MANMOHAN SINGH GOVERNMENT’S CORRUPTION HALL OF FAME: THE RATING SCALE

UNRAVELING BHARAT NIRMAN – THE SHABBY BUSINESS PLAN FOR RURAL INFRASTRUCTURE

UPA’S ADVERTIZING BLITZKRIEG - UNRAVELING BHARAT NIRMAN

As the advertizing blitzkrieg by the UPA government targeting the upcoming parliamentary elections of India has begun with the recently re-launched Bharat Nirman campaign, it is relevant to take an analytical approach to the communication campaign that is going to cost some good amount of money that, if used meaningfully, can help many in need in a country that houses millions and millions of the underprivileged.

It is not just about the odd Rs 180 crore expected to be spent on the Bharat Nirman campaign, a spectacle to promote the UPA government’s rural India centric programmes, it is about the whole communication campaign that, in the election year, can easily cost many thousand crores given the previous trends. (And mind you, the major chunk of this many thousand crores is going to be spent from the public fund supposed to be used for the ordinary Indian who is supposed to be the primary constituent entity of the world’s largest democracy.)

Let’s begin with Bharat Nirman, the current talk of the town. Bharat Nirman has a website http://www.bharatnirman.gov.in/welcome.html that welcomes us with this advertisement.

Source link: http://www.bharatnirman.gov.in/

Let’s see what all it tells us:  

A DIGNIFIED ‘YOU’ NEEDS TO PREVAIL OVER THE SUBMISSIVE ‘YOU’

My reflections on life – in quotes (LI)

“Be the individual you seek to be.

Wear your attitude.

Respect your existence.

Value you first.

A dignified ‘you’ needs to

prevail over the submissive ‘you’.

That is the primer to lead

a life of an individual identity

in harmony with the social responsibility.”

©/IPR: Santosh Chaubey - http://severallyalone.blogspot.com/ 

THE FLIRTATIOUS NATURE AND ITS CROONING - I

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THE FLIRTATIOUS NATURE AND ITS CROONING - I

IN THE HILLS OF SOUTH INDIA, THE GENTLE SUN PLAYS HIDE AND SEEK WITH THE MISTY MOUNTAINS

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©/IPR: Santosh Chaubey - http://severallyalone.blogspot.com/ 

THEY ARE THE POLITICIANS OF THE BADLANDS OF INDIA

Clad in bright white kurta-pyjama or trouser-shirt, material ranging from some low-priced Khadhi stuff to the pricey silk weavings, and a white shoe (mostly sports shoe) or sandal – the shoe typically would be a Nike in most cases, though the global sportswear and accessory giant would not even dare to think, even in dreams, to use this wide acceptance (or use)  a sort of endorsement for its premium brand image – they are the conspicuous presence in society who let us have their increased presence at times of their heightened opportunism.

The fitting of the attire depends on the age-group and the taste-buds. Youngsters with an in-shape body (now, with nothing much productive and meaningful to do, most of them have in-shape bodies) go for the body-fit shapes.

Those, in older age-groups and bulky, out-of-place bodies (protrusions and extensions of a parasitic lifestyle), prefer to go for lose-fits much in the line of their lives that remain more of cover-ups while leading public lives.

Wherever they go, they have 15-20 stooges (who try to double up as escorting goons) earnestly following each of them. Some of them carry firepower to protect their masters in case of any eventuality (though it remains a debatable point that whom they need protection from – mostly, it is from their own ‘types’).

ON THE EXISTENTIAL JOURNEY, THE ONLY DEFINED POINT IS YOU

My reflections on life – in quotes (L)  

“On the existential journey,

the only defined point is you.

Every other development,

every other aspect of your life,

is an event on this journey,

working to get along with the life-flow,

to correspond to the energy,

 your living emanates,

to gel with the definition you are to become.

Do you realize it?

Do realize it.”

©/IPR: Santosh Chaubey - http://severallyalone.blogspot.com/               

WE ARE GIFTED WITH A LIFE AND WE NEED THE INTERNAL HARMONY WITHIN US TO MAKE SENSE OF IT

We are gifted with a life. We need to decorate it with a living that such a magnanimous gift deserves.

We are bejewelled with the beads of the time, a time that always moves ahead, telling us and foretelling us to recognize the ‘move ahead’ factor.

We are entrusted with a space that we need to enliven by our very presence here.

We need to be aware enough to cruise across the dimensions of the time and space to organize the beads on the timescale to put on a congruous sphere of existence.

Nothing condescending! Nothing subsisting! Nothing excruciating!

Yes, life does come across such moments and many find them aplenty but we need to see about their nothingness.

MOMENTS OF SELF-REALIZATION

Self-realization comes to us in different stages of life.

The life-events leading ‘us’ to realize about us and ‘about us in life’ are randomly stacked up. They may or may not lead us to generalize about what we come to realize (something that is open to be changed later) but there cannot be a random selection about such events because we never know if it is the moment unless it comes into happening or unless it is passé; because we never knew if we were to come across a particular moment at a particular time having some self-realization lessons.

There is no hierarchy of such moments. There cannot be one.

Life is sum-total of the moments lived and every moment has its own vitality of individualized proportions when you live with ‘you’ only’, when you communicate with ‘you’ only. The self-realization moments form an important measurement of such individualized moments.

And there is no defined pattern of ‘how and when’ of such moments. When we don’t know the next moment of life, how can we define the moment next-to-the-next? Yet, we plan. That is about being human. But the reality remains – life moves in random, unplanned ways, from this moment to the next one. And that applies to the ‘self-realization’ moments as well.

Such moments may come to us in odd moments. Such moments may come to us in routine moments. Such self-realization moments may come to us in ignored moments.

WHAT WAS SCALABLE ALWAYS CO-EXISTED..

My reflections on life – in quotes (XLIX)  

“What was not scalable, never survived.

What was scalable always co-existed.

What you became reverberated in..

..how you reflected on this co-existence.”

©/IPR: Santosh Chaubey - http://severallyalone.blogspot.com/                    

SUNSET AT KODAIKANAL

PHOTOGRAPHY

SUNSET AT KODAIKANAL 

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©/IPR: Santosh Chaubey - http://severallyalone.blogspot.com/ 

THE CONTEXT AND ITS ILLUSION

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THE CONTEXT AND ITS ILLUSION 

LIFE AND PERSPECTIVES 

THINKING AND BEYOND 

THOUGHTLESS AND ENGAGED 

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©/IPR: Santosh Chaubey - http://severallyalone.blogspot.com/ 

THE GANGA PULLS, THE SUN CALLS AND THE VARANASI MORNING ENTHRALLS

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THE GANGA PULLS, THE SUN CALLS AND THE VARANASI MORNING ENTHRALLS



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©/IPR: Santosh Chaubey - http://severallyalone.blogspot.com/ 

THE ENTOURAGE AT THE FINAL RESTING PLACE

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THE ENTOURAGE AT THE FINAL RESTING PLACE

(HARISHCHANDRA GHAT, VARANASI)

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©/IPR: Santosh Chaubey - http://severallyalone.blogspot.com/ 

IT’S IPL MESS ALL OVER! COULD YOU HEAR THEM SPEAKING OF THE DPCO?

It has swept over the thinking horizon. A mercurial, controversial but a glamorous cricketer, a high-octane, high-decibel but low-sportsmanship spirit form of the gentleman’s game, a manifestation of the perennial human greed again and a hyperactive Indian media in an over-competitive market – the last week has been a potboiler with minute-by-minute coverage of what we know as ‘the Indian Premier League Spot Fixing scandal’, that the efficient-but-reckless-but-insensitive Delhi Police, by chance, came to know and pursued and dug more. The revelations are still a work-in-progress.

That is good. Cricket ‘was’ like a religion in India. Millions would sleep and get-up remembering and analysing the last seen game. Even now, if it is an India-Pakistan game, the whole nation still comes to a standstill.

But, the sorry state of affairs is, we cannot write now something like this - ‘cricket has been like a religion in India’ –that we used to read and write so frequently in the past!

And the major factor behind it is the credibility crisis that began to erode with the match-fixing scandals the first big casualties which were the likes of Mohammad Azaharuddin, seen as one of India’s most successful captains. Since then, cricket-fixing (betting) has taken away the sheen from the game. Cricket is now no more a game of flow of emotions. Rather, it has become a form of calculated, commoditized entertainment to be purchased, much like an IPL tournament.

BHARAT NIRMAN-2: MAY WELL PROVE TO BE THE UPA’S VERY OWN INDIA SHINING!

It was over Rs. 150 crore for the ‘India Shining’ campaign in 2004. It was around Rs. 200 crore for the ‘Bharat Nirman’ campaign in 2009. Figures available till February 2012 show the UPA-2 government has already spent Rs. 2246 crore on advertisements.

To begin the campaign season formally, the government recently re-launched the ‘Bharat Nirman’ campaign with a reported budget of Rs 35 crore for an initial run of 15 days. Overall, the Javed Akhtar-Pradeep Sarkar output is expected to cost a whopping Rs. 180 crore.

But, for the UPA and the Congress party, the picture is not as rosy as it was in 2009.

The Congress party led UPA-2 government that is completing four years in office on May 22 has become synonymous with corruption. Scams like 2G spectrum allocation, coal blocks allocation, Commonwealth Games, many Defence deal scams and scams in projects that helped the UPA-1 win the 2009 elections like the farm debt waiver and National Rural Employment Guarantee Act have created an abysmally low credibility scenario for the government.

BHARAT NIRMAN VS INDIA SHINING – SOME RELEVANT ‘SITUATIONAL’ QUESTIONS

The Bhartiya Janta Party led National Democratic Alliance government launched ‘India Shining’ in the run-up to the 2004 General Elections. It lost. The Congress party led United Progressive Alliance launched its campaign led by ‘Bharat Nirman’ in the run-up to the 2009 General Elections. It won. The Congress party is again gearing up for a massive campaign in the run-up to the next General Elections with the recently re- launched ‘Bharat Nirman’ campaign that, according to the reports, is expected to cost Rs 35 crore in the initial run of 15 days.

  

Do such communication management campaigns really help in gaining a significant chunk of voters?

Did the NDA campaign fail or the alliance’s governance fail?

Was the UPA-1’s governance win supported by a meticulously drawn communication campaign?

Or was there lack of a political alternative after the NDA government failed miserably to reach out to the larger India that was known as ‘Bharat’ in the perennial ‘India Vs Bharat’ debate circles; ‘Bharat’ that represents the majority of India - poor, poorly literate, poorly fed and poorly kept?

HAVE YOU FOUND THE CHILD IN YOU ON A DAY LIKE THIS?

Living on the edges,

When the drums beat the sounds in the empty moments

Residing in the void,

Running like a nimble sprinter’s empty mind movements

Living the joy of running,

Visiting the life in moments but seldom in compliments

Thriving on the craze,

Of being the lazy fellow riding high on absurd sentiments

Sometimes, it soothes when there is nothing to follow

Sometimes, it relieves when things look not so in reach

Sometimes, it makes internal peace to remain subdued

Sometimes, the sweat smells so sweet along your path

Sometimes, it makes sense to talk nonsense, 
Letting you do the funny tango

Sometimes, reading the crap enlightens more, 
Than the mystery wrap on the go

We all need to live like this, absentmindedly, on days like this

We need to talk to the alter ego of the ‘cosmetic us’, freely, on days like this

When we feel low, 
When we feel hollow, 
When we feel betrayed, and 
When we feel lost, 
On a day like this 

When we live the life, once lived, but now seldom thought, 
In a way like this

When we make sense of the ‘ignored us’ and a ‘forgotten life’ to go, 
In a way like this

Have you been able to find the child in you, 
On a day like this?  

©/IPR: Santosh Chaubey - http://severallyalone.blogspot.com/

MURDER AS ACCIDENTAL DEATH (III)

Please read after: 

http://severallyalone.blogspot.in/2013/05/murder-as-accidental-death-i.html 

and
http://severallyalone.blogspot.in/2013/05/murder-as-accidental-death-ii.html 

A MURDER IS ALWAYS AN ACCIDENT

BUT,

WHAT THEY THINK? A RESPONSE TO AN RTI QUERY:

©/IPR: Santosh Chaubey - http://severallyalone.blogspot.com/

MURDER AS ACCIDENTAL DEATH (II)

Please read after: 

http://severallyalone.blogspot.in/2013/05/murder-as-accidental-death-i.html 

A MURDER IS ALWAYS AN ACCIDENT

BUT,

WHAT THEY THINK? A RESPONSE TO AN RTI QUERY:

©/IPR: Santosh Chaubey - http://severallyalone.blogspot.com/ 

MURDER AS ACCIDENTAL DEATH (I)

A MURDER IS ALWAYS AN ACCIDENT

BUT,

WHAT THEY THINK? A RESPONSE TO AN RTI QUERY:

©/IPR: Santosh Chaubey - http://severallyalone.blogspot.com/ 

ENJOYING THE GANGA - JUMPING INTO THE HOLY RIVER

PHOTOGRAPHY

ENJOYING THE GANGA

JUMPING INTO THE HOLY RIVER

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©/IPR: Santosh Chaubey - http://severallyalone.blogspot.com/