What price - Intellectual?

Greatly amused to find Chetan Bhagat and Narayanamurthy sparring like good old Quixote tilting at windlmills.

Both are IIT graduates albeit from different times and both have built great reputations and moved numbers of people with their achievements.

Narayanamurthy with his stupendous success at what Chetan Bhagat describes as body shopping has succesfully gatecrashed into the select group and NDTV often refers to him as an intellecftual - he who took to crossing swords with a poor Panchayat president who was only asking why Infosys with its bloated cash reserves would not pay market prices for land acquisition and shielded behind antique laws to have the government notify land for acquisition for his company. He who praised the tv channels for their bold handling of the terrorist attack on the Taj Mahal Hotel and a famous t v anchor's brave strutting about at the height of the drama; he who when asked about possible approaches to fighting terrorism was inclined to promote vigilantism; he who attempted to improve Bangalore's muncipal administration with a task force and then abandoned the task; he who gave up on steering the commisioning of the Bengaluru International Airport; he who was proposed as a solution for Kashmir's unemployed youth presumably by promoting the succesful body shopping in Kashmir too. And now alas, he who thinks that the IIT students do not have enough brains. Is it the successful intellectual par excellence or is it the foolish

vanity 0f the public intellectual being carried away by the adulation he gleans.

Corruption, corruptin everywhwere.

I have been greatly amused by the news item that many NRIs in Britain and in America and elsewhere have supported Anna Hazare and are publicly voicing their allegiance.

When I mentioned this to my slighty dumb friend he made this wonderful remark.

" Kya udhar bhi brashtachar hota hai ?"

"Why? Is there currpotion in those countrie too?"

TWO FOR ONE

What a lovely joke! Decades ago when the Americans were trying to catch up technologically with Europe they had claimed that on drilling a tunnel from both sides of the hill they came to within six inches of each other when the two tunnels met The Swiss, of course, replied that they had improved on their older techniques and these days they come within a half inch when the two tunnels meet in the midle of the hill.
But lo the Indians drill from both sides of the hill and they go on and on without meeting but hurrah for when they finish they have two tunnels.
Thus it is that we have ended up with two drafts of the Lokpal Bill

THE HIDDEN WEALTH IN BLACK MONEY

We must all be most grateful to Anna Hazaare and to Baba Ramdev for the tapasya they have been doing on the question of black money. Just look at the resuts and you will see the power of the tapasya and the fasting. Hidden wealth has been surfacing from unexpected quarters. No it is not the vaults of Swiss banks that are yeilding treasure.

It is the hitherto unknown chambers of God and Godmen that have brought out such enormous wealth. First the secret hoards of Satya Sai Baba and now the subterranean dens of the Sacred Temples.

Truly the power of the fasts are unimaginably great.

The power of publicity

We had expected it to happen soon. The very massive weight of the multitude of scams have made a qualitative change to the question of corruption and the White Knights have come galloping in with Anna Hazare leading the charge. Fortuitously he chose a period after the World Cup in Cricket and the media were able to fill their screens with such lovely shots of people gathering in large numbers and lighting candles and youngsters speaking out. They were not confronting a Hosni Mubarak or a Gaddafi. The Andolan gathered strength and we heard of many leaders with large flocks chiming in. Articulate Film stars lent their weight to the movement to the great delight of their fans. Sri Sri Ravi Shankar we heard had laid out the party line and Baba Ramdev who was overtaken by events made a late entry; the spiritual leader Sai Baba alas, was ailing and his followers were left without direction. And today's papers tell us in bold headlines that the crisis is over and yet on another page we read that a former Prime Minister and an incumbent Chief minister (both from Karnataka) are lending support to Anna Hazare. Truly great is the power of the media for look their frenzied coverage has yielded results.