Tuesday, August 24, 2010

RIP, Robert Frost...

Whose stops are these I think I know
His desk is in the other bank though
He will not see me standing here
To watch his stops filling up slow

My little model must think it queer
To position without a TP near
Between the hols and the year close
The most illiquid evening of the year

He gives the screen a reminder shake
To ask if there is some mistake
The only other sound's the beep
Of rejected bids and views fake

The stops are lovely, large and deep
But I have positions to keep
And pips to go before I TP
And pips to go before I TP...

Sunday, August 15, 2010

Indian, Idle...

The divergences continue to widen. The bottom 90% struggles to have an existence, while the top 10% is bored of it.

With more modes of communication and information exchange, there is actually less tolerance and greater expression of intolerance. How did we end up here? Weren't we always the most the pluralistic, tolerant and accommodative society? Or was it just a pipe dream?

What gives people the right to use violence and intimidation in enforcing their moral codes on others? How dare they do it? Why does the state machinery fail to tackle them?

How can a person deny me my right to earn to a livelihood in any part of the country? How can he tell me to go back if I don't speak a particular language?

Communalists hold people hostage at will. A person who once burned the Constitution had the cheek to say that the new rupee symbol is not representative of his state because it incorporates Devanagari. Actually, till I met some people from his state, I always thought language was a means of inclusion. Post that, I realised it could be a means of exclusion as well.

We see disaster looming in the Commonwealth Games, and give ourselves an indulgent pat on the back, taking pride in the fact that we knew all along something would go wrong. Had we really been concerned, the top official would have been publicly lynched by now.

Kashmir burns. How long are we going to drag things? Are body counts subservient to national pride? Why can we not swallow our ego and accept our ineptitude in resolving the conflict? Why can't we just let go? And to our displaced Kashmiri brethren who pine for their homeland, why can we not promise a better life in the rest of India?

I have been hearing the same recyled stuff for so many years that I have lost count.

And yet I sit quietly typing out on my laptop, truly representative of everything thats going wrong...