Kumar’s thoughts (https://theindianfreepress.com/)

How does one become a Father to a civilization that has existed for 5000 years? On October 2, 1869 in the state of Gujarat and city of Porbandar, a man was born. The parents called him Mohandas K Gandhi. In the next 78 years, he would preach non-violence and patience with invaders. The country, at the time, was battling the British and caught on to his philosophy. If one slaps you on one cheek, offer the other he said. People followed his principles. In hindsight, this could be a mistake people committed. Gujarat had made its first blunder but would they get another chance to set the scores right?    M K Gandhi had, in the meanwhile, collected a group of people who believed in his ideology and would follow him to the end of time! They named themselves The Indian National Congress. This party still exists. When he died, this party bestowed upon him the title of Father Of The Nation. Score INC 1- India 0 Six years later, the same state saw the birth of Vallabhbhai Patel who woul

The country is now in the middle of the election season. All parties are going about campaigning like their lives depended on it! And why not? For most of them, this could be the last time they contest any election, as a credible political party! The likes of JDS, TMC, DMK are probably on their way out! Before detractors scream bloody murder, I said PROBABLY. The only thing that these parties are afraid off is the evolution of the New India. Gone are the days when kids listened to their parents about who was good and who was not good for the country. My grand-father, may he Rest !n Peace, was a socialist at heart. On the other hand, my dad was a Sanghi and to his last day, a few weeks ago, remained one. I didn’t grow up as a sanghi (one of my regrets) but I understood what my father said more than I did my grand-father. Kids today are much more aware of the climate within the country, political, economic and otherwise. To tell them that the country is worse off now than it was fiv

What is it that prevents the common Indian person to stay away from the polling booths. Not all of them, mind you. For the most part, people understand their responsibility and come out to vote. Then we have a group of “elitists” who don’t seem to think they need to grace the polling booth, for whatever flimsy reason they can concoct. It’s not like they haven’t seen lines of people waiting patiently, and yet a line of people waiting to vote seems to be a formidable force that they get maimed by! Is this what a true democracy looks like? Even in the USA, we have scragglers who don’t show up to vote but that’s a very minute part of the population. When a city , the size of Bangalore, shows only 50% of its population votes, this does show a systemic problem. I would venture a guess that the city is inhabited by a transient population that is unable to connect with the local representative. However, ideologies should dictate the vote not the person. A good person belonging to a corrupt p

Sitting here with tears that have dried up, I think of my dad who passed away 4 days ago. He was a wonderful person; I know all of us think of our fathers the same way!    Born a Brahmin to a post master, the man worked his way thro high school, then engineering where he did exceptionally well to get an entry into the then world famous Tata Institute. He would study aeronautics under the able guidance of Dr Satish Dhawan, his mentor. He would go from there to the University of Illinois Urbana Champagne where he got his Ph.D in Aeronautics. Where most people would have stayed back in the USA, he decided to come back to India. He joined the Tata Institute as an Asst Professor and was there for two years when he was recommended, by Dr Dhawan, to head the Dept of Aeronautical Engg at the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur. While most of the family was excited about this opportunity, being very young at the time, I didn’t want to leave my cousins!!!! My sister was 1 and would have mo

Five years ago, a non descript but charismatic gentleman took charge of a country that was staggering from all the scams. You name it, they had faced it! Came to a point where the country was known, the world over, for political corruption. Enter Narendra Modi. A charismatic leader with his ordinary upbringing, he was what the dynasty was not! He had come with some baggage, some would claim.  After all, they said, he was responsible for the Godhra carnage (he was acquitted of any wrong doing by the courts) forgetting that they were responsible for the ’84 carnage of the Sikhs.  The media, which had been, till then, provided with special privileges, quickly played this song. For 50 years, or so, the relationships that the media had built up with the party in power had just been made ineffective! Political parties cried about the effect this new government would have on the “progress” the country had seen over the past few decades. India would be set back a few centuries, they claimed