Tushar Mangl Media

We have had a lot of discussion on this blog, in earlier days about   Kashmir   and the perennial problem it is for the Indian state.  Now that the central government is pumping in a INR 80,000 crore package for the Kashmiris, plus the usual flow of tax payers’ money for security reasons, they have received an excellent feedback from people of the state. By openly supporting the death of a commander of a terrorist organization, the people of Kashmir have clearly shown where their loyalties lay. And they do not look at all at par with the Indian state.  That leaves a very uncomfortable question for the Indian polity of the day. What to do with Kashmir at this stage? Is pumping money blindly and empowering the armed forced really going to work? This is plainly the strategy that everyone who has ruled in Delhi has followed. While militancy has weakened due to a strong army, hostility between the army and locals is only increasing. An ...

Finally the Prime Minister has shuffled his cabinet. He kept most of his council of ministers intact, just making minor changes here and there. Key takeaways - Former Karnataka CM Sadananda Gowda is moving down steadily in political circles. From Railways to Law and now to an obscure ministry his stars are not shining. PM Modi seems to have realized the need to induct more powerful females in his council of ministers. Hence two of them have been brought in, blunting the power of other formidable women leaders. Bihar still has the maximum representation in the PM's cabinet even though the people of the state have moved towards the RJD, Congress and JDU combine. The biggest gain has been for the law ministry with two senior Supreme Court lawyers taking charge of it. Talk about expertise there. Another big gainer is the environment ministry which has now got a known environmentalist to reign it in. The government now has two very well qualified doctors on board, none of t...

J Alchem's book A Road Not Traveled is an a mazing book by a debutant author. A unique plot with each character being endowed with bizzare sounding names. The book is brief yet all scenes are detailed and vividly described. The story moves at a good pace and ends with an unexpected twist. [No, I am not revealing the story].   Recieved a copy of the book through Goodreads Giveaway program from the author. 

Somewhere, someplace in the blogosphere lie blogs like Rummaging Through , with blogs so forgotten yet so beautiful. Pranita's blog is primarily about love and poetry. It probes deep into your heart and touches you deep within. The posts are quite few, just a handful of them and the blog does seem to reflect neglect. One of my favorites was Universe in Your Eyes.  Do check the blog out. 

Media is all going wild these days with speculations and support for a second term for RBI Governor. But many groups in social media are mobilizing support for him for gains that are totally contrary to interests of our nation. Under his stewardship, banks have had their worst performances, primarily for his policies to encourage loans to corporates with strong political connections. Loans were disbursed by banks without proper compliance and procedure, leading to huge losses. It is such forces which now want him to continue. So as to keep encouraging such practices. For those who feel, he being out of government is a good sign, look at how bank licenses have been issued. RBI still doles out licenses on a whim and in a very miserly fashion. A modern outlook demands that licenses should be offered on tap but no, the Governor didn't encourage that. Look at the overall customer service in the banking industry. Its pathetic, largely because RBI does not encourage banks to...

On Sunday, IndiBlogger organized a blogger's meet at The Lalit at New Delhi. It was supposed to be a networking event and a product launch. Need I say this? That IndiBlogger people are great at organizing such meets? It was the first time I saw them using the bar code kind system where we got the passes via email and the code was scanned by the guys at the even. Simple, innovative system to check you in. The even kicked off with lunch. The sumptuous feast was a good time to interact with old blogger buddies whom I had met at previous such meets. These included Pankaj, Gaurav, Tarun and others. Also meet a new blogger Rachit, a young blogger who blogs about content marketing. Post lunch Anoop opened up the session with a fun game. It was to introduce yourself and pick a number from 1 to 10. ( No.3 interestingly never came up, I was thinking if I got a chance, I would say no 3). The program continued with a session with experts on growth and nutrition issues. This was qu...

More than 90 lakh people in India have been affected by drought. Poor rainfall has been attributed to this condition. Of course, its easy to blame nature. The major effect it seems to be in one of the most prosperous states of India, Maharashtra. But the whole response to drought with long, meaning less notations of sympathy is suffocating. It almost makes you feel like puking listening to heroics of those who are pumping in crores of public money to ferry water to these regions. Here is why - The media is all gung -  ho about the drought and misery. It makes good story. It gives a nice PR opportunity for celebrities. In all this, the truth remains buried in plain sight. In the year 2002, in an economic survey stated that 70,000 crore rupees were spent in Maharashtra in ten years. Shockingly however the irrigation potential of state rose only 0.1%.  The people of Maharashtra it seems spent 70,000 crore plus on irrigation and still don't have a sound irrigation system to t...

Punjab is gearing for assembly polls. The ruling Akali - BJP alliance faces a strong incumbency factor as it has had a ten year run of the state politics. The media of course favors AAP as the coffers of the Delhi government have been too generous to the media. It continues to highlight the success of AAP in Lok Sabha elections some time ago. But what it does not feel like informing the citizens is that most of those MPs have faded away already. Only Bhagwant Mann remains party's face in Punjab. Of course, relations between AAP and Congress are nice and comfy and that seems to be the way these elections might go. An alliance between the Congress and AAP. The Akali Dal is financially sound and well organized as well. Whatever allegations of corruption people might hurl, they have tried to push the state forward. The BJP it seems has already decided to grab the post of the biggest loser. Its fate now lies in the border district of Amritsar where the Navjot factor will decide ab...

I have been working on The Crumpled Innocence for a long time now. Its been in the cold storage for a while now. It was a spark of an idea but could never reach its true potential. But now I have restarted work on it and release date has been finalized as 15 July, 2016 . Let's hope it goes well. Writing has always been an integral part of my adult life. But will it always remain so? At some level I hope I will move away from writing as it takes up too many of my emotions. Another thing that has always been with me is my reading. It still is my most favourite pass time and I wish and pray it remain so. But now I have added yet another hobby. At least am trying to build it up as a hobby. That is walking and exercising. I like walking. But always felt lazy to take it up. Also my health issues have always been a hindrance in taking up any sports. But look at the kind of lifestyle we lead. Too much unhealthy (yet tasty) food, sedentary lifestyle excessive pollution is all negating o...

In her autobiography Agatha Christie wrote that she seldom went to one place twice for vacation. Her reasoning as I recall was that you have certain memories and you like the place. When you visit that place again and again it spoils those memories. I agree to that. There are so many places in the World. Why keep visiting one again and again. Keep the memories intact. But is it always possible? There are so many places which we visit where memories are created, good and bad. Say an old fort in your city. You went with a loved one for a walk (just saying). Would you rather go their again and again or would you rather never go their again so that the memory of the place remains intact? But you can't avoid the town, can you? Like hill stations. You go to a hill station after few years, you will see less trees, more pollution, more people. The memory of the quaint little town with waterfalls is bound to be disrupted forever. Nostalgia is a tricky thing. Can get you hung over any t...

Over the holi long weekend, I was in Ludhiana, my birth place. We were driving down a road, which I used to take while cycling to school. The road has now been widened, and is much better but the majestic eucalyptus trees, that shaded me in hot summer months, are now all gone. In the maddening rush for wide roads, huge number of trees are being chopped down, not just in Punjab, but in other states as well. It does not make me sad as that is what the countrymen want. Wide roads. Everyone wants that, and politicians too realize the need of their vote bank. Trees don't vote. Where once they grew from a sapling to a an adult tree, they are now just being seen as a road block, an eyesore. And who will speak on their behalf? The moment you try to speak against this shameless atrocity you would be branded as an anti development, activist. As if speaking for a bunch of trees is such a huge sin. The felling of roadside trees also does not affect the NGO types as well, who have much larger...