All set to chant NaMo, am I?

Well, I am not a huge fan of NaMo, as some of you may know. Yet, I’m willing to give him and his party a chance for the simple reason that I believe that this country is in dire need of a change in the leadership.

The previous government  has had its run for 10 long years and made a complete sham of the trust that its people placed on them. Now its high time they handed over the reins to someone else. Moreover now the people have shown their distrust for Congress by not giving the party any chance to be voted back in power.

So then it is only natural that they place their trust on another party, which may not be essentially a better one, may I add, but which may just be as deserving to be given a chance. Hence BJP. Hence NaMo.

Now where Modi is concerned, I have my reservations. There are no two ways about it. The manner in which he disposes a radically religious ideology is not something that I am entirely comfortable with. Also going by the kind of controversial cases that have been hovering over his head, whether proven or not, one can only presume that he may not be the cleanest of the leaders that we have today. But then, none of our leaders are very clean or honest to begin with, are they?

Except of course Arvind Kejriwal and his party who seem to have their ideology and vision perfectly in place. But their impulsive and dramatic approach may have cost them the due credibility this time. Add to that the fact that they are still in the budding stage, inexperienced makes them an improbable option, not yet ready, in my eyes, to be at the helm.

Which brings us back to Modi.

Now I have been reading a lot of articles, engaging in a lot of discussions where there have been strong dissent over NaMo. And I completely understand the sentiments behind them. But we are at a stage where, be it Congress or BJP, we are none  the wiser. And, since Congress has already got its chance and crumpled it beyond repair, let us give BJP a chance too and gauge how well they make use of this opportunity.

To give credit where its due, Narendra Modi, in the last few months, with the kind of aggressive rallies he has done, with the kind of issues he has shown keen interest in addressing, has shown an impressive mettle and determination. At this point I can only hope that his radical and extreme ideologies will not come in the way of serving his people. For all said and done he cannot afford to take the expectations and faith that ride high on him for granted.

So let me rather keep my personal opinion of him aside and keep an open mind to come to terms with the larger picture of a clear mandate that the majority of the people of my country has given to him and his party. They have earned it.

Confession of a Jealous…err… Neglected Mom

The only downside of a weekend is that your child doesn’t even want to acknowledge that you’re around as she wants to make the most of the day by spending all her time with her Papa…. and maybe even complain about how much of a mean & a bickering mom you’ve been through the week 😦 😦

Bystanding is a national timepass!

Last weekend, R,Namnam & I went out to enjoy the lovely weather. Yes,the scorching,sweltering summer is slowly giving way to the cool,breezy winter. We celebrated this change in weather by roaming around Souq Waqif,a traditional market situated in the heart of Doha.

Now the post is not about our visit to the Souq. I’ll reserve that for a later date. Maybe,I’ll share some snaps of our visit in my next post. This post,instead is about what happened after leaving the place.

On our way back,we saw an accident on the opposite road, where a cyclist had been hit by a motorist. By the look of it ,it seemed like a terrible accident. The cyclist was lying on a stretcher,right in the middle of the road, being attended to by the paramedics.

As much as it was a disturbing sight to watch, what was also pathetic to see was how much this incident was garnering interest among all the passersby. Everyone was so glued to that unpleasant sight that they were causing a mini-traffic jam in the process.

R was so pissed off with this attitude that he was on the brink of getting out of the car and shaking the drivers to get moving. We didnt understand what was so interesting to watch. What was the need to stop and watch a poor man fighting for his life? Unless of course they had some help to offer,which they clearly didn’t. The ambulance was there. The paramedics were doing the needful.

By-standing seems to be in our veins. When someone is beaten mercilessly, or when a woman is paraded naked or when there is a scuffle in the locality,all we do is stand by as mutants and watch. I’m not saying we enjoy it,but we don’t seem to mind it either.

If we cant offer our help or speak out against an injustice ,we should just walk away and move on. At least its less miserable than being bystanders and adding to the sufferings of those ill-fated souls.