Dear Shashi, I was referring to the interesting phrase you have in your write up - No matter where the cold originates we are always the ones sneezing our heads off.

 

It happened in the shilpa shetty issue also. A no good actress in a show which nobody watches makes some stupid comments to another decrepit actress and what happens. You probably watched it on TV. There was a literal media frenzy with thousands of callers calling in, media moguls giving theor opinions on all and sundry and politicians making statments. for two to three days there was pretty much nothing elso on tv.

 

In the end the show which no one watches has the highest viewesrhip in years and consequently rakes in teh moolah, the actress concerned get a huge benefit by winning and of course jade gets to come to india thanks to a thoughful Ministry of tourism. You would think Indians are the easiest to get manipulated and you would be right. our own desi politicians have been doing it for years and suddenly the western world has cottoned on.

 

Anyway after your comment i re-read your blog and i agree i completely missed your original point  since you were commenting on more imprtant issues and hence i withdraw my comment. sorry for the diversion but the issue above rankled me a lot and i thought it was connected more with  the spirit of you essay than with the substance.

 

 

Being a bit optimistic aren't we!!! Ever compared the condition of the two train systems u were talking about?  Why do you think the electronic voting sytem had to be introduced? not because we are IT savvy but because there was a lot of rigging using the normal system, thats why. get your priorities right man. I am Indian to the core. I am just as patriotic as the next man but one has to call a spade a spade man. Don't live in that utopian world which our politicains and the media in particular would have us believe is India. We don't live in that world. remember, no other country in the world has a bumper harvest and at the same time has people dying of hunger and at the same time attempt to put a man on the man for no foreseeable reason.

 

We are who we are. I am proud of it and i am ashamed of it.