It’s difficult for me to write much about myself these days though I write about general topics. I’m quite uncomfortable most of the time what with the baby kicking a lot. It’s due any time now. So forgive me people if I’m not able to write about myself in the next few days. I’ m slightly worried and tense. I guess you guys will understand. Thanx!! Wish me well.

Continuing with the trend of megastars launching their own political parties, Superstar Chiranjeevi launched his own party ‘PrajaRajyam’ at Tirupati on Tuesday. And what a show! What a show of srength or support or whatever you want to call it. According to reports there were more than 10 lakh people there. Fantastic beginning. Anybody who watched this would’ve realized that Chiranjeevi is set to become a major factor in elections for state assembly in 2009. Apart from the obvious there are a few more issues which emerge out of this.
Firstly, Chiranjeevi has made no radical statements during the launch which is quite significant. It now opens up possibilities of him aligning himself in which ever manner he is comfortable in.
Secondly, with national elections also in the next year all three major constituents in the center the NDA, UPA and UNPA will try and rope him in. In fact it is this decision which he should take first before starting his innings. Why? Because all the three major parties in Andhra are already committed to someone or the other. TRS and Congress are together, as of now at least and TDP is with UNPA. That leaves the NDA. But will Chiranjeevi like to align with NDA in the first place? Or would he prefer to go all alone for these elections? Off course he can do that. It has its pros and cons. But one thing is clear that sooner or later he will have to take his pick out of these three. He cannot remain out of the national mainstream politics.
Thirdly, his second rung leadership is left leaning. Though this is no guarantee that he will join the UNPA, yet it is an indicator of certain policy decisions he might take later on in life.
Fourthly, the timing of his launch is significant. With elections about a year or so away he may have just enough time to prepare and capitalise on his initial euphoria.
Having said all this, I forsee NDA going whole hog to rope him in. The others may be keen too but will not be allowed to do so by TDP and TRS. Whatever be the case, Chiranjeevi has proclaimed to the nation that he cannot be counted out, at least in the near future.

Hillary Clinton is a sweet no nonsense women who knows what she wants and at the Democratic Convention she made it quite clear that she wants Obama as the next president of America. She appeared pretty forceful and energized in her endorsement of Barack Obama. She also thanked her supporters for their support and asked them to support Obama now. So far so good. Good speech. We do not doubt her words or her intentions. Aha! Well, on second thoughts, though I do not doubt her words I’m not so sure of her intentions, if you know what I mean. You don’t? I’ll explain.
You see, as far as her intentions are concerned she never intended Barack Obama to become the president of America. Everyone will agree with this. And ever since she lost out on the Democratic nomination she has been kind of forced to support Obama. Otherwise the Democratic party would’ve most likely disowned her. And on top of that Obama did not pick her up as his VeePee choice. I’m sure this would’ve hurt her even more. But she still has to continue to ’show’ support for Obama. Naturally, she is feeling pretty bad. Anyone would. At least I would, had I been in her place. Although she may not show it, yet.
Just in case if you guys feel that this is not the case, you can say so. But I’m telling you that all her talk of her support to Obama is fake. If she supports Obama wholeheartedly I would like to see her touring and campaigning vigorously along with Obama, at least from now on. But that will never happen, I promise you. And if she does I’ll rise and salute her and proclaim her as a great human being. For the moment I guess I’ll just have to wait and see.

If you asked me today to pick the president of US I would say forget McCain, forget even Barack Obama, just pick Michelle Obama. She rocks, man. She can give any public speaking guy a run for his money if she decides to. What a performance! What a speech! Had America been the only nation in the world and national security along with economy not been such major issues, Michelle would’ve been the most ideal person to be the president. She’s so cool, calm and so human! While she was speaking I felt like she was talking to me. I could identify with her. I felt that she was an extension of my own being. It was something like I could reach out and touch her. It was truly an exhilarating experience. I really wish she could’ve spoken for some more time. Nonetheless, Barack is hell of a lucky guy to have such a charming and graceful lady as his wife. I wonder why hasn’t he used her much in his campaign so far. May be now he will. In fact he should. She can really mesmerize the listeners.
Talking of the candidate’s wives what will happen to Mrs McCain now? Won’t she be losing her sleep after this performance? After all there will be comparisons, surely. Or will she just opt out? Whatever be the case she will have a tough time matching Michelle Obama. But guys, I won’t be rude here. I will give my best wishes to her. Go on. Take up the challenge. Make my day.
And before I sign off for now it would be unfair if I don’t talk about Kennedy. In one word ‘commendable’. The way he pitched up the nationalistic emotions was truly remarkable. With the likes of Michelle, Kennedy, Biden, Clintons, Nancy Pelosi and so many more in his ranks I’m sure Obama must be feeling quite fortunate. For now, all eyes shift to Clintons who are due to take the stage shortly. All the very best!

What the fucks! The pollsters are saying that girls studying in Michigan are ready to have sex in lieu of movie tickets, laundry washing (sic), tickets to a football game and other such freebies. What the hell is our workd coming to? Whats the matter with girls of Michigan? Hey hey! Sorry. I’m sure this is most definitely about Michigan. Its just that that the damn poll was conducted in Michigan. I’m quite sure that girls from Iowa or California or from any other place are no different. Not that that the percentage is too large but 14% is fucking huge. Would you guys believe that one of those girls, Stephanie Gerson, screwed one Brazillian guy for two weeks so that she could stay in a god damned jungle! For heaven’s sake people! What kind of shithead would do that? Crazy, absolutely crazy. Do you guys know what is this activity called? WHORING! What else? 14% of girls being ready to whore for freebies! Certainly alarming if not scary.

And what have the parents of these girls been doing all this while? What kind of social values and ethos have they given to their girls? They’re as much to be blamed for this as these girls. One can understand that these girls are young and immature. They can and do get carried away at times. But there’s is no such excuse for parents. It is their responsibility to take care of their kids and teach them the correct social values. Franky guys I’m scared, to say the least. And you should be as well. Some would say that I’m reading too much into this. May be. But what if I’m not? What if one day you found your child doing this just because she saw her friends getting freebies in this fashion? Difficult to imagine. Right? So you see there’s nothing wrong in being a little strict with our kids and teaching them the correct things in life. It’s for our own good and theirs too. All the best!

This is the face of a terrorist. He just happens to be a Hindu. I too am a Hindu but I will never support anything what these guys do, for whatever reasons. My God says that this is wrong. Burning of churches and nuns and priests cannot be justified. And those who justify these killings are no different than Muslim jihadis who plant bombs to kill innocents or from those Ku Klux Klan people who justify killings in the name of religion. Belief in God is a personal issue and is our right, according to our constitution. I may choose whichever religion I want to. That’s why we are a secular nation. And to maintain our secularism our govt should come down pretty hard on these guys like they did in the case of Graham Staines when Dara Singh was sentenced to death.
But frankly people, there’s much more to it than what meets the eye. Haven’t you ever wondered why these killings are taking place? Why would any one try to kill these Christians who are in any case quite few in numbers? Why? I’ll tell you. You see these missionaries apart from taking care of the poor also induce them to convert to Christianity. Money is also used to convert these poor people who are basically tribals. And that too for just a few thousand rupees which is actually quite a lot for these poor people. And you will agree that this a much noble way of preserving our religion and its beliefs.
Though I’m not saying that killings of these missionaries is okay but yet I want to highlight this fact that these missionaries too are not holier than thou either. I’m not against conversions, like I said earlier. But a person should convert out his own belief and conviction and not in this manner as is being followed by these missionaries. I’m sure Jesus too would not like his followers to believe in him because they’re being paid. And knowing the kind of fanatics that are there in Hinduism I can say with certainty that if these missionaries don’t mend their ways there may be more such incidents, however sad that may be.
Having said all this I would like to request all Hindus not to indulge in any such activity. Our faith and belief in our religions should be such that no one else can make us feel insecure about it. The very fact that poor Hindus are converting is because the other Hindus who are better off have not taken care of them. Why don’t we all do something about this? Why don’t we start taking care of our poor people, from whichever religion they are? They might convert to Hinduism because of this.

It had to happen. It just had to. I mean, I knew that both these parties who were each other’s bitter enemies till just a few months back have only come together because of mutual hatred for Musharraf. After Benazir’s death it only made more sense to team up so that they could pack off the dictator. And pack him off they did. I also knew that now with their primary aim achieved, their mutual differences would crop up and it would be a pretty rough ride from here on for both Zardari and Nawaz Sharif. But frankly guys, the speed with which Sharif pulled the plug completely surprised me.
For the uninitiated I will talk about the reason for this pull out. You see guys, Musharraf sacked whole lot of judges who did not listen to him. Nawaz Sharif’s party (never mind the name) made this an election issue and won whole lot of seats because of this. And so, apart from Musharraf’s ouster, reinstatement of judges was the most important agenda. So why doesn’t Zardari listen to his coalition partner and just reinstate these judges? What’s the big deal? Well guys, for Zardari it is more than a big deal. What? Why? Easy guys. I’ll explain. You see, there are a whole lot of corruption cases pending against Zardari. It is a well known fact in Pakistan that Zardari has made his millions during Benazir’s tenure as prime minister. And these are the same judges who put him in jail for more than a year. And the cases are still going on. So if these guys come back they will surely put Zardari back in the cell and god knows for how long. So quite unsurprisingly Zardari doesn’t like to stay in the cell. Instead, he was dreaming of becoming the god damned president of Pakistan. So you guys see now why Nawaz pulled the plug? What happens now? Frankly, all I know is that at the moment Musharraf must be having the laugh of his life. Apart from this I can see whole lot of political chaos and realigning of forces. And yes the terrorists will have a ball till things stabilize there. Its pretty scary but that’s what I feel will happen?
But what about you guys? Any bright ideas? Do you know what’s gonna happen now? Take your chances. It doesn’t cost a dime.

Good going guys. Just a day after announcing Biden as his VeePee choice, polls show that Obama has more than made up his 5 point deficit and is now level with McCain. Well, so far so good. Now, where does the story go from here? What does Obama do to move ahead? Hmmm! If you ask me I’ll say that Obama and Biden need to concentrate on Hillary’s supporters. That’s the catch. It’s these guys who can make or break Obama. According to reports, these guys, instead of supporting Obama, are tilting towards McCain. Now, that would be bad. Pretty bad in fact. So Obama now needs to play against the Republican Party as such and not McCain in particular, if you understand what I mean. Another aspect which Obama may be looking at is roping in Hillary in his campaign, if Hillary agrees that is. And that may be easier said than done. Touche!!!
But have you guys thought of a possibility that is quite possible? What if McCain picks up a smart black guy or a dashing white women as his choice for VeePee? Yeah, I’m sure none of you guys had thought of this one. A smart black guy or a smart white women with an economic background would be ideal. And I would be surprised if McCain picks up someone other than one of these two kinds. Yeah, that would be a cracker. That’s what I would then call a ‘Level Playing Field’. I can almost read the headlines ‘AMERICA DIVIDED DOWN THE MIDDLE’! Don’t be surprised guys. America will be divided if McCain pops up a VeePee like I said he might. What would you do in that case? Whom would you support? Go on. Play the game.

The grand show is over and I wish it could’ve carried on for some more time. After all how often do you get to see such a gathering of athletes who are undoubtedly the best in the world in their respective sports? What an extravaganza! The joys of winners and the emotions of others left us feeling elated as well as sad, both at the same time. Yeah, it was pretty emotional on certain occasions, for me at least. On the whole I would say that it was a pretty good show put up by China. Having said that I will also add that there were a few misses which count for a lot if you are not a Chinese. Although I’ll agree that in some cases they were not responsible for what happened. So let’s find out the goods, the bads and the uglies of these games.
The GOODS
1. Very well organised games. Impressive cultural shows.
2. Excellent facilities for athletes as well as spectators.
3. Lot of new records by people like Usain Bolt and Michael Phelps.
4. Fantastic show of humanity as well as diversity. Treat to watch guys in gals from so many countries competing in so many sports.
The BADS
1. Crushing of Tibetan and Uyghur protests. Absolutely cruel.
2. Barring of internet access even to the media.
3. Arrest of foreigners who were protesting along with Tibetans.
The UGLIES
1. The underage gymnast stuff. Even after the so called ‘probe’ I have my doubts.
2. The pretty small child miming song episode.
3. The façade of minority groups of China.
4. The filling of seats by volunteers.
5. Computer generated images during the cultural shows.
6. Despite everything few athletes still tested positive for drugs.
7. During one taekwondo match the loser knocking off the referee.
So if you guys analyze, most of it was okay except for the brutal crushing of Tibetan and Uyghur protests and this will come to haunt the Commies in not too distant future. I promise.

I told you so. I did. Check out my post ‘Obama picking his running mate’ of 19 Aug 08 and you’ll see for yourself. Good choice. So far so good. Now comes the hard part of convincing the voters that they’re an ideal combination. And to do this they have to extensively tour the length and breadth of the country together to influence the voters with their combined strengths. This can be done and Biden can help a lot on issues like foreign relations and national security. The fact that he has his roots in the working class and is a frank outspoken man are attributes which can reinforce the strengths of Obama. His son too is in the army and is scheduled to go to Iraq shortly. All these facts need to be played up wherever Obama is taking a beating.
But there is something which Obama and his team will find difficult to handle. Yeah, you guessed it. Biden’s ‘Obama not yet ready remark’. In fact McCain chaps have already raked that up. And off course Biden has a habit of stealing speeches from that British guy Kinnock and sometimes he speaks too much. But what the hell? The deal is done. The name has been named. Now Obama would do well to make Biden rehearse his speeches in front him before going public. And Biden should not go for talk shows either. God knows what he might say there. In fact Biden can just tell these TV guys that he’s too busy campaigning and has no time or something like that.
You know, there is something else also which I feel will be talked of by McCain and his campaigners, apart from what I’ve said already. They can very well play the experience of Biden card, only in its opposite sense. How? They can say that Biden’s experience is good and all that. But what happens when Obama as President is dealing with heads of other govts in a foreign country? Biden won’t be around there. How will Obama handle that? And vice versa too when Biden goes abroad and talks too much? What then? Well well. The cards seem to be stacked up pretty nicely on both sides. Lets see how the battle unfolds.