disco.)

Jason West (He's the cinematographer)

Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy (As Ehsaan mentioned, it was just another jam session for them. Western music comes naturally to Ehsaan and Loy and I'm sure if ever there's a Rock On!! 2, they'l do much much much better.)

Ritesh Sidhwani (He does remain a hero for me, not only for this movie but also for the way he and Farhan have carried their friendship and passion to this level)

And not Purab Kohli, Luke Kenny or even Chakravyuh!

To me, the hero of Rock On!! is Anu Malik. Why, you ask? Because it takes something to play yourself in a role in which you know you are being ridiculed. Well, almost. Some of us know it as the ability to laugh at oneself. Perhaps that's Anu Malik's idea of laughing at himself. Hats off to you Anubhai!



PS. Hats off definitely, but I don't know about the wig inside the hat/cap!

Image Credit: www.radiosargam.com

Who Cares What Obama Says...

...when he makes an entry for his acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention with City of Blinding Lights. Turns out he's been using this song to open his performances since 2007. Yo! Bama, shall we say then?

Koel - Kahaan Gayi Teri Boli?

[Promise to myself - This is the first and last time that a post is entirely about a celebrity]

Maybe this post was supposed to be about Rock On!! Or it was supposed to be about my our music story or about Vajra, our college band comprising of Mrinabh, Joji, Chinsi and Shubam which I briefly managed during our final year. No, it's about none of them. Instead, turns out that it's about Koel Purie. I'm no style or fashion expert for I still don't understand all the brouhaha over Vidya Balan's sense of dressing or even the apparent lack of it and surely will never understand it. But I can definitely see how worn down Keol appears now, compared to her Everybody Says I'm Fine days.

Dear Koel,

Congratulations on your new TV show - On the Couch with Koel. Definitely helps when you have a father like him,, doesn't it?. If you are listening, can you please clarify this for us? Were you drunk or high on drugs while interviewing Salman Khan on your show? And what's with that forlorn look in Rock On!!? For God's, discerning viewers', your followers and my sake, you looked like Purab's mother in the movie! Did Niharika Khan have some evil designs for you?! Please take care of yourself and your appearances in forthcoming TV shows and movies. We are watching you. Hope you are listening to us.

Regards,
Nikhil

PS. Rock On!! is good. And sorry guys, I downloaded the songs. But then I have the lyrics of all songs except Zehreelay by heart and have made at least ten people around me listen to at least two songs each from the movie. Hope that makes it up for downloading the songs. I'd have been really glad if you guys made the album available for free download and recovered the money on the music by touring across the country and performing with Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy. That perhaps wouldn't be BIG money, but you'd have done more than your bit to promote good music in India and encouraged other musicians to try and work towards a better solution to end piracy.

PPS. Technically, this post still remains about Koel, right? Post scripts aren't considered a part of the main post, are they?

Hazaaron Khwahishein Nahin, Bas Ek Khwahish

Dear Kirkireji,

I hope you, like I do, believe that this is your best song till date. I do not say best song ever because I believe, hopefully you also do, that there are many more such gems to come from you, both as a writer and a singer. It hurts me no end when I see such a beautiful composition being trivialised by being used in a television commercial*. I understand that perhaps you did not have as much say as folks at Virgin Records or at PNC, but this is still something we find hard to digest. Not music to our ears, if I may say.

I earnestly request you not to hurt your fans henceforth by letting your songs, either sung or written, be used for purposes other than for reaching musical ecstasy. Yes, there's an odd aberration like this one, but we know you're back in tune after this. Your songs, like this one, are music lovers' secrets, and only those in the know of it really understand how valuable they are. Please let them remain that way.

Please convey my regards to Jhingranji, Shantanuda and Mishraji.

Regards,
Nikhil

* The television commercial in question is the new Airtel+Nokia ad featuring Abhay Deol and Raima Sen. Glad that it's not up on YouTube yet. Glad that I'm not linking to it from my blog.

Happy Independence Day - II

I only have this to say. If it takes a jazzed up version of the National Anthem to market our national anthem to our youths , then God save our country instead of the Queen. Maybe I am a little old-school, finding such an experiment with our National Anthem hard to digest. I'm definitely not against any form of display of patriotism that happens these days, which is nothing but wonderfully disguised marketing campaigns, but this one is taking it a bit too far. There's a sense of aesthetics associated with any National Anthem and this new experiment trivializes that feeling. At 00:43, it has to be Gaahe Tava Jaya Gaatha and not Gaaye Tava Jaya Gaatha. If one's looking for a mistake, there you go. That's one for you. All the best Nokia, may you have more youth, feeling all the more patriotic, thanks to your initiative download more ringtones and buy more phones from you. All the best MTV. And Thank You for reminding our youth that we have a National Anthem. Be glad India, your youth have finally found you, thanks to MTV and Nokia.

Happy Independence Day

So it will be a Happy Independence Day after all. The Box Office is keeping producers of this movie happy and that the lead character's name is Happy is only, well, a happy co-incidence.

Abhinav Bindra's win at Beijing has exhausted all possible phrases with the word gold in it. With so many (more) news channels and newspapers(and some more) around, no wonder everything looks and sounds the same. So this Independence Day, all of India, which, to the news channels consists of everyone in their air-conditioned, glass-walled news studios and those whose who overwhelm them with text messages and emails will celebrate the arrival of India on the world scene (Have you already forgotten the nuclear deal?) and the emergence of a confident, self-assured youth here in India. Thank you Abhinav, if not for you, we'd have had a very gloomy Independence Day celebration or so our newsmen and women would have liked us to believe. Left with nothing but the increasing inflation and rising costs, they would have perhaps shed a tear or two(damn, it's already raining, why add to people's misery?) about the floods down South or would've gone on about how freedom is not all that happy as a certain government is making others dance to its tunes, rather not to dance to any tunes.

Rabbi's second album is out and Bilqis(Jinhe Naaz Hai) perhaps captures my sentiments best. I still remember talking about the short public memory with Sap while the Satyendra Dubey episode was making the headlines and I now wonder if any of us still remembers him. What I did not know was about Navleen Kumar. A social worker fighting for the land rights of tribals in Nallasopara, Thane District, she died on receiving 19 stabs on June 19, 2000. She was fighting against the powerful Thakur family which has built nothing less than an empire in those parts of the Mumbai suburbs. Strange enough that I did not come across this earlier, as Nallasopara is very close to Boisar which I (used to) visit quite often. Rabbi remembers her in Bilqis(Jinhe Naaz Hai) along with Shanmugan Manjunath and Bilqis Bano. Here's the video -




We're still a young country and have a long way to go. And long way in the life time of a country usually means centuries. Neither are we going to rule the world tomorrow nor will we cease to exist as a country the day after. Someone please go tell that to our media persons. Or am I asking for too much from them? What the hell, I'm free to think and wish in this country and that remains my wish for this Independence Day. That we try and nip this obsessive celebrity following and excessive consumerism in the bud or we'll end up as something else. Now, that's for another post. Enjoy the extended weekend. Did someone say Independence Day? What's that? Isn't that on July 4?

More CNN-IBNonsense

It's not everyday On IBNlive, it's everyday that one comes across news stories of varying ridiculous proportions, but one of today's headlines is definitely out of the box, the sort that sees a hand with a boxing glove come out of the box(idiot, if TV or a flat box, if it's a laptop screen) and punches you straight in the face. Dear Copy Editor at IBNlive, if you objective was to capture my attention, congratulations, you have succeeded. But if your objective was to make me take seriously what you folks at CNN-IBN/IBNlive say/write , I'm sorry, I won't from now on. Here's the head line and the piece following it. Emphasis mine.

Should the N-deal be seen as anti-Muslim?

A day ahead of the crucial meeting between the Left and the UPA Government, CPM politburo member and trade union leader M K Pandhe claimed Muslims are against the Indo-US nuclear deal. CPM leader Prakash Karat attended Shia rally in Uttar Pradesh to protest against India's vote against Iran at the IAEA as well as George Bush's visit to India. Analysts say the Left must not bring religious sentiments into foreign policy issues.


Thank God for the analysts, we'd otherwise have some serious trouble in our foreign relations with Azerbaijan during Diwali or a sudden thaw in relations with Mongolia during Ganesh Chaturthi. Religious sentiments are high during those times, you see.

More CNN-IBN fun.

Koncerned About Karnataka

No, this is not about an Ekta Kapoor serial on Karnataka, but a really concerning phenomenon which could have a potentially adverse effect on the relatively clean politics environment in Karnataka.

Outlook carries an article by Sugata Srinivasaraju on the rise of the Reddy brothers in such a very short time from being nowhere on the scene till the late 90s to dictating terms in Karnataka politics. The article is rather strangely titled Deep Vein Thrombosis. It mentions that the RSS is said to be "very concerned with the Reddys' growing influence" on the state BJP. Though I don't subscribe to RSS's RSS feeds, meaning don't subscribe to most of their views, I have reasons to agree with them on the Reddy brothers' though. And not just about their growing influence on the state BJP, but of the entire granite lobby over Karnataka politics.

Let's see how this one plays out. In these parts of the world, the granite stone is more valuable than gold and diamond. Sincerely hoping that granite doesn't do what diamond and gold did to Africa.



Image courtesy the Churmuri post on an ad in newspapers by another MLA from another granite-rich area Hospet praising the Reddy brothers and their associate with allegedly criminal records B Sriramulu.

PS. Deep Vein Thrombosis. And I have no clue yet on why the article was given that title.

Viva la Vida and Brian Eno

Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends sees the coming together of two brilliant brains, Coldplay and Brian Eno. Having briefly worked with Coldplay on their last album X&Y, Brian Eno has gone on to produce Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends for them. And by the looks and the listens of it, and as Guy Berryman mentions in the interview to Rolling Stones, they've gone into exploring newer territories and they've come up trumps. It might take a while for the music to be digested, but once it is, it just gets into the system smoothly.

Coldplay performing Viva la Vida at the MTV Movie Awards 2008



Rolling Stones India



It needs another blog post to do justice to the genius that Brian Eno is, but I was introduced to him through this song from The Son's Room. I can not remember a more perfect use of a song in a movie.

Here's the song -

The Truth About India

Now, after traveling some eight thousand miles around the country, I know approximately as little as I did on my first arrival. However I've seen a lot of people and places, and at least somewhat more detailed and precise idea of my ignorance than I did in the beginnning.

Paul Bowles in Their Heads Are Green and Their Hands Are Blue, an excerpt from which is carried in India In Mind, edited by Pankaj Mishra.




Not surprising at all, an opinion like this coming foreign traveler. But it holds equally true for an Indian traveler like me. The more one discovers India, more is the feeling of having known nothing at all about this magnificent place.

PS. The book is put together well. It is a collection of pieces from books by foreign authors and travelers about India. Also, LibraryThing doesn't seem to be working. Anyone fans of the website and missing it as much as I am now?

Polls In Karnataka - A Quick Note

As someone who follows Indian politics very closely, it is a tad disappointing that I haven't been able to follow the build-up to the elections in Karnataka as closely as I'd have liked. But still an opinion or two, or perhaps a couple more. Contrary to what these people have to say, the Congress will not get a majority. In my opinion, no party will. The Congress used the revision of electoral rolls as as an intelligent tactic to delay the elections, and this will definitely not help the BJP ride the sympathy wave. Nevertheless, the sympathy is still there and the BJP will gain from it. According to me, the tally will more or less remain the same as in the previous election. The BJP and the Congress will get a few more seats at the expense of JD(S) and others like JD(U), SP and the BSP will just be making a guest appearance in the analysis of the experts sitting in their air-conditioned studios. Good luck to you guys, hope you get higher TRPs and have more people believe that what you say is actually true. Just a small note, Karnataka is not just Bangalore. There are other regions which are part of Karnataka and people living there are also part of Karnataka.

More as the elections progress.

Earth Day Barkings

And one was under the impression that today is Tuesday. With each day being gobbled up for such causes, one wonders if 365 days are enough. So while Google does very dull logo change, the message is gotten across by our good friend Hutch. Such a gentleman he is. Tough, and very hard for him to resist it must be in a place like Bangkok. Every possible pun intended, in a very earthly way. His status message on GTalk -

Only when the last tree has died and the last river been poisoned and the last fish been caught will we realise we cannot eat money.
~Cree Indian Proverb
Happy Earth Day!!!

Well done, my boy. But that's not enough. One needs a more powerful message from an even more powerful messenger, our Boss. No wonder he has the veto power, the power to say yes while everyone else is in opposition and the result is still in his favour. Such is his power and that of his veto. Power, by the way happens to be another creature who doesn't have anything to say on this. Here's Boss's message on World Earth Day through his GTalk addressing system-

♫

today is earth day lets piss on the plants and shit in the fields...give back to mother earth

Short, actionable and powerful. Your words are our orders, Boss. Come, let's hit the fields right away.

Bliss - Dil Indeed Dance Maare Re

It has always been my dream to make a song like this. Write it, get someone to put the song to music and shoot it. But I'm glad one among Piyush Mishra, Vishal Dadlani, Anvita Dutt Guptan or Kausar Munir(from what I gather, Vishal it is) wrote a masterpiece like this and Vishal-Shekhar gave such wonderful desi music. And Uditji, your rendition of even the word sasura is amazing indeed. Thank you Yashji and Adi for letting Vijay Krishna Acharya do this.

My favourite lines -

Rose Ke Jaisan Pink Pink Hamare Gaal Gulaabi
Sky Ke Jaisan Blue Blue Yeh Tohra Nain Saraabi
Bhola Chehra Jaise Moon, Kaali Julfe Jaise Cloud
Abb Na Aur Chhupaaya Jaaye, dhadkan Ho Gayi bhery loud

Now to the masterpiece -



PS. What if someone achieved my dream? I can always do better!

Learning For The Day - Rukmini Devi Arundale

Till today, in fact a few hours before this post, I was unaware of the existence of Rukmini Devi Arundale.

Funny earlier and it's a life fact now that, as one discovers and comes across more things unknown, it appears one knows a lot lesser than what was thought earlier. That's the joy of discovery and learning.

Came across her profile in the India Today's special issue of 60 Greatest Indians. An interesting fact - she was offered the Presidency by Morarji Desai which she declined. Would've been good to have a danseuse as our President. Unlike the present one, who doesn't quite do justice to her more illustrious lineage . Hope there's no dent to the President's honourable chair during this term. So far so good, Smt. Patil-Shekhawat has been. No action is also good action. And as the elections draw close, I feel India is terribly missing Mr. Pramod Mahajan. That will be another post, but Mr. Mahajan, India needed you and one moment of insanity took us away from you. You were the best Prime Minister our nation never had. Rest In Peace, Pramodji.

The State Of Indian Politics - Post Gujarat Elections

The state for now is definitely Gujarat. Much has been said, written, heard, spewed, vomited, acted, faked, dramtised before, during and after the elections in Gujarat. There was never any doubt about Narendra Modi's victory in Gujarat. Perhaps what was to be keenly watched during this election was Modi's victory margin, in Maninagar constituency where he was facing Union Minister Dinsha Patel and the overall assembly tally. Both the results have given enough fodder for the analysts and experts to stuff their mouths with and shut them. Funnily enough, they still go on. Perhaps it's the TV studio lights or the press printing machines that are to be blamed. I don't think the English language media that Ms. Ghose refers to, gets it. The average Gujarati, definition of which may vary and is open to discussion, doesn't watch any of the English language news channels, leave alone sit through the analyses and the debates. He doesn't even read the English newspapers, leave alone read the complex and sometimes fanciful Op-eds and guest articles. This of course, is in addition to the national media brand of reporting carried in the regular articles. The average Gujarati is a very real person, more concerned about what's happening with him and around him. Perhaps that little time spent through flipping Gujarat Samachar or Sandesh, the time spent through catching on a bit of ETV Gujarati or Alpha Gujarati or time the spent in the trains to and from work is his window to the external world and a source of knowing what is the world saying about Gujarat. The Prannoy Roys, Barkha Dutts, Rajdeep Sardesais, Arnab Goswamis, Karan Thapars, Yogendra Yadavs and soon to come, Vir Sanghvis (with or without Gangulys) are nowhere on his radar. These media men and women seem to have missed this point completely.

What makes Narendra Modi different from the other political leaders is that he's more real and if one were to use that phrase, in your face, than most of them. Compare him with the Gandhis, the Vajpayees or the Karats, and you find there's something enigmatic about them, as if they're only meant for those rare appearances, with the people that is. In contrast, Narendra Modi is everywhere, with his SMSes, ringtones, masks( Tehelka, of course, had an issue even with that, literally. The cover story was titled The Mukhauta Campaign) and even YouTube videos. While he's able to widely connect with his audience at the grass-roots level, he remains being very subdued and measured in his public appearances. Just being seen is not enough, being there is important.

Now that the General Elections are drawing close, we are in for some entertaining times on TV and in the papers. New phrases around actresses will be coined, like BISPASA it was the last time around. Social and political scientists from JNU, Made-Only-For-TV leaders from all parties will join the presenters and the reporters in entertaining us. But what makes me wonder is that if I, and perhaps Seth, are the only ones who seem to know the possible truth? That the country did neither vote the Congress to power because of its aam aadmi campaign nor did it vote the BJP out for its Indian Shining campaign. What helped the Congress, rather what is now known as UPA, were the huge victories in Andhra Pradesh(with TRS) and in Tamizh Nadu (with DMK), some deft coalition cobbling by M/s Ahmed Patel and co. and the Left's compulsion to align with secular forces and not communal forces like the BJP. That is all, nothing more nothing less. And Mr. Advani, you lost some respect when you recently said about the India Shining campaign being a mistake. In fact, it made a lot of us feel good about the state our country was in then. And the feeling wasn't just restricted to the urban middle-class people. Blaming the campaign for your defeat wouldn't be the right thing to do. Let's see what else is in store for us like he said in that movie - "Pichchar abhi baaki hai mere dost". But Mr. Khan, that's movies and this is politics. And politics is real.

To Ms. Suhasini Haider, Senior Anchor and Correspondent, CNN-IBN

Dear Ms. Suhasini Haider,

Warm greetings. I'm writing to you regarding comments made by you during the night bulletin you were presenting on CNN-IBN on Dec 6, 2007.

At the outset, let me share something with you, which hopefully, you will be glad to know. A lot of young people in this country watch you on national television, and one day, hope to become what you are. They form their opinion based on what you say, based on what you show them and based on what you make guests on your shows say. That's a fine art, putting words into people's mouths, and you and your brethren in the media seem to have perfected that. These young people, being impressionable considering the age they in and the age they are of, appreciate that fine art as well. Stupid as it may seem, they take a lot of what you say very seriously. Hence my humble request to you is to be measured and balanced when you say something on national television.

On Dec 6, 2007 while referring to the exhumation of dead bodies at Nadigram you said - "It is still not known which party the dead belonged to" The dead, Ms. Haider, are dead. Please do not politicize their death. Those young boys and girls, you see, will talk about it in their college, talk about it during their bus and train commutes, talk about it during their numerous hang-outs and chill-outs and soon they will come to believe that the dead need to belong to political parties. Such is the power of your work and the profession industry you work in. Please use it responsibly.

Regards,
Nikhil Kulkarni

To Mr. Meghdoot Sharon, Correspondent, CNN-IBN

Dear Mr. Meghdoot Sharon,

Warm Greetings. I'm writing to you regarding your article headlined BJP makes bachelor CM its ladies' man in Guj on IBNlive.com on Dec 3, 2007.

While I understand that Mr. Rajdeep Sardesai is your boss and you might feeling honoured to work with an intellectual like him, it doesn't necessarily mean that you share the same disgust that Mr. Sardesai has for Mr. Modi. It's a different thing if it is a company policy in CNN-IBN to always spew venom at Mr. Modi, however flimsy or trivial the reason for that great piece of journalism maybe. If you and your team are that sure about Mr. Modi's complicity in the riots, which are to be condemned in the strongest of terms, please come out with hard facts and take on Mr. Modi. Do not fight from the comfort of your air-conditioned glass-walled studios, that's not fair. Give the other person a chance to respond. And if the belief is that the evidence is all there and still there's no action, then there's something seriously wrong in the justice delivery system in our country and maybe that is what you should be looking at setting right, and not targetting an individual. In fact, Mr. Modi appears more dignified with his silence compared to your repeated diatribes, which are, more often than not, are needlessly vitriolic and below the belt. What about this article headlined Modi sells Guj Inc, 'appeases rich and ignores poor' which appeared on Nov 18. Articles like these, Mr. Sharon, are not, in good spirit and smack of vengence and a huge sense of political and maybe, even personal vendetta. It doesn't appear to be reporting or journalism, it's sleazy and sickening.

I don't think I need to clarify, but I'm no supporter of Mr Modi. If that man is found guilty by a court of law and even if he's to be hanged for the crime he's to have committed, so be it. But do not become the judge yourself. I'm reminded of that famous quote from Spiderman here. At least, credit him for the work he has done in his term as the Chief Minister. And if you stay in Gujarat and have seen things around you while you report, I'm sure you'd agree with me, that development in Gujarat has happened, and has happened at a good pace.

Good Night, And Good Luck

Regards,
Nikhil Kulkarni