Democracy imperfect

"Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all the others that have been tried from time to time" - Winston Churchill, 1947

This Op-ed in the Times by Paul Krugman could as well have been written for India.

In the 17th and 18th centuries, the Polish legislature, the Sejm, operated on the unanimity principle: any member could nullify legislation by shouting “I do not allow!” This made the nation largely ungovernable, and neighboring regimes began hacking off pieces of its territory. By 1795 Poland had disappeared, not to re-emerge for more than a century.

Today, the U.S. Senate seems determined to make the Sejm look good by comparison.

Whether its a regional movie like Jhenda (also remember protests against Ashutosh Gowarikar's Jodha-Akbar) or a comment by SRK on IPL, any political party or son of a politician objects and brings half the nation's media to attention and sometimes even holds the Govt's policy decisions to ransom.

Just explains that democracy as practiced across the world is far from perfect!

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Vikramaditya - Myth or Reality

A statue of Vikramaditya at Vikramaditya ka Tila / Vikramaditya's Singhasan Battisi On a recent visit to Ujjain, I found myself drawn to the city's extraordinary blend of history, mythology, and spirituality. As I stood before the Mahakaleshwar Jyotirlinga, I reflected on its significance as one of India’s most revered shrines. Yet, amidst these sacred surroundings, I encountered narratives of Vikramaditya - the legendary king of Ujjain, celebrated for his valor and wisdom, who's name resonates from the folklore of locals to every part of India. Every time we celebrate a festival in India, it is marked with a tithi i.e. date as per the Indian calendar - which is called the Vikram Samvat calendar, attributed to being founded by Vikramaditya of Ujjaini (the then name of Ujjain). What struck me, however, was the curious fact that despite Vikramaditya’s pivotal place in Indian cultural memory, his existence as a historical figure lacks definitive evidence. My exploration l...

Ekla Chalo re

Watched "Bose- The forgotten Hero" on Saturday. Gem of a movie and probably the best of Shyam Benegal. Subhash Chandra Bose has always been an inspiring character in the history for the youth. This post however is not about the movie, its about the lead song 'Tanha Rahee' which is based on the poem 'Ekla Chalo Re' by Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore. I had pasted the English translation of this poem on my blog earlier. http://the-complete-man.blogspot.com/2004/12/tsunami-times_30.html However, yesterday I found the original bengali text of the poem and found that the meaning in the above translation was not exact. So I have endeavourer (with the help of Shubham ) to re-translate it into English and Hindi by myself. Here is the output of my work: Bengali Jodi Tor Dak Soone Keu Na Asse Tobe Ekla Chalo re Ekla Chalo Ekla Chalo Ekla Chalore Jodi Keu Katha Na Kai Ore Ore O Abhaga Jodi Sabai Thake Mukh Firae Sabai Kare Bhay Tabe Paran Khule O Tui Mukh Fute Tor Maner Kath...

How will travel industry transform post-Covid

Unlike philosophers, journalists and teenagers, the world of entrepreneurship does not permit the luxury of gazing into a crystal ball to predict the future. An entrepreneur’s world is instead made of MVPs (Minimum Viable Product), A/B Tests, launching products, features or services and gauging / measuring their reception in the market to arrive at verifiable truths which can drive the business forward. Which is why I have never written about my musings or hypothesis about travel industry – we usually either seek customer feedback or launch an MVPised version and gather market feedback. However, with Covid-19 travel bans across the globe, the industry is currently stuck – while a lot of industry reports and journalistic conjectures are out, there’s no definitive answer to the way forward. Besides there is no way to test your hypothesis since even the traveller does not know what they will do when skies open. So, I decided to don my blogger hat and take the luxury of crystal gazing...

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