Monkey Baat

Once upon a time, animals in the jungle decided to conduct elections. They elected monkey as the new leader.

After elections they went to meet the monkey. They greeted him and told him about all the problems they were facing and requested action.

Monkey had no clue,. He started jumping from one branch to other.

Animals asked him,

"Dear leader! Why are you jumping from one branch to another?"

So he answered,

"You are all so ungrateful! Can't you see how hard I am working for your sake."

P.S: Heard this story somewhere. Could not find the source.

Market behaviour during different prime ministers.

Go through the data and answer, who was the best prime minister from POV of market. Respect him.

Do bhakts still believe Saheb will take sensex past mount 100,000?

Watch and weep. Don't comment.

پیاز

مہگای کے اس دور میں غریبوں کا نسیبا
میسر  نہیں  پیاز،    مل جاتے  ہیں  آنسو

मंहगाई के इस दौर में ग़रीबों का नसीबा
मयस्सर नहीं प्याज़, मिल जाते हैं आंसू

Fate of poor in this gilded age, 
Onions unavailable, tears abundant.

Anyway

People are often unreasonable, illogical and self-centered;
Forgive them anyway.

If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish motives;
Be kind anyway.

If you are successful, you will win some false friends and some true enemies;
Succeed anyway.

If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you;
Be honest and frank anyway.

What you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight;
Build anyway.

If you find serenity and happiness, they may be jealous;
Be happy anyway.

The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow;
Do good anyway.

Give the world the best you have, and it may never be enough;
Give the world the best you have anyway.

You see, in the final analysis, It is between you and God;
It never was between you and them anyway.

This poem is used by Missionaries of Charity. It is a version of the original written by Dr. Kent M Keith. It is believed by many that the modification was done my Mother Teresa.

Censorship in Pakistani media

In my school, we were taught in 'civics' that it is duty of 'responsible citizens' to form conclusions only after listening to each side of the story.

The newspapers I read are The Hindu and Times Of India. The Hindu is a mature newspaper while Times of India is sensationalist. My favorite magazine is Tehelka. I regularly purchase a copy after reading it on the website! I think that every Indian should read it. But I am digressing...

A few months ago I decided that to get a balanced view, I need to read a Pakistani newspaper. I did a quick Google search for 'newspaper in Pakistan' and the Dawn came up on top.

I liked the website. Clean, simple look. Lots of in depth analysis. Serious comments sections. Specially if you compare it to filth and venom which overflows in ToI comments section.

But soon I began to see a pattern.

Imran Khan is a enigmatic figure in India. He was a cricketer before he became a politician. Instinctively, most Indians do not like him. He was the one who managed to steal an unlikely cricket world cup for Pakistan in 1992. He is not going to be forgiven easily. And yet, in spite of everything, we are impressed by his charisma and leadership skill.

I found his opinions to be reasonable. He looked like one person who could unite Pakistan across class and faith. He is also an honest person. India can deal with him - if he comes to power - without fear of back-stabbing. Agreed he is a green horn. He might not know much about how to run a government. But he does know how to inspire a team. As long as he remembers that he is not an expert in administration and does not become overconfident, I think he will manage.

And yet I realized that the Dawn newspaper is quite against him. Posts after posts criticized him, in my opinion quite unfairly. But everyone is entitled to his own opinion.

Finally yesterday I saw a blog about Imran Khan that actually praised him. The blog was written by Farah Zahidi Moazzam. I liked it. It was one of the few news full of hope coming out of Pakistan.

The blog was posted at 4:30 pm yesterday (23rd May). I posted a comment on it at around 5:30. At 6 I went back to check whether my comment was up. And the blog had disappeared from the front page!

But that might be OK. At the same time, news about attack at PNS Mehran was coming in. So it was quite likely that the blog was removed to accommodate more important news. I went into the dawn blog page, and the it had disappeared from there also!

I gave it up at that time. This morning I decided to investigate a bit more. All the links to the blog had disappeared. Even Farah Zahidi's author page did not list this blog. The blog is still on the server though. I was able to finally search it up with help of Google.

What I am wondering is, is the censorship in Pakistani media self-imposed. Or is it being done by the government.

Or maybe, I am just getting paranoid.

The Judgement of Mullah Nasruddin

While discussing the policies of Congress Party with a colleague, I was reminded of a Mullah Nasruddin story I had heard long ago... I am not sure if it is authentic one - but I am quoting it as I remember it.

Once, Mullah Nasruddin was appointed as Qazi (judge) so as to decide a case. Everybody assembled and the case started.

First the plaintiff presented his case. He showed that he had been wronged. He used logic and law. He organized his cases in several points - and beautifully elaborated each point.

Mullah Nasruddin listened attentively. He made his own notes. After going through all the evidence he said,

Yes, you are correct.

People were astonished. One person from the audience dared to ask

But sir, you are supposed to listen to both sides before you pronounce judgement.

Mullah Nasruddin immediately admitted...

Of course. You are correct. Let the defendant plead his case.

The defendant addressed each point to show how raised against him. He also gave a very emotional speech in which he said that he was a simple, honest and poor person who had been trapped and was being victimized by his more educated opponent.

Tears welled up in the eyes of Mullah Nasruddin. He managed to say,

You are speaking the truth. I agree completely with you.

Unfortunately everyone was confused. An elderly person objected.

Mullah Nasruddin, first you said that the plaintiff is correct. Then you said that the defendant was correct. However both of them are contradicting each other. So only one of them can be correct at a time. Both of them cannot be simultaneously correct.

Mullah Nasruddin scratched his beard as he thought about it. And then he said...

Yes, you are correct.

Incidentally, I am a Congress supported. There are times when indecision is the best decision.