Siege ends

finally what went on in mumbai ends after 60 odd hours....now its time to introspect and decide what to do next. many say its intel failure and we shud ramp up intel... what do we mean by that? Many say home minister shud quit.. if he quits will all these stop?.. someof my colleagues even suggested that we should have an aoperation similar to operation wrath of god ( the plot for steven spielberg's Munich)... most voraciously the bolywood and mumbai high society people are yelling about internal security.. do they care? i can fot sure say that about 10-15 so called eminent people that i saw on TV yelling at politicians either do not vote or evade taxes or do not just care what goes arnd them... they might not even know who the person next door is... the irony is when teh terrorists landed in a koli wada ( fishermen's colony) some ladies were asking them who they are and whr they are from, later they informed police also.... can we expect something similar from the so called eminent high society filths?... we just consider our job done if we pay pur taxes.. but its also our job to take part in the election process and question people about their policies on all major areas... now we have RTI act as well.. we should demand asnwer regarding whats the overall plan now atleast at a high level to counter terror...
But this time around the IB did inform Maha police of a possible sea attack by lashkar in sep itself.. now why there was no action remains a mystery.. and whenevr we say anything to blame Intel , its safe cos no one from intel is gonna defend themselves... its just been over a decade we have been talking about intel before that they were virtually non existant... the failure ladies and gentlemen is not in intel ineptitude... its our failure to invest in HUMINT and over reliance on SIGINT... even the same problem has dogged CIA... HUMINT is human intelligence...so why are we not able to get folks... well one reason could be the nature of work and pay.. now with pay scales revised , we should see some people getting in... another factor is selection of appropriate people.. and training...earlier intel used to have local state police personnel on deputation... it was a lucrative deputation some years ago.. but now they are not getting enough ppl... we should go back to the ways as it was in the late 1940s early 50s and correct the basics... the use of technology should be enhanced... though intel is the defacto powerful poilce in the state and can even tap the phones of anyone w/o permission etc, they need to be given a bit of free hand in terms of anti-terror laws which enable the detention and questioning of suspects w/o charge.. why did we repeal POTA w/o a decent law to replace it??? is there a proper co-ordination betn the state poilce and intel as it once used to be?it seems the internal tension is also a bit to blame.. and do we have enough people in intel first? not sure .. there must be many vacancies when do we fill them train them? one of the biggest problem in India is be it any job the number of people wanting to work hard and rise through the ranks is very less.. everyone wants to get a sort of higher degree and become a manager... bet it finance or IT or police or whatsoever...the craze for quick buck is more than ever.. then why blame them alone? INTEL work ans system admin/support in IT are analogous .. they both are thankless jobs.. u are expected to be perfect all the time.. u wont be thanked for that but if something goes wrong u will be shafted....we should change our internal mindset if we are to become stronger as a nation... simply blaming polictians is not gonna get us anywhwre.. there was some sane politicans who supported teh national security act and by the grace of which we have NSG.. God has helped us .. so letus go ahead and build a stronger nation like this.. lets go out with a positive attitude... JAI HIND!!!!!

dastardly attack

What is going on in mumbai is an act of cowardice..... Best cops of mumbai have died and the city is under threat... Mumbai will rise back and make sure that the fuckers who are doing this get back a reply... but i cannot imagine that a few weeks ago i was in mumbai and was feeling very much at home....and i cant imagine whats hapening now.. some where there is a failure... i as a son of an ex intel officer cannot digest this ..... the media is spinning its own stories...as the police are fighting hard.. i really am not able to come to terms with the fact that many IPS officers have already laid down their lives... the very thought of this sends a chill on my spine and i am not able to sleep.. once we deal this, we should be in for tough anti terror laws and speedy punishments so that we show em that we are strong.. sea has been a threat and now its proved... the coast guard should be given more help to make sure that they patrol our waters more vigilantly... I am praying that this all comes to an end tonight very soon and we get into damage control,..... JAI HIND!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Back to pavilion

Its been 2 weeks since im back in pune… purpose being to heal my ruptured maxiliaty sinus….. at each sitting my doc asks” I hope u;ll be here for 2-3 months” and daily my client manager in Mumbai asks “ Hope u are getting better” .. suddenly so many ppl are asking so many questions.. the first real tasks was to stock and setup my kitchen … next one was to get a broadband connection .. boy its still tuff to get a broadband connection and it takes 12 days ..
India are rocking and piling the wooes on KP’s Enger land… sorry to see enger land loose so badly… but the aussies are crying badly after their mauling in India.. they are not magnanimous enough to accept that India is the only team to have troubled them so much over the last 10 yrs or so.. they just crib and call names at every player be it Indian or Lankan.. aussies suck… and to all hardcore aussie supporters here in India “SHAME ON YOU BUGGERS!!” J

In my time at Mumbai, I happened to read the sea of poppies as well as half of white tiger.. I cundt read the other half because I found it very boring.. not sure how it got the booker… on the other hadn sea of poppies in gripping.. it’s a heart moving narration of opium trade and dislocation of people to mareech dweep aka Mauritius………… the amount of research gone into the book itself has to fetch it an award.. lovely.. Amitav Ghosh has set a bar…. White tiger has brilliance but some how I found it highly negative … may be im too much Indian to accept the stereotypical portrayal of India as it is done by Mr Adiga….

I caught up with two tam movies… one of them raman thedia seethai is brilliant and the other much hyped Surya starrer varanam Aayiram is a dud.. It has an over dose of father son sentiments And romance.. and is boring, peppered with painfully long songs… somehow couldn’t enjoy the movie……… the main obstacle was the overdose of English dialogues and the slang used .. considering that a part is set in 70s -80s I am not sure if any father would have called his son Kiddo ( Perfect American slang).. especially in chennai where still Queen’s English is revered…. And many others reasons made me not enjoy the movie.. though yeah i like the base theme of father son relationship J

With a lot of assemnbly elections on, daily the Malegaon probe is being highlighted, the congress has got something to cheer about… hindu terror.. but this government has utterly failed to counter any form of terror… many people feel that the congress is blowing this trumpetto win votes… may be they have a point.. with Malegaon all over the place and Indian Mujahideen almost forgotten, NDTV featured a report on confessions and convictions of Mansoor Peerbhoy all of a sudden…

Suddenly i realize that im being hit by the crunch.. with Pakistan and Iceland gping broke, Japan in recession and india facing the heat, I dunno where to go he he…
Someone advised that I will go loony soon if I don’t take a vacation and suggested Goa or Gangtok as a destination.. I wud like to go to Guwahati, Shillong Aizawl.. but let me repair my sinus first …