China's 135 to make the world FLY

Media seems to have forgotten all about Greece and China, the two nations that rocked the economic world earlier this year. The US Fed may have stirred the debt markets a bit, but the world in general seems to be engrossed with Europe's refugee crisis.

I applied for a visa to one of the Schengen nations, and thought that it may be easier to slip in as one of the boat people rather than comply with some inane requirements prescribed by the consular departments of any of these countries. Yes, there is real hardship and risk to life involved, but once in, can be sure of remaining there permanently. I can't understand why there is no 10+ year Schengen visit visa for qualified Indians who have no desire of visiting Europe for any reason other than a holiday and spending hard earned money to boost the Euro economy? Anyway, the Chinese are more welcoming of Indians now, and with the devaluation of the Chinese currency, may as well holiday there. 

Incidentally, the Chinese are rocking the world again with a song celebrating the release of its 13th 5 year development plan (2016 - 2020). The song promises that the plan will be bigger and better than any in the past. It's a plan that will give new improved better than before wings to the Chinese dragon (growth story) to fly and with it the whole world.  But, the western (developed) world is not so convinced. China has spent a huge some of money to stabilize its stock market. It is spending more money by way of rate cuts to keep its real estate market afloat. Each week there is a new story on Chinese ghost towns, empty malls and office buildings. The real economy is close to 5% whereas the authorities have shown it just below 7%. Punters in the form of global analyst have pegged the economy to hover between a low of 2% and a high of 5% for the next few years before the dragon recovers from its illness. Hey! The west grows at 2% or lower and yet it is China that is being called slow.

Here lies the major problem. China virtually own the US and is the world's second largest economy. If its 135 plan won't make it fly then the world will be left to FRY. 

Let's get ready to really rock again to the Chinese economic song, one way or another - it's going to get us. 

Here is a must read:

China's economy is in trouble. How bad is it?

Oh God! You Devil

Dushera, the Hindu festival passed us on 22^nd October. Depending on which part of the Country one hails from or rather the community, two events in Hindu mythology, namely; the slaying of a demon by Goddess Durga and the defeat and the death of demon king Ravana of Lanka at the hands of God incarnate Lord King Rama of Ayodhya, are celebrated on this day as a sign of the triumph of good over evil.

Image credit : http://www.icytales.com/the-good-side-of-ravana/

What I have found notable these last few years, has been the number of articles that I have read in defense of Ravana. The modern interpretation of Ravana by quite a few makes him out to be the martyred and principled villain and Rama the victorious but flawed hero. Even Amish Tripathi’s new book the Scion of Ikshvaku, essentially an interpretation of the worshipped Valmiki Ramayan paints the demon king as a dark but principled character, as also his brother and sons who stood by him. On the other hand, Ravana’s brother Vibeeshan, the one who betrayed him to Rama is now being seen as a negative and selfish person who put his own interest before that of his family and nation.

As children the original tale inspired us, but my generation remained unquestioning of the embedded morality. Today however, people are ready to put higher morality to test, be it the mythical Gods. It is not just a Hindu phenomenon but something that is happening worldwide.  The fear of even being put to death by fanatical fundamentalist followers is not deterring the brave to question the age old interpretation of the holy texts by the guardians of various religions to control those within their flock.  

Are people right or wrong in humanizing the revered and judging them? I don’t know and I don’t really care. What does concern me as a human with reason is the growing frustration of people with the institutions of control which include both politics and worship. It is not that people around the world have become less Godly. In fact, there is an increased interest in spirituality even with the young; including those who prescribe to radical and blind acceptance.

Then what is right? Was there ever a right? My own interpretation is that there is a war playing out between who have made whatever they believe in right through the use of might and those who feel that the so called teachings that may have been right in the past may not hold good for the current times. World over, sentiments hurt, human blood and life shed for depicting or interpretation of prophets and Gods in some form of art, including words and comic book caricatures.  Even worse; the attempt to prove superiority of one form of God system over another.  I wonder if hurting or killing in any God’s name will earn a person a place in some mythical paradise? Here we are, in the name of God, at war with one another, ready to destroy the one real paradise he gave us called earth.  

We have so many common and bigger problems to solve as humanity – economic, environmental, hunger and disease, political suppression and many such others which don’t strike mankind because of any form of religious beliefs including atheism.  This is not a preach blog, but my personal inconvenient truth, where the difference between what is really the good of God and the evil of Devil gets more and more blurry.

10 Things That Make Ravana The Coolest Ramayana Character

The Unsung Hero- Ravana

Exploring The Good Side of Ravana

By Pavithra -

September 14, 2015

This came to me on whatsapp:

Dear Ravana.....Every year, on this day, we celebrate the victory of good over evil....But..technically....your behaviour should be re-classified from "Evil" to "Slightly Naughty". After all, tumne kiya hi kya thha? I agree you kidnapped a lady in haste... But.. after that...you gave her more respect we normally give to women in today's world. You offered her good food...shelter...and even women security guards (not too good looking though). Your request for marriage was full of humility..and you never threw acids when rejected. Even when Lord Rama killed you.... you were wise enough to seek his apologies. And...I believe you were more educated than half of our Parliament. Trust me dude...there ain't no any hard feelings to burn you... just that it's the In-Thing. Respect !!

 Oct 26 2015 : The Times of India (Mumbai)

Aaj ka Ravan

Sagarika Ghose



In the time of Ram Lilas, effigies that don't burn easily

In the time of Ram Lilas, we burnt the effigy of Ravan. These days though villainy reigns on the front page and on prime time news and heroic feats are pushed to the back page. Ravan may have been decisively burnt, but there are many Ravans whose effigies refuse to burn too easily.

Top of the list is Dawood Ibrahim. India's most wanted is the main prime time villain. Pakistan may deny his whereabouts but when your daughter is married to the son of one of Pakistan's most famous cricketers, then surely Me and Dad and many others (except perhaps the ISI) know exactly where he is.

Hafiz Saeed: Another villain from across the border. Cleric to some, terrorist to others, Saeed runs an organisation whose office addresses always begin with AK 47. There can be nothing holy about the Lashkar.

Maoists: Mamata Banerjee walks out on them in a TV show, Arundhati Roy walks with them and the BJP government thinks they are disguised as FTII students. They are extremists for some, freedom fighters for others. In fact, Maoists are as enigmatic as Ravan. Was he a villain or wasn't he?
Chota Rajan: Just to prove that dons have no religion, Bal Thacke ray once famously said, `If they have Dawood, we have Chota Rajan'.

Now that's not a chota statement to make but when you are the Shiv Sena supremo, you can get away by creating your own hierarchy of villains.

Mohammad Shahabuddin: Four time MP from Siwan, confirming that crime does pay when it comes to netagiri. Now in jail, he spends more time in hospital than behind prison gates. Is this a case of sickness in the body politic?
Veerappan: Perhaps the most celebrated moustache in recent times. He knew how to separate the wood from the trees and elephants from their tusks. Lalu's Bihar was no patch on Veerappan style jungle raj.

Corruption: This Ravan refuses to die. Many avatars of Durga have tried to burn him, but he continues to wage war, regularly turning out to be victorious.He is a rakshasa who unlike the mythical Shiv-bhakt Ravan, worships no one except the odd telecom Raja.

Of course for many , Ravan is also a hero, the Dravidian counter to the “Aryan“ Rama. Ravan was the Brahmin pundit who many believe was a good king. No wonder the lines between heroes and villains are blurred because when you have 10 heads, good and evil both make headway together.

Welcome to the HotelMall

I am pretty sure that when Uber and AirBnB started operations, they must have been laughed off by the organised taxi operators and hotel brands respectively. Today, the story is very different, and no one is laughing at the two anymore, given their achievement and resultant business valuations. No one is laughing at the likes of Ola cabs or OYO rooms or the many local cab and hotel aggregator entities that have launched in India in the last couple of years, specially with the money that is now backing them. 

For many a hotel brand and management companies, "aggregators" are appearing more like "alligators" eating into their business slowly but surely. It will not surprise me anymore to read that one of these upstarts is in control of a larger room inventory than the largest hotel chain operating in India. AirBnB has already proved that point at a global level. 

A hotel owner with small to mid size property in the budget segment now has a reason to smile. Hotel brands would not touch his property because it did not meet its standards, or not manage it because the fees earned were not worth the effort. For a while, a hotel owner got away with leasing out his property. But, with new hotel brand operators having learnt their lesson from the mounting losses due to the wild rents offered, a hotel owner was increasingly facing a situation of a no guarantee management contract or manage yourself option. Aggregation has changed the playing field. A fixed number of rooms are now contracted on a fixed rent basis. Hotel owner is assured of a minimum occupancy off-take albeit at a lower rate, and the aggregator assured of control over a managed, curated room with very little upfront investment. Unlike a plain vanilla hotel booking company, where inventory can be pulled back by the hotel in the peak, the aggregator resorts to surge pricing knowing well that inventory is under control.  It is as close to a win-win for both sides. Will the model sustain itself? I will keep my view to myself for making the mistake of shooting myself in the foot. I am already limping from a few shots earlier. By the way the rumors on the street are already talking about default by investors in keeping their commitments based on the notional evaporation of valuations being suffered on account of the current global melt.   

If aggregation has disrupted the way a hotel would be branded or managed,I see a kind of disruption in the way a hotel would be designed in the near future. I am not afraid of causing injury to myself with a few predictions here:

Malls have tried to incorporate hotels within their own ecosystem but have had very little success. Either the hotel space allocated was too large or too small. Most revenue and non revenue public areas and service spaces were ill located to make any commercial sense. This will change. A hotel would be the most suited occupant in a Commercial Mall today. With e-commerce taking a larger and larger bite into the shopping sphere, most malls would either have to convert a large part of its floor space into a kind of off-line warehouse for the online stores. 

Therefore, baring the anchors and premium outlets on the lower floors, all other shops would be replaced by outsourced restaurants, bars, function room operators, spas,recreational, entertainment and other such facilities expected in a hotel. Huh! so what? That's exactly how a hotel is built today. The difference being that the hotel lobby would completely disappear. 

In the future each floor or section (as design permits) may be controlled by a different aggregator; and there may be five to six or more aggregators represented in the same complex. It would well be possible that the equivalent of a hostel, budget and mid market offering would share the same floor or complex. Hence, the check in process may too be relegated to specific floors or sections. A guest would be GPS guided to elevators and floor. There would be no need for a key card as the smartphone would act as the key and settlement wallet. One would be welcomed by name thanks to advanced facial recognition and the entire ID verification process would be robotic where bio metric details would be matched with the details on guest ID and same sent to the police data base along with the pictures. A hotel guest ID card would be generated to allow guest access to the designated room and also to ensure that no one else (not checked in) walks in. 

Apart from luxury and possibly resort brands, the mid market and budget brands of today may also go the aggregation way to survive. The cookie cutter model will become increasingly a balloon model that will adopt itself to the location constraints and demands. The big brands actually have the infrastructure and money might in place at the moment to do so. The peril of not doing so maybe obliteration of the brand itself. One may say what happens to management then if brands become aggregators? I think that function would actually be performed by a third party Asset and Facilities Manager (AFM) rather than a hotel management company. It happens at airports and hotels will adopt this too. The aggregator contracts would probably end with the fixed plus variable formula with the AFM as well as the hotel owner. Why would such an operation be successful? It has a lot to do with developments in hotel technology.      

Picture credit:
http://www.jovoto.com/blog/2011/11/design-the-hotel-room-of-the-future/

All the rooms will be identical in terms of hardware as most aggregators would be hardware in-specific anyway. The soft furnishings would be provided by and tailored to the aggregator's brand. The housekeeping and maintenance function will be centralized across all floors and go mostly robotic too. The robots will not only clean the rooms but will also check the room inventory -thanks to the RFID tags, and check if all in room equipment is in good working order. The robot's human buddy will be assigned tasks that require minimum intelligence to ensure speed and efficiency. In addition to cleaning the rooms, robots will also assess room security and check if a guest has stored hazardous or prohibited items.

A guest can expect wifi, TV, room service, in-room bar, laundry and valet service as well. Why not? A guest would expect full service and will certainly get it. You guessed it - robotic on a pay per use basis. Yes, guests will get used to this concept in time like they have in airlines. Well, the sensitivity of human touch may be lost but then robots can take all the insults, abuses, and human insensitivity without being irritated or agitated. Think of it, no robot will object to saying "You are right. I am an idiot. I am sorry. It will not happen again" unemotionally to an aggrieved guest. (At least, until Artificial Intelligence creates a human clone). Booting a robot (using the foot) will seal the guest in the hotel and the recorded evidence will ensure that guest lands up in jail for destruction of property. 

Guest complaints will be handled by interactive voice response unit that will auto recognize the input language. Extreme cases will be channeled to a human who will speak in a language the guest cannot understand despite having made the language selection.

Finally, what will happen to those guests who book rooms for the act of procreation without intending any creation? If Ashley Madison is something to go by, I think not having too many prying humans around will be good for business. And then, hotels would have lesser problems dealing with cases of staff molesting guests or vice-versa. Cases of mechaphilia are pretty rare I suppose. 

Then of course, the billion dollar question that a potential hotel developer is asking - "Why should I put an agonizing 3 years of sweat and blood in building a facility with an investment cost upwards of Rs 5 million a key on land and building at an expected WACC of 18%+ where I have to take a risk of servicing my banker, then my investor and at the end of day not see an IRR of greater than 5% on my own capital, if at all I don't loose my property? I rather put in Rs 50 million of my own and build a billion dollar app." 

Well the "Acche Din" (Happy days)may be far and few, but for now Indian hospitality has rebooted Fonzie's song to "Appy Days are Here Again". Where is my gun? I may as well shoot myself in the ....

      

              

Airbnb doesn’t even own a bed, but its backers think it’s more valuable than Hyatt  Airbnb will soon be booking more rooms than the world’s largest hotel chains

How Uber and Airbnb

Are Winning Over Business Travelers

http://skift.com/2015/07/20/how-uber-airbnb-are-winning-over-business-travelers-in-9-charts/

How online travel firms like Yatra and Cleartrip are enteringing into the budget accommodation space

By Divya Sathyanarayanan, ET Bureau | 27 Aug, 2015, 04.51AM IST

Read more at:
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/48690068.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst

The 21-year-old building India's largest hotel network

By Kinjal Pandya-WaghBusiness reporter, BBC News

Why investors are putting funds into budget hotels like Stayzilla and OYO Rooms

By Aditi Shrivastava & Evelyn Fok, ET Bureau | 4 Jun, 2015, 05.20AM IST

Read more at:
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/47535526.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst

How young companies are redefining industry for hotels and travellers

Payal Ganguly, ET Bureau Apr 1, 2015, 10.25AM IST

The Everyone Wins Indian Lottery

I was once offered a million dollar lottery for a thousand dollars with an assured prize of at least hundred thousand dollars. Great odds. When things are too good to be true, they almost always are. The lottery fine print stipulated a payout of a dollar a year for a hundred thousand years. However lame this joke may be, there is a real lottery joke being played in the Indian real estate market and the end result may not be funny for many who fall for it.

image credit:
http://www.zerohedge.com/contributed/2013-08-15/housing-bubble-bungle

A wealth manager who hasn't done much in years to make any wealth for me (maybe for himself - yes) called me to say he had a great wealth creating idea that would yield a 100% IRR in less than 18 months. I am always a sucker for such great ideas. Intrigued, I asked him to tell me more.

He said that there was a real estate project in an up coming area of a growth city in India being developed by a very reputed developer, and that there were just a few apartments left for sale, being made available at exclusive and below than market rates to exclusive buyers like me. Wow! I did not know I still qualified for that title. I asked him why the favour and his response was that the developer was not interested in tapping the local market and were looking at gentry from out of town as the development would be marketed to upmarket transient communities (meaning foreigners domestic and international). He explained the growth dynamics of the place and why it would make a great rental market in the future. Okay, I bought all he said, but did not understand how I would fund the Rs. 6 million apartment and get a 100% IRR at least in the next 18 months.

He look surprised at how ignorant I was on the way the financial markets worked. "Just pay 5% of the 6 million now and the stamp duty and registration charges. At the end of 18 months, pay just 15%, and that too if you wish to keep the apartment. If you sell on completion which will happen in 12 months, your IRR on cash flow can be as high as 500%, and if you cannot sell, then the builder will take it off your hands by giving you a 100% return on the 20% you invested. Mind well the developer will service the interest on the 80% borrowing until completion or 18 months whichever comes later" he said with a grin that would have done a Cheshire cat proud.

I asked if the entire arrangement would be documented and was told that the buy back could only be covered by a comfort letter from the honourable developer.

I told him to give me a couple of days to think about it. I did it and thought that the risk reward situation may be worth it and decided to meet the developer. At that meeting, I was told that there were only 2 apartments left at the Rs 6 million price point and maybe I should look at the larger and better Rs 8 million apartment that would be completed in 24 to 30 months as they were yet to break ground. I told the developer that I may not be eligible for the higher quantum loan based on current commitments. I was told not to worry and that it had a tie up with a NBFC (Non Banking Financial Corporation) that would fund me. I once again went into think mode.

I called up a few friends in the City and asked them about the project. "Don't even think of that area for now. No water, no infrastructure, its a development in the middle of the corn field, and the construction is not the greatest." I was told. Now I understood why the same was not making the local rounds. But, the market would surely change after 24 months, I felt. I did my math and realized that in the event I was unable to sell myself or the builder failed to keep his commitment (which was quite likely) then I would be left with an asset that would not return more than a 3% yield on my buying price. There was a very low probability of a 100%+ IRR and more a chance of me being stuck with a lemon that no actual user may want. I laid these arguments with the wealth manager who had slipped into a RE broker avatar realized that his commission was slipping away fast.

Right or wrong decision; I don't know. But I do know that the developer was playing with what was potentially my balance sheet and my asset as collateral to secure a cheap retail housing loan for himself which for all practical purposes was my liability as well. Servicing interest of 10% on a housing loan is certainly much cheaper than servicing a 24%+ interest on a commercial paper secured by direct collateral and personal guarantees. I also see that the morning newspaper is full of such schemes from cheap to expensive and exclusive houses that make people believe that all investors will win the real estate lottery based on the potential good days for the Indian economy.

image credit:
http://amazingstuff.co.uk/other-amazing-stuff/flying-balloon-house/#.VeGnySWqqko

All I can see through such schemes is that the development community is hurting across the board, and this is one more technique of trying to market goods at unrealistic rates to gullible investors looking for returns rather than real buyers. Sooner rather than later, irrespective of the way the Indian economy moves, the RE market will crash and will burn scores of well meaning middle class investors like those burned in the Chinese stock market crash. I don't have to say it but a lottery works on the principle of a few winners and many losers. Question is which side of the equation do you think you will end up should you decide to subscribe to the Great Indian Real Estate Lottery?

China Dragon Flu and Indian Elephant Flew?

http://imgarcade.com/1/sick-dragon

With our big neighbour's economic flu worsening by the day, India's political and economic think tank is surely worried. A small economy like that of Greece shook the world, China's woes could be catastrophic, right? The US seems to disagree. But then, for most of the nations that classify themselves as part of the developed world (the USA included), China is still an emerging market. Never mind that it is the second largest economy in the world today, and will continue to be one for quite some time; even if it treads at an annual economic growth rate of about 2% per annum (the present average of the developed world).  The US feels that China can look after itself and it is Europe that needs its tender loving care. the Chinese government has decided to stop interfering in the market and currency dynamics, at least officially. Don't know if that stand will send any form of positive signals to the rest of the world.

Thankfully for a fuel import economy like India, the global price and demand for all manufacturing related commodities have gone down as has global consumption. If it looks at it more from an opportunistic point of view, the Prime Minister's "Make in India" dream can actually come true. The PM must have extracted investments commitments of over US$ 200 billion from the several nations he has visited in the last 12 months. US$ 75 billion from UAE alone just a few days back. It was very heartening to see the welcome accorded to the Indian PM by the UAE Royalty, and citing the importance of strong ties between the two nations based on economic, political, and security synergies. The Middle East as a region has to follow the example of UAE recognizing that deploying petro-dollars in the developed world has lived its times and the region's future lies aligned with the emerging world.

elephant dragon

allsortsemporium.net

One may question if the commitments made will hold good, specially from China  given the current context. The commitment in actuality holds more relevance now than ever. One look at India's massive infrastructure growth plan of about US$ 1 trillion is enough for any nation to align with it as an economic ally, China will behave no differently. There is already word on the streets of China of  Chinese companies migrating to India. Politically, the elephant and dragon may still glare at each other, but economically, it may be the age of "Hindi-Chini Bhai Bhai" (Indian - Chinese are brothers). While some pundits predict the end of the Asian super cycle, I personally feel they have blind sighted India.

There is no gain without pain, and India will certainly contract some of the flu from its big brother. India having gone through many more economic shocks is hopefully more prepared to firewall itself thanks to the prudent measures of checks and balances in the form of an independently governed Central Bank and regulatory bodies that monitor the markets. The Indian Rupee has behaved itself well so far and has slid enough to maintain the Nation's competitiveness. Yes, it will slip more and make imports dearer. Maybe that's just what the doctor ordered to change the Nation's mindset from a CBU/CKD culture to build truly "Made in India" products. I have already started chalking out places to visit in India and sourcing local produce for cooking up food from around the world.

Finally, an old Chinese proverb (or at least will sound like one) - "An elephant growing wings does not become a dragon". As much as we may dream of surpassing China economically, that country is way too ahead of us. It will take some 21 years to catch up even if India were to progress to a 10% growth rate year on year. Too many moving parts need to come in place for that to happen. Not impossible, but honestly quite improbable. But then, we never saw unicorns in India before - now we do. 

Ha! and you think by growing wings you will fly?
Never underestimate the might of a common elephant.
http://fr.board.goodgamestudios.com/bigfarm/showthread.php?110954-Un-Jour-un-Th%C3%A8me/page217

                               The Chinese Economic melt has cost investors around the world some US Dollar 10 TRILLION in lisses. That is more than the entire GDP of China of US             $9.7  trillion. The flaming of DOW index should wake up the US for sure. The economic epidemic is real.                

The Trump(it) President; entertainment guaranteed.

This is what I got when I keyed in his name:

Donald J Trump for President: Make America Great Again!

https://www.donaldjtrump.com/

... real estate and entertainment. Show support for his presidential campaign here . ... Trump Banner. Show your Support for Donald Trump. Join Us. Donate ...

At least here is a man who is not afraid of admitting that America needs to be made "great" again. Most powerful nation in the world - it is; but "great" it is not - at least in the eyes of most people in the world. But again; the word is very subjective, and I don't intend to debate it. In my opinion there has been no greater nation than the US of A despite its many flaws. Ah! ah! ah! Subjective.

Hillary Clinton dismisses Trump campaign: 'It's entertainment'

CNN‎ - 12 hours ago

And she is right. After all an entertainer (which he himself admits to being) will do what he is best at doing; specially when it's not just America; but the whole world watching the election. Entertainment is good. Actually; it is great. Specially for an easy to bore global audience that gets its high from a drug called excitement thanks to technology.

Dismissing Trump may not be such a great idea as this man has been written off several times in his business avatars, and each time has returned back larger than life.

Then the trending question

How will Donald Trump's campaign survive this one*, strategists wonder

By Eric Bradner, CNN 
* referring to his attacks on Fox News host Megyn Kelly, his steadfast decision to lash out at anybody who questioned him, and Roger Sone's exit from his campaign.
Has anyone of the above wonderers bothered to check how many Donald Trump jokes are floating on the net? He insults and gets insulted just like McEnroe did each time he was on the tennis court. Even then; people cheered more for McEnroe despite him loosing to his iceberg opponent.

One can only speculate if DT thought he was playing "apprentice" with Roger Stone or if the later was playing "double or quits" with him. I am pretty sure there are many who would have emailed their CVs to DT in a flash to fill the spot. I heard a few from India applied too; but given his remarks on the immigrant community; doubt if any of my brethren will qualify.

Since it is a time for wondering about DT, let me do 5 of my own. Yeah! everyone is into numbers now:

1. Has he been influenced by Hitler on immigrants? And, does he know that virtually everyone in the US is an illegal immigrant - technically - historically.
2. Will he choose a woman as his running mate to win back the women to his side? Actually, his track record on loosing and getting women on his side is quite good too.
3. Think of it - if he became President; what would the value of all the "Trump Towers" around the world shoot up to?And, would he have time to run his business empire in addition to making US great again?
4. Then again - if he did not; would he write a bestseller "100 ways to loose a winning Presidential campaign".
5. After winning; would he play "The Apprentice" in the Senate and fire everyone not in agreement?

Actually "apprentice" reminds me that there is a young politician in India who could learn a lot from DT and his campaign. Specially how to turn negative into positive. So; rather than wasting his time shouting slogans from cheat sheets outside Parliament, and wasting tax payers money in disruption of proceedings (I can tell him for sure that it's not at all entertaining); he should contribute a large sum to DT's campaign (DT will even do an advert for that contribution) and buy-in an apprenticeship. (Otherwise, given our boy's record, may not be possible).

There was time when the Reagan campaign was written off as a bad joke and we all know what happened. Maybe America needs a businessman who knows how to get out of trouble. I don't think anything is going to bother him in his pursuit to be Mr. USA No.1 and let's get used to Mr. Trump blowing his trumpet for some more time to come; entertainment guaranteed.

The Porn and Corn of being Indian.

Well the Govt. of India went one up on the Govt. of Maharashtra's ban on beef and put a blanket ban on viewing the buff (porn) on the internet. Some 857 internet sites carrying pornographic material have been shut down with the official explanation being that the ban is directed to put an end to child pornography and women abuse that is on the rise in this great Nation of ours. A noble purpose and I am not being hypocritical here in stating that.

Trending questions: Is it constitutional? Will blocking sites succeed in curbing the distribution of such material? How can the Govt. generalize that all watchers of porn are perverts or will succumb to the unacceptable and bizzare excesses? Will it put a stop to child trafficking or curb/reduce pedophilia? Is pornography responsible for abuse against women? Is this not an attack on personal liberty?

Well; I could fill this blog with the angst views being expressed in various mediums by several intellectuals. The answers to most of these questions are rhetorical too. But; if you are a follower of "conspiracy theories"; then the Govt. has super succeeded in shifting the Nation's attention from "Lalitgate", "Vyapam", the dysfunctional monsoon session in the parliament; and other such irksome issues like the debate on the death penalty post the hanging of Yakub Memon. Sex; one may admit it or not, evokes the same impact across all class, creed or religion.

India; it possibly gave the world its first acknowledged treatise on sex and erotica; the "Kama Sutra". Several ancient temples across India sport sexual imagery by way of carvings. So; when did such an evolved civilization that could handle the beauty and art of sex become a Nation of debauched perverts? If propaganda is to be believed then the blame falls squarely on the rise of the internet and smart-phones. Expensive and hard to procure magazines have given way to free and easy access of smut. That's a big - big laugh. I know from my own growing up days that acquiring porn was never a high cost nor difficult. Likewise, all the related ills of present time prevalent even then. Except for the fact that the media fraternity and mediums for distributing was not that large; and there were more compelling issues to stick as headline news.

But; that is still not the answer to its ever growing demand. One could start pinning the blame on the increasing male:female gender gap or the influence of foreign and now media or films or TV shows, travel overseas to sexually "liberated" countries, or even sex education in school for the demand in content to satisfy the very base carnal instinct in mankind (women included). Reality is that it may all be true; so what do we do?

Yes; of course; blame the law for being ineffective in curbing the menace caused by the dark side of pornography. India has been governed under a Indian Penal Code as far back in time as 1860 which lists homosexuality too as a punishable offence. The law of the "Raj" was never thrown out, but was adopted and revised several times based on the supposed needs of society; and each revision left the previous one intact and operable to the point where even the keepers of the law are confused on how to act on them.
                                                                                                                                   
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Indians are not the only followers of kink. There are probably a lot more warped minds in other nations too if one was to measure it on a  percentage of population scale. Nor is a growing majority of India afraid of being labeled as promiscuous; and this is not just an urban phenomenon. Morality is a very subjective matter and the old school definition of a just and moral society went out of the window a long time back. Unfortunately, many who claim to be the guardians of culture and morality have no qualms against corruption or unethical practices. If prostitution is illegal becuse it corrupts morality; then by that argument corruption too is a form of prostitution as it is a blot on India's morality?

One can keep arguing this never ending debate just like that of capital punishment or scam or anything that has a counter view. For now; I will stick to believing the conspiracy theory. Now why is that song "Let's talk about sex baby" playing in my mind? As of now thinking about sex is not banned I hope...moreover.....Can you believe this.....

Government climbs down, says ban on pornography temporary. Hey! While the Govt. decides on Porn let's figure what's hahappening to Indian Corn? I am told it has been corrupted too by a technology of the biological kind to make it look and taste sexy and sweet. How orgasmic?  Food Porn better watch out.




https://asiafoundation.org/resources/pdfs/StanfordHumanTraffickingIndiaBackground.pdf