The Nobels..

There was a sense of elation when an Indian born scientist won the Nobel for Chemistry, eventhough he migrated quite sometime ago and is an American now. It only showed again that Indians are quite capable..but unfortunately they can achieve something only when they are out of India. If Venky, the scientist, had lived in India working in some University he would have been struggling with his life that he would not have much time for science. Even if he had the will to survive in the Indian environment of mess he would have found the going tough. Suppose he had worked in a government laboratory - shining examples of Indian scientific advancement - he would most probably have a superior who is there not beacuse of merit, but on other considerations like seniority, influence, social justice etc. Any request for material or equipment would be caught in beaureaucratic maze that Venky would have left twiddling his thumbs most of the time. It was good that he migrated and achieved something. There was a time, when we were young, when we thought that our future lay in India and we could achieve something for this country. 30 years later one feels that it was not worth it.

If Venky's nobel gave one a great feeling, the nobel for Obama was quite a disaster. It was really a shocker....gave one the feeling that the committee was competely off its rocker. However that is the way power and influence works.

Tokenism...

When one reflects on tokenism we find this lack of sincerity everywhere...everyone wants to appear what he or she is not...there is a singular lack of conviction in what many of us do or say....the netas have really cultivated this to the level of an art....hypocrisy and tokenism are their mainstays and there is no sense of shame. Neta in waiting and other wannabe netas are all queing up at the houses of poor to partake meals and theorize on what is wrong...when the truth is staring in their face...no government has cared for the poor and the marginalized people of our land..they are netas today because they are the very people who subvert the schemes and leach on the government. It is a pathetic situtation which is unfolding....netas offspring become netas on the strength of their money and muscle power carving out kingdoms and areas of influence for themselves...where does it leave the common man...just nowhere..and things can only become worse.