A few years ago I predicted a Trump win. I was thrown out of some Democrat leaning groups as a result. With the voters in echo chambers, it is hard to step above the fray and take a bird’s eye view of the situation. IMO, Kamala will lose due to these five issues.

The Economy: “It is the economy stupid”- James Carville a Democrat strategist said this famously and it still rings true. Inflation, which many believe came into focus due to supply chain issues from the U

 

For the first time in the US elections, the Indian Americans who traditionally vote Democrat are divided in their choices, especially when it comes to some Indian American candidates. There is a groundswell of support that Kamala Harris has generated by being on the Democrat ticket. However that is not the case for some other Indian-American candidates who are facing backlash from a large section of Indian American voters in their constituencies.

With Democrat Presi

COVID related data reporting has become a fickle exercise in India. The intent seems to be how one state can beat the other in terms of cases (NOT) identified.  To get to that flattening of the curve by hook or crook, numbers are being fudged, numerators and denominators are being tweaked, even dead bodies are not being counted. Policy makers have to think beyond this beauty contest mindset. Because what you don’t catch in testing will show up as pa

When someone asked why Kerala is so different from a social harmony perspective, it got me digging deeper.

4 hours and another Kindle download later...... Quoting from Ivory Throne-

"In 1607, after a century of (Kerala) battling the Portuguese, the traveler Pyrard de Laval was still able to write:

There is no place in all India where contentment is more universal than at Calicut, both on account of the fertility and beauty of the country and of the intercour

Asha Patels, the quintessential Amy Coopers of India

There are many Indian Americans who genuinely support the Black Lives Matter movement and are really concerned for the welfare of African Americans and for that matter human rights issues across the board.

There are hundreds of Indian American millennials out to the street. I know of a few who were almost run over by a truck in Minneapolis. There are the Indian Americans who let protesters stay in their homes. And I am s

Beta, Once upon a time there lived an Asura Prime minister named Jawaharlal Nehru. He was a descendant of Ravana, the demon king with ten heads. 

This Nehru was a very evil Prime Minister, he was also a friend of another evil uncle called Jinnah. 

Nehru prayed to a swami to send locusts to India and destroy all the food crops exactly 73 years after Independence. Jinnah Uncle asked for a pigeon to fly to India and spy on its citizens. The swami granted their wish.

COVID 19 Lock down Exit — A Service Sector Stack based model

While New England Journal of Medicine  bats against commonsense measures such as wearing masks, is public health suffering?

 

If wearing mask does not hurt you, why are these scientists groups fighting it?  Is perfect becoming the enemy of the good?

 

 

The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) has given a boost to an unsettling idea: that the novel coronavirus can spread through the air—not just through the large d

South Korea, China and Japan has been advocating a “mask all” policy, Trump has been advocating for more test and try hydroxy chloroquine for COVID patients, Cuba has been proponent of Interferon treatment, Germany has been advocating rapid testing and enforcing strict rules on not visiting Seniors.

A “Not Invented Here” mindset seems to be creeping across certain countries, politicians and medical and media professionals that maybe clouding our judgement whe

The economy is in the dumps, many may end up in detention centers, and youth unemployment is at all-time high. Distractions such as cricket and Bollywood and soon mandir building, will keep the youth/country busy on one side while self-destructive distractions such as youth mobs of Hindutva and existential threats such as NRC/CAA keep some others busy.

The big bang distractions such as surgical strikes on Pakistan are strictly reserved for national elections. For state elections, we

Now that Aam Admi Party has done it again, there is a clamour from its base to go national.

AAP has got three key things going in its favor 1. Anti-corruption plank 2.An acceptable/inclusive nationalism which acknowledges majority/minority sentiments 3. DELIVERY on development/bread and butter issues (bijli, paani, buses and schools).

Apart from the anti-corruption plank which no other party can claim in India today, AAP has borrowed from the right (nationalism) and the le

Because it is much more than just Kejriwal this time, much more is at stake.

The election is the validation of a model, an experiment in disruption of the Indian political model, a pilot project of sorts.

 It is extremely important for India and its political parties to see that that a development centric model that (actually delivers and does not remain a jhumla) will be reelected. Performance and accountability will increase across the board.

The people of

The CAA/NRC agitation has largely been a leaderless people’s movement. Apart from a few isolated political leaders, many mainstream politicians have been keeping a safe distance from the youth protesting against NRC, with a notable exception.

The movement’s faces have been the many faces of women at Shaheen Bagh and the other occupy movements; the vocal voices on stage have been Kanhaiya Kumar, Chandrasekhar Azad, and Umer Khalid; and stars like Swara Bhasker, Deepika Pa

 

#LA_ILAHA_ILLALLAH at Jamia Millia

It is a fact that Indian Muslims have major grievances, and after the Modi government came into power these have escalated to a level that Muslims are out protesting on the streets in major parts of the country against the citizen amendment act (CAA). Kashmir has seen intense abuse of human rights abuse since the new Modi Government took over.

From a political representation perspective, though Muslims make up 20% of the

Bihari Das and BPLs:

Bihari Das walks 10 kms a day for Rs 2000 from the bank.  He has to make several such exchanges to buy fertilizers and seeds.  Bihari Das Indians represents the REAL India that we who live in "a car to carpet bubble" and in NRI destinations do not see or WANT to see... The BPL (Below Poverty Line) people in India are the other set of people in India who we do not to consider in our day to day lives except when it comes to them being maids and

Surprise!! Surprise!! There is a group of Indian Americans who support Trump. They even have a face book page with some 400 likes!!  Trump stirs the Indian Americans pot in strange ways. Let us look at how some of these micro segments in the Indian diaspora are responding to Trump.

Trump for one has been able to bring out the dichotomy (hypocrisy might be the better word) among the Sanghis in US. The average Trump right-winger hot head does not have enough education to discrimi

Rahul Gandhi made a comment recently that BJP’s marketing is much better than that of the Congress party. This brought to my mind a topic I wanted to write up in more detail especially in the wake of the Bihar election where Prashant Kishor, the architect of Modi campaign moved over to Nithish Kumar’s side.

The Modi campaign brought to the fore the power of branding and social media into politics, which was untapped until then by political parties in a big way, giving th

This is a picture from inside the Maglev train @Shanghai. Though it may sound silly, I boarded the train so that I could take this picture!!! At 430 km per hour, this train would travel from Trivandrum to Kochi in half hour. In my mind, modern China is extreme capitalist in philosophy but maintains the existing communist party structure since it suits the political elite. Now cutting to Communist Kerala - A few weeks I spoke to a Mallu friend of mine in the Middle East who is setting up a med

I just got back from China, a country with an ancient culture and history similar to India, but unlike India, China is a real superpower today. Politicians and youth are obsessed with job creation. Did not hear cries for Chinese Maata ki Jai or scouting for beef eaters. Even the Tier 2 and tier 3 cities are pretty much like cities in the US. Law and order, women’s safety, infrastructure and cleanliness is not a concern.

Then I checked into our FB page and see the news item abo

The extra pains our Nationalists go through for a US PASSPORT !!

Here is the story of a card holding Bhakt friend of mine (Ms. D) who lives in Arizona. She is a diehard “nationalist” of India and PASSPORT HOLDER of US. I always wonder why she with fierce nationalistic feelings for India and a strong proponent of the Raam Rajya, ever wanted to migrate to the US. 

So, now coming to anchor babies for those not familiar with the nuances of US immigrat

I am writing this at 35,000 feet, flying right above the capital of capitalism, Washington DC, after listening to Kanhaiya’s speech. I am on my way back home after advising clients on a cost takeout initiative that may impact the livelihood of several employees in a rural town.

My advice to my client in corporate America is pretty much the anti-thesis of Kanhaiya’s core political ideology of communism. Furthermore, I even have issues of a personal kind with communism and

Remote nationalism by NRIs comes in various forms. The extent/extremism in nationalism depends on many factors. The NRIs who live in US/ UK/Europe and pursue a path to citizenship of those countries differ from that of the NRIs who for instance live in Middle East and such countries where the NRIs have to return to India at some point. Shall discuss more about this later, for now the focus is on the Trump effect. The next presidential hopeful of the USA, Trump, has been calling for immigrants

Aggression? Rightwing gone crazy? Lynching? Moral Policing? Farmers suicides? Sedition? Nationalism certficates? Holy Cows? 90% of the new voters voted for jobs, some voted for change, because they were sick and tired of the Congress. For some others it was the opportunity to go back to a time where upper castes could walkover the others with impunity. NRIs flew back to vote so that they could brag to their white neighbors that they come from a “superpower country”, and just happen t

I see posts about JNU students being asked to “JUST STUDY” and get home. If we do that we would become like Chinese students who turn out to be hard working zombies who follow orders. For India to leapfrog into the next wave of growth, we need you – DISRUPTORS.

To be innovators of the future our students NEED to disrupt, our students NEED to question status quo, our students may NEED to end up in jail. Because we need the innovators and thinkers of the future and N

Don’t get me wrong- I am not anti oogling at all. In my opinion, oogling keeps men, young and old alive, helps dreary commutes become a fantasy world, maintains sex starved marriages and allows divorce lawyers to keep their jobs... Wars have been fought and lives have been lost, but men never learn. BTW for the feminists among you, no one is against women oogling at men either. But while you were busy oogling away and singing praises for the man who provided you the KF calendars with st

To set the context on rhetoric vs reality, let’s start with some quotes regarding Pakistan heard during the election season.

“Now if they fire a bullet, we will fire a bomb, it is not like before that Pakistan would fire and our soldiers would be mute spectators” said Amit Shah during the Loksabha election campaign.

“Vote for PM Modi as both China and Pakistan are afraid of him,” said Sushil Modi of BJP, during the Bihar Assembly election camp

Zuckerberg goes to China to meet the President. Makes a speech in Mandarin, praises Chinese history and culture, talks about the Chinese technology talent, and poses for selfies. Sundar Pichai, a hero for many new generation Indians goes to Sri Ram College of Commerce, interacts with students, meets PM, selfies – the works.. But now here comes the difference. Number of FB users/FB Messenger users in China - zero. Number of Chinese messenger start up WeChat users in China- 549 million

In the midst of the smog and pollution concerns, there were a couple of news items that caught my attention in the recent days. For those who react with the “anti- national presstitute rant” and the questions like “don’t you not see the make in India deals and all the other good stuff?” hold your breath. Please make the effort of clicking on this link which addresses make in India developments. http://

In the midst of the smog and pollution concerns, there were a couple of news items that caught my attention in the recent days. In what is likely to be the first major ‘Make in India’ project in defence, the defence ministry is about to sign a deal with the US government to assemble 145 BAE Systems M777 155mm/39mm calibre lightweight howitzers in India. Estimated to be worth $700 million, the deal is being done through the Foreign Military Sales route and a draft Letter of Accepta

Many of you are Chetan Bhagat fans. Many have read his books. But some are fans not because they have a clue about his books /any book for that matter, but because Bhagat is/was a fan of the PM. Some of the twitterati retweet his tweets, like his posts and generally support whatever he says and does because we are part of this extended fan family establishment, a fan parivar of sorts maybe?

Let us look at another fan situation - Salman Khan fans erupted into celebrations when the co

This is not a discussion on the legal aspects of the National Herald case, I am not a legal expert on corporate law in India. This is about nonprofits and charities, campaign finance and the connection to a recent charity announcement - Mark Zuckerberg’s $45 billion “not so non–profit” LLC.

Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, announced the arrival of their baby daughter Max and pledged to donate 99 percent of their Facebook shares over the course of thei

When I came across the announcement regarding driving restrictions in Delhi I was thinking this is an extreme measure. Several questions came to my mind right away. What went into the decision making process? Were all the facts considered? Was there enough internal debate and discussion with the public? Unlike other governments Delhi has a government with several technocrats and is led by an IIT alumnus; hence my gut feeling is that a reasonable due diligence was probably conducted.

The untold story in Kerala panchayat elections - Kizhakkambalam village panchayat, a quiet village in Kochi, is now "owned "by Kitex Garments!! The party floated by the company Kitex garments 20/20 - wins 17 out of the 20 seats.

This brings some interesting questions to the fore apart from the extreme dissatisfaction with existing political parties. Does Kitex Lungi become part of the official dress code for the villagers? Do other lungis get banned? What is next? Alukka&#

Today, Narayana Murthy, the father of the Indian IT industry is an anti-national, and perhaps an US spy as well? He is associated with the  Ford Foundation!!! I am pained by the choice of words the “educated” youth have showered on  Narayana Murthy. I am sure Bangalore, and the rest of the world sees this “anti-national” very differently. This anti- national created an organization that put Bangalore on the global map. This man put India's IT industry on the

The picture you see here is from Afghanistan in the 70s, before it became a Taliban state. But I am talking about a different country here, Turkey.

Turkey is beautiful country, our family has been thinking of visiting Turkey for quite some time now. But not any more, despite the discounted tickets. With bomb blasts off and on, Turkey sadly is not on our list of family vacation destinations now. Even if I get an all-expenses paid ticket to Afghanistan, I won’t fly in there nor

I personally respect free speech and support the idea of ABSOLUTE free speech. Many others I know do too. Are we a minority? What is the ground reality? For many, free speech is an aspiration- Middle East? For others, North Korea? - a question mark. For some others, Pakistan? - good to have but use it with caution... And for India? toying with our own definitions of free speech,(the noise about the film PK, shouting down of the Godse fans by liberals..). Several others really don't care as p

One of my friends posted on his blog about the sorry state of our hometown and compared to the city in Japan where he now lives.It reminded me Imran Khan's slogan in Pakistan elections "Bad people get elected when good people stay at home". So WHY do we vote corrupt/criminal politicians into power? Could it be that we are too complacent to vote that we are being screwed? ( Trivandrum had 68% turnout, lowest in Kerala, Bangalore 52%,lowest in Karnataka, Mumbai 56% lowest in Ma

In this moment of grief we are united in our support for you, words cannot console the hundreds of parents grieving in the wake of this tragedy.You would have seen the outpouring of support from India as well as from across the world in the wake of this tragedy. We understand that at the end of the day, it is the common man who is hurt by terrorism. At Netamaker, we primarily focus on India and how we can improve our political system (a lot to be done here) but what has happened in Pehsawar is s

The winter session of Parliament has been a major blow to Modi’s development agenda which has been sidelined by actions of the right wing elements in the party. The most recent one is the conversion row. But if you have been following  the  headlines lately, they have been around the following 1. Forced conversion row 2. Minister’s hate speech 3. Kiss of love 4. Nathuram Godse is a partriot 5. Bhagwad Gita as national scripture 6. Ast

Bhagwad Gita is respected and followed by millions of people across the world. The Gita has been around and inspiring people for a long, long time, WITHOUT the endorsement of any political party. One of the silly arguments that came up is that since Obama was gifted the Gita, it became the nation's "Official scripture". So does Obama get to decide what India’s scripture is? What a shame!!! Does the Gita need an Obama or for that matter a Sushma? In the aftermath of the c

  As Aam Aadmi party gears up for Delhi elections once again, the party has to come to terms with the fact that a lot has changed since 2013. First off Modi is no Man Mohan Singh and the BJP today is not like the Congress of 2013. In 2013 AAP was able to capitalize on the intense public anger against the string of corruption scandals that rocked the Congress party. Can AAP hold on to the anti-incumbency votes it garnered in 2013? Today, the face of BJP is Narendra Modi; inspiring leader hig

Good question... For starters lets us just say that the job description for a political leader in India has changed. Those days when a party leader could show up in white kurtas just a week before the elections and expect the voters to go with his party are gone. Politics is an intense 24X7X365 profession and a thankless job too... (ask Sheela Dixit)... Would it have something to do with those national embarrassments your party gifted to the nation?... the Kalmadis, the Rajas and their ilk? Wond