Delhi election 2015: Analysis of the resounding victory of the Aam Aadmi Party by a common man himself!!

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The mandate is out. The sweeping of the seats has been done. Aam Aadmi Party(AAP) or Common man’s party has swept the Delhi assembly election. One of the youngest party to fight election in the world’s largest democracy, AAP achieved a feet which all the exit polls failed to even calculate. AAP success story is nothing less than a fairy tale in the Indian politics history.

A  techie turned civil servant turned social activist turned politician, the new chief minister of Delhi, Arvind Kejriwal ,(IITian,IRS officer ,RTI(right to information) activist, Ramon Magsaysay awarder) has a new feather to add to his elaborated cap. And the cap which ironically, boldly scream “mein hoon aam aadmi” or “I am the common man”.

Winning 67 out of 70 seats of the Delhi assembly is not a joke. To curb the winning streak of the ruling BJP and to stop the chariot of the prime minister of India is definitely a huge feat. But what magic does Kejriwal’s broom (his party’s symbol) did which other party failed to do so?

Well, most people are still impressed with the work he did briefly for the time when he formed a minority government back in December 2013. Though it lasted 49 days only, its work still resonated with the people. The grass root plan was laid out properly. A promising agenda and manifesto was explained to people. And these simple things seems to have worked way better than the high profile campaigning and political mud throwing.

I really want to applaud for the maturity shown by the Delhi’s voters. Let us go back to May 2014 and look at the result of Indian general election. Delhi consists of 7 parliament seats. Even though AAP did impressive work in those 49 days, they failed to secure a single seat in those election. All the seven seat were won by BJP. They knew that should vote for a party which can provide us good governance and can form stable government. During general election, BJP was the obvious candidate to form a stable government. And during the state election, they thought that AAP could provide better governance in the state and they provided them the majority.

But what about BJP??  They were flying high in every state election past the general election of 2014 when they returned to power after a decade. Interestingly BJP’s vote share still remains the same. It has seen only 1.5% dip in its vote share, but still it went down from 31 seats in last election to 3 seats in this election.  The wonder happened because Congress vote share reducing drastically. While BJP vote share was 33% in last election, this year it had 32% of vote share and the rest of the vote were swallowed by AAP, which throttled them from 29% vote share in 2013 to a whopping 55% in 2015, i.e 29 seats to 67 seats .Somehow or the other , many section are yet to digest the BJP’s agenda and it is their work now to also include those people who are generally shying away from their party.

I really wanted BJP to come to power in Delhi. Not because I am a loyal BJP supporter( which btw I am)But because of the fact that Delhi is a special state where some power is vested by the central government and the other are vested by the state government. So it would have been better if both the state and central government parties would have been the same. How can we forget the famous Dharna(protest) by the then Chief minister Arvind Kejriwal because of his dissatisfaction  with the Delhi Police. This led to a stand-off between the center and the state government. Hope such situations don’t arise this time.

I heartily congratulate AAP and really wish Mr. Kejriwal stands to his promises . And for BJP… they should stop relying on the campaigning done by star politician ( Read : Mr. Modi) and should start preparing from the grass root level to explain people about its development agenda. Also , indulge every class, creed, caste  of people to your party, and stop relying upon the traditional vote of the urban middle class.

Few words for the oldest Indian political party , the Indian National Congress, which failed  to bag even a single seat in this election !!  please rethink about your leadership.

When I first started this blog, many of my friends advised me not to write about politics. But I just did. Because after all we live in a democracy and everyone has right to do anything under correct decorum. Thus I want to say that all the above views are my personal thought and not intended to offend anyone.

Statistics sourced from The Times of India.

Finally three cheers for the Democracy.

Hostels and it’s fun!

Few days ago I was chatting with my friend about my first hostel experience…. of how weird it was , of how the food sucked  and of how it gave us the ultimate fun as we all live away from the family, experiencing freedom as well as responsibility for the first time. For most of the students, their first experience of staying away from the family begins when they join college in different part of their country. I have been living in hostel from my higher secondary and from then my amazing life has began.

Living in hostel is fun, but I have seen many guys getting homesick and returning back to home. I remember my first day at the hostel. I have seen mothers crying when their children pack their bags. But it wasn’t the case with me. My parents didn’t create a scene (thankfully). Neither did I cried or felt homesick. Of course I miss home and the home cooked food or as we say Maa ke haath ka khana  but staying alone has obviously made me more self reliable and independent.

When I went to college, I choose not to stay in the college hostel. I decide to give it a try to private hostels. Unfortunately that wasn’t a pleasant experience. My hostel or as we say mess was owned by group of men who remained drunk whenever I saw them. Still as I was staying with my friends and the fact that there was no entry time limit ( well it was because the landlords were awake whole night drinking), so it was fun initially… but the reality set in soon. My first year classes were held early in the morning. So early that I had to leave my mess by 6.30 am in the morning to catch my college bus. The building entrance was a sort of indoor garage and the main gate was a huge steel gate. It was quite tall and you couldn’t even jump off the gate. The key of the main gate remained with the landlords. So every morning I have to go and wake up a bunch of stinky, drunk sleeping men, who used to hurl abuses at me as I was waking them up from their precious slumber. This continued from some days till one day I saw another guy of my mess jumping off the gate. As I said earlier the gate was too high…so that day I learned the technique to climb that gate by noticing the guy’s technique ( like at which corner we have to place our foot to climb etc). And there I was, jumping a 12 to 15 feet gate every morning…. I still think how I was able to do that…. So all set, no more dealing with those drunken idiots? Umm no!!

 Apparently they used to call all the messmates and gather them at  the terrace during night and under the influence of alcohol  made fake allegations such as ” I heard someone calling me a  motherf@#$er” or “I saw someone puncturing my bike”. I have to tell that those guys were quite huge and scary  too. I remember one of them was more than 6 foot tall and had shaved head and eyebrows too (much like Sanjay Dutt’s kancha cheena in the Movie “Agneepath”,,, really creepy). So I and my friends decided we have had enough. We decided to leave the mess. But as per the rule we have to pay two month’s rent in advance if we have to leave. Of course it was a verbal agreement and nothing was made legal in paper before we joined. And we knew that if we go and talk about leaving room to those goons, they would have created a problem. So when it was Durga Pooja vacation (eastern Indian school and colleges remains close for two week during this festival), we packed our stuff and said that we are leaving for home, but instead switched to a better place. After the vacations we informed them by the phone that we have left the place. They shouted on us but then asked us to come and give us the room key at least, to which we replied that you are free to break the lock!!! Thus the nightmare finally ended!! Phew!!

I know what we did wasn’t right, but hey sometimes you have to take the crooked way. So this is what I wanted to say about the hostel life. I would have never imagined myself getting out of the trouble like that, but I did. So in difficult times , these are the precious reminders which help us to overcome any difficulty.

 By the end of this year, I would be joining my first job. I know even there I have to find a bachelor’s pad but one thing which I can tell for sure is that it would not  be as fun as the college time…

P.S ,  I am bunking my class and writing this piece now!!!                                        

Of the selfies and narcissism

The world of smart phones is equipped with one common trend and that is obviously taking selfies i.e  the art of clicking one’s own pic with help of their phone.  If it’s a group pic then it’s called  ussies or groupies and so on…

While taking selfie is still a big trend, the latest toy regarding this new hobbie of people is the selfie stick, a sort of stand ,to hold up your cell phone while you take that perfect snap either pouting or rolling  out your tongue. It all seemed a fun thing to me until I read an opinion about the selfie stick that said…

“ selfie stick!! It’s more of a narcissi-stick”   

Then it hit on me… is this trend really making us a narcissist?

Narcissism could be described as the excessive fondness for oneself and being way too much loving about themselves. It is derived from the name of Narcissus , who appears in Greek mythology. He used to be a really attractive person and one day he fell in love with his own reflection in a pond. When he realized that he couldn’t be with his own reflection, he choose to drown himself and then turn into a flower, which thus gives name to the flower narcissus.

 All the selfies which we found on internet are of best features of that person. We get party selfies, gym selfies, outing selfies etc ,all the scenario in which the person is either dressed beautifully or have a ripped body or doing some extravagant things. So is this really a way to feel good about you? Yes and No.

According to me it is good to feel positive about yourself and thus staying in a better shape or dressing up well , are  one of the various ways. But the other time I feel, people simply try to copy others in the social media and thus end up doing things which turns out to be a complete disaster for them…

Some studies tell that we human perceive ourselves 10 times more attractive than our actual self. Which is isn’t that bad… but don’t you think this selfie culture is giving  more fuel  to this finding and making us all self obsessed with ourselves?

Well even if it does… is it narcissism?

No, it isn’t. Narcissistic personality disorder(NPD) is a disorder which affects 1% of the total global population. It is severe case of self pleasing one by indulging in self flattery, believing that one can perform every task in the world and above all they are in delusion of many things.

It is really harmful in many cases…

So next time you see a person clicking a selfie, don’t call him a narcissist  , instead call him self- loving. Go , grab your smart phone a click a selfie now!!!  

The last stop!

In my previous post , I described about the two destination I visited while I was in Mumbai. Apart from attending infinite family gathering( weddings, house warming ceremony, etc), I didn’t go much around in Mumbai. Instead I went to a pilgrimage…. Yea… right!

So I am not a religious person but I couldn’t say no to that trip. Apparently the whole family had gathered after such a long time, so it was quite exciting to be a part of such a trip where more than fifteen people travel together.. chaos certified J. And it’s also isn’t bad to take god’s name some time.

We were going to Nathdwara, a town in the western Indian state of Rajasthan. It is home of the famous Shrinathji temple. Nathdwara literally translate to “gateway to god”. We all boarded a train to Mavli, another sleepy town in Rajasthan, so as to reach our destination. One thing you have to agree, about travelling in a train in India, is the beautiful  view.!!

We reached Mavli early in the morning and it was freezing there.

 From there we had a 20 minute jeep ride and finally we arrived at our destination. All the exhaustion due to travel was vanished at once after having a look at this royal hotel we were staying in. The room had got a beautiful view of the town.

Before visiting the temple, we decided to go to a nearby town called Kankroli. It has a famous manmade lake called Rajsamand Lake.And it was  breathtaking….

 After visiting some relatives in Kankroli( my relatives exist in almost every western Indian city) we returned to Nathdwara.

It’s quite an old town. It was all evident because of the narrow street.

 Before the path to the temple began… I found this gate… apparently used in earlier days keep wild elephants away.

I don’t have any pics of the Temple as electronic gadgets were not allowed inside the temple premises( as is case with many Indian temple). This was followed by souvenir shopping and tasting local cuisine… yummy!!

The next day we went to Gandhinagar, capital of the Indian state of Gujarat , to visit my aunt( I told you so….). After spending quality time with them, we boarded our train back to Mumbai from Ahmedabad, the largest city of Gujarat and the fifth largest city of India. No prizes on guessing that we did visited our relatives staying in Ahmedabad before boarding the train : /

My visit to Mumbai ended after attending one more wedding (yeah! Truly).. And finally the day came when we boarded the flight back to Bhubaneswar.

So after giving you a long detail about my travel destination… what am I offering you? Well it’s just a fact that i want to convey, that you don’t have to plan a particular day to go visiting any place. Even if you go to a new place for work,,, have some time for yourself and try to soak in the place’s beauty and grace. We may think of travelling to places far away, in a different country … which is good no doubt… but do remember that there could be a beautiful, sleepy town nearby, whose history, whose soul can be as amazing as those exotic foreign location.

And it’s always nice to meet your family member after a long gap!!!

All the pics imported from my bro’s Instagram account.

Vajreshwari temple: a sign of thankfulness to the deity

So, in my last post I talked about how the Maratha and the Portuguese sweated it out in the creek of Vasai to hold the position of those islands.

Vajreshwari is a town located around 25 km away from Vasai. The town gets its name from the Temple built in the honor of the goddess Vajreshwari. It was known as Vadavali earlier. So this was the little details about the town.

The temple was built in year 1739, yup, the same year the Portuguese lost the battle of Vasai to the Marathas. Chimaji Appa, the commander of the Marathas, set his camp in the city of vadvali on his route to capture the Vasai fort. There, he used to pray the local diety. For three years the fort was not captured by the Marathas. In his prayers, Chimaji Appa promised the goddess that he would built a grand temple for her, if she blessed them the might to defeat the Portuguese.

When the Portuguese were finally defeated with the capturing of the fort, Chimaji build the temple to keep his promise.

If you look outside the temple premises, you would find a wall barricade in the shape of a fort.

It is because the temple was the designed on the grounds of Vasai fort.

Also at the entrance, you would find a tower like structure called “dipamala”.

The place is surrounded by hot water springs, which you could find crowded with the people dipping into (which I found very unhygienic).

The temple structure is not that overwhelming, but quite unique because of the fort like architecture. Also, it gives you an insight of what happened in the past. Visiting Vasai fort without visiting Vajreshwari is like leaving a task incomplete.

P.S… the instagram bug has bitten me… so you can view my profile here. I would not ask you all to follow me… it’s up to you to decide…. (but deep in my heart I know you would…)

You all would ? Right?

Vasai : the lesser known erstwhile Portuguese colony in India

Happy New Year people!!

I am beginning this year’s post with my travel destinations. My exams ended on the 8^th of December and I boarded  a flight to Mumbai from Bhubaneswar on 10^th of December.

Yes, i travelled from the eastern most part of the peninsula to the western most part.

 A note to be taken, my whole extended family and my relatives lives in Mumbai (with some few exception). So I didn’t go to Mumbai for vacation, instead I was there to meet my entire family member.

My relatives lives in various suburbs of Mumbai,but I went to my uncle’s home , who lives in Vasai.

It is a northern suburb of the city. The city is also known as Bassein, which is it’s English name. This name is derived from the Portuguese name “Baçaim”.

India was a former British colony, but many of other empire too had their colony in this vast country. Example : Pondicherry was a French colony, Goa was a Portuguese colony. Ask anyone to name a former Portuguese colony in India, and the first answer you will hear would be Goa. But Vasai was one of the most important Portuguese colony whose name is somewhat lost today.

 The Portuguese first visited the place in 1509 under Francisco de Almeida. At that time, the Portuguese were on their way to make Goa their colony, which they did successfully by the year 1510. The islands of Mumbai , were not that of importance at those time. Gradually, the place was passed to the British in 1661 as part of dowry of Catherine of Braganza.

Today , Vasai is a part of the city. The only Portuguese trace that is left is the grand Vasai fort. It’s full name in Portuguese is “"Fortaleza de São Sebastião de Baçaim “  which translates to "the fort of St. Sebastian of Vasai". Under the colony, the fort was called “ corte da norte “ or the northern court, thus becoming the head quarters of the northern islands to Goa.

The fort was eventually seiged by the Maratha Empire in the 1739 during the battle of Vasai. The Maratha Empire was led by Chimaji Appa and the Portuguese were led by Captain Joa o Xavier Pinto.

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Statue of Chimaji Appa
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This battle led to the construction of another historical site, Vajreswari Temple, which would be covered in next post.

The fort was not a very nice experience for me as I reached there quite late in the evening. But, even in the dim light , the fort's grandness didn't hide.

If you look through a tourist point of view, this is an amazing place, and the history associated with it makes it even more interesting.

Apart from the last two pics, rest all pics are sourced from my brother's shutter( PS: not that crappy map), so if you like those pics, you can follow him on instagram here

New year’s eve and the nostalgia!

Hi all,

Yes, I am alive. I know that I told in my last post that I will resume posting in December first week but I didn’t. Reason being that I went to a trip of western states of India. So I would be writing my whole experience of the trip next year (from tomorrow :P).

What about today? The last day of the year….

Well I have a habit of writing a diary. Every year end, I write a flashback series in my diary. In it I sum up the whole year month wise. I find this practice quite fruitful, because every month has some special importance in the whole year. It is up to us now what do we learn from that experience.

The yearend usually makes me nostalgic. All the good moments starts the slideshow in my mind. It’s not that the bad moment doesn’t show their presence… it’s just that I choose to ignore them. Also I try to let go of grudges I hold against some people because hey … as we go to new year , one more year get over from our lives.

I pretty much suck at the practice of keeping New Year resolution though. Every year I make a list, but I became a defaulter on day one itself… my resolution list looks somewhat like this…

So what’s next? Yea… new year party??

Me being an introvert usually hate those new year party… in my growing year..back in my home town, we used to have a club. Every member of the colony used to gather there and they used to call DJ and have a dance party…. And I hated that!!! But as my family members used to attend that party, so I was obliged to go with them. After all, I wanted to be with them as the clock stroke to the midnight. I am glad that I attended those parties, because I got to spend time with my family. At this time of year, I and my elder brother are at a different city and my parents are back at my hometown.

So cherish this time of the year and make sure that you have fun in the last day.

Here wishing you all a very happy new year and a year full of health, happiness and success.