The Singh is king

Dr. Manmohan Singh was sworn-in yesterday for a second successive term as Prime Minister of India.

I was surprised that the ruling Congress party won again, as it bucks recent trends. This will be the first time since 1971 that a sitting Prime Minister has been re-elected. Usually Indians like to kick out the incumbents for a term and let the other guys loot and pillage for a while. We try to spread the wealth around amongst the crooks who are our politicians. (I thoroughly recommend this strategy to all other countries, too.)

Still, Dr. Manmohan Singh is a thoroughly decent man and not a career politician. He used to be chairman of the Reserve Bank of India, which meant he was highly influential in economic circles. Then he was appointed Finance Minister in 1991 and made a member of the Upper House. That term ended in 1996. Then the Congress Party spent a long time on the sidelines until winning quite unexpectedly in 2004 as part of a coalition. Dr. Singh was a very surprising compromise candidate to be Prime Minister, and now he's won a second term. By the time he's done, he'll be India's third-longest serving Prime Minister, which is remarkable for someone of his background.

He is immensely qualified to tackle the Indian economy, holding degrees in economics from both Cambridge and Oxford. Perhaps he cannot take all the credit, but it is immensely satisfying to note that during the mayhem in banking circles in many parts of the world, Indian banks did not experience the catastrophic failures that has plagued more celebrated names.

Five more years of this guy? Yes, I can deal with that.

My civic duty

It only took 15 years, but yesterday I finally got to vote in a General Election. I didn't become eligible to vote in India till 1993, and I missed every General and State election since then because I was always overseas, and India doesn't have absentee ballots (half a billion people vote here, who is going to miss a few thousand scattered throughout the country?). Actually, I was in India for the 2004 General Elections, but my records were incorrect so I was ruled ineligible to vote. This time, however, I got it done.

Actually, I very nearly put this on my Bucket List.

US Presidential Inauguration Special

With my previous convictions for having followed the US Presidential election on this blog last year, I was duty-bound to write a post on the Inauguration of Barack Obama as the President of the United States. Unfortunately, I've been unwell of late and haven't been up to composition. Fortunately, I can still read, and I found that I couldn't express it any better than Gregg Easterbrook did in his Tuesday Morning Quarterback column on espn.com:

In national news, Tuesday is the inauguration of Barack Obama as 44th president of the United States. We've been so wrapped up in various forms of financial panic, real or imagined, that some may have lost sight of what a great day this is for America. Regardless of whether Obama ultimately proves to be an outstanding president or an average chief executive or a dud, only in America could this happen. A country whose eternal shame is that it once held slaves elects a black man as its leader, and a black man who came from nothing, entirely self-made. Obama is so appealing because he is the embodiment of the American story -- and that story is still in the early chapters. Today every American, even those who exercised their right to oppose Obama, should beam with pride. Until now I felt proudest to be an American on July 20, 1969, when Neil Armstrong put his foot on the moon. I thought then, "No other nation can accomplish such a thing, no other nation can dream so big." Today I feel prouder, because Obama represents a much grander and more important dream. Today America proves to the world that we meant what we said about freedom and equality.

8 things that made 2008 great

As we prepare to consign 2008 to the history books, I look back on this year with mostly fond memories. Despite the awful happenings around the world (continued terrorist activity in the world, natural calamities and a huge economic crisis caused by pure greed and hubris), there were some reasons why my 2008 was great.

In alphabetical order:

A (mostly) kept New Year Resolution: I had one resolution last year—don’t complain. About anything. That was it. And it was a tough one to keep…at times. What I discovered was that once I got going with not complaining, it became easier not to do so as time went on. There are too many petty things that we allow to get in the way of enjoying life, things that can be taken care of quietly, without having to make a fuss. True, there were one or two things that caused major annoyance (well, just one, really), but the resolution was only fractured most of the time and broken just once (most of the whining was internal, except that once, and that was by e-mail, but feel free to contradict me if you thought otherwise). It’s amazing how the capacity to be patient increased over the year.
Blogging: It was about a year ago that I serendipitously discovered a stranger’s blog that I really enjoyed reading (thank you—you know who you are), and, over the past year, I’ve discovered and re-discovered blogs from old friends with whom I’d lost contact for the most part. It’s been great getting back in touch with all of you, even if it is mainly by leaving comments on your blogs. Which reminds: when you drop by to visit, please do say hello by leaving a comment.
Friends, old, new and forgotten: Travelling, blogging and Facebook have yielded some memorable new friendships this year (CMP, B&R G, G&V G, JH, LNS, SH to implicate just a few), rekindled a plethora (C&B I, CF, DH, H&J D, I&A R, KH, M&Y K, TS, T&J T, to give a few examples) and helped me get back in touch with people lost in mists of time (HS, KLH, SCB and TC had all been consigned, regretfully, to the nostalgia shelf until Facebook lent a hand). And, of course, I'm grateful for those whose friendships maintain their consistent nature over the years (ALM, ANM, AMW, ELM, MAO, NP, RGW, S&S R, et al.: thanks for continuing to put up with me). It’s not too much of an exaggeration to state that, at present, I have Grade I friends on every continent of the world (now that P&F DW have moved back to their native South Africa), and possibly most time zones of the world, too. Thank you all for contributing so positively to my 2008.
Indian sport: Undoubtedly, 2008 was the greatest year for Indian sport in my lifetime. Normally we are more chumps than champs, but this year produced plenty of winners for a change. Abhinav Bindra won our first Olympic individual gold medal, while Sushil Kumar and Vijender Kumar (not related to one another) added a couple of bronzes; Vishwanathan Anand was crowned World Chess champion; Pankaj Advani won the World Billiards Championship; Jeev Milkha Singh won golf's Asian Tour Order of Merit and attained a top-10 finish at the PGA Championships; Mary Kom won a fourth successive gold medal in the womens World Boxing Championships; Saina Nehwal won the women's singles at the World Junior Badminton Title; and the Indian cricket team has hopefully started a trend by socking it to the hitherto unbeatable Australians (even the South Africans, notorious for their emotional fragility against the Aussies, are hammering them in style right now).
Olympus E-510: At the end of 2007, I bought myself a long sought-after digital SLR. And while I am nowhere near as proficient with it as I would like to be, I’ve managed to take a few decent photos with it so far this year. Parasailing: I’m not usually one to do adventure sports like para-sailing, but I was in a strangely devil-may-care mood during my trip to Goa in October. What a great idea! That was F-U-N! What’s next?!
President-elect Barack Obama: I have no idea what kind of President Barack Obama will be. He may be viewed with the same historical significance and affection as the previous President from Illinois, Abraham Lincoln. Or, he may be deemed as disastrously incompetent as the last guy. I very much doubt, however, that he will be irrelevant, as he will face the biggest economic crisis in 75 years. Whatever he does, or does not do, in office, though, ought not to take anything away from the fact that he will be taking office at all. His was a masterful campaign, a triumph of optimism and brilliant organisation. (Bonus: the way Steve's daughter Sariah says "Bwack Obama" is beyond cute. It happens about 7-9 minutes into the video. Enjoy the rest of the cuteness, too.)
Twerp that I am: In the gloom that was Chennai during the rain of Cyclone Nisha and the horror of the Mumbai terrorist attacks, there was time for serious reflection. It first helped me realise what a twerp I’d been not too long ago. And then it yielded a startlingly clear picture of what I want to achieve in 2009. December had more purpose than the previous eleven months combined.

So, what made ’08 great for you? For those of you with blogs, consider yourselves well and truly TAGGED. For those of you without blogs, leave comments.

You will remember where you were when you heard the news...

When I woke up this morning, I turned on the TV to find out the results of the US Presidential Election. To my amazement, there was Sen. John McCain giving his concession speech.

Two thoughts came to my mind: 1. Good heavens, the opinion polls were actually right! Barack Obama wins...big. He's going to be the first African-American President of the United States of America! Whoda thunk it?! 2. What a gracious speech by Sen. McCain. Where was this guy the past few months?

Then the focus switched to Grant Park, Chicago, and the vastly mixed throng of people awaiting the President-Elect, black, white, male, female, young, old. Good Lord, there's Jesse Jackson...crying.

At the designated time, Sen. Obama came out and gave his victory speech. I remember huddling over a short-wave radio in my dorm room in 1992, listening to Bill Clinton giving his own victory speech, and I thought that was pretty good oration. This was something else. There's something utterly compelling about Obama's oration and I was held mesmerized. (That's not necessarily a good thing: 1930s Germany was held spellbound by the rhetoric of an evil madman.)

Back in June, I marvelled that Sen. Obama had become the Democratic nominee for President of the United States. I could now see why he's taken the next step.

Congratulations, President-Elect Barack Obama. May God bless and protect you.

History is made...

Congratulations, Senator Obama.

While I do have some political convictions and opinions, I don't foresee them being expressed regularly on the blog (unlike really important topics like "Puns of the Weak"). However, I would like to congratulate Senator Barack Obama on becoming the Democratic Party's nominee for the 2008 US Presidential Elections.

This is a historic development, and one that I never thought I would see in my lifetime.

I am interested to see how far America will take this.

On the lighter side, a British comic remarked on BBC Radio that he hoped Sen. Obama would win, if only because he is the first person to take his campaign slogan from CBeebies: "Yes we can!" If the day comes for a President Obama to visit the Queen in London, will he also schedule an audience with his role model?

(This was meant to be posted over the weekend, but had to wait till my Internet access issues were sorted out.)