Friday, May 05, 2006

Happenings this week

There were varying events that had on an impact on me this week.

One was the sad demise of Pramod Mahajan who I considered a politican of the current generation. He was a very dynamic, forward thinking, tech savy person and his thinking was like a management person in a MNC. He was not afraid to wear clothes like any normal person unlike other politicians who put up a show by wearing white khadi clothes. Although he is considered the main person responsible for the failure of the 'India shining' election campaign, he has proved his worth to the BJP and the country. There has been a series of unfortunate deaths of young politicians who thought differently and would have carried India forward like Madhavrao Scindia, Rajesh Pilot, Kumaramangalam and so on. Hopefully more and more young leaders come into politics and take over from the oldies.


I went to a concert tonight of Mandolin Srinivasan in Manhattan. It was a delightful concert which kept me engrossed throughout. The tempo was very good and a high energy level was maintained. His mastery of the mandolin is too good to be true and it seemed as if he was just toying with it. His support cast was fantastic as well with mridangam, ghatam and his brother Rajesh on the other mandolin. He gave equal prominence to all his co artistes and did not hog the show, a solid team performance. I got an opportunity to talk to him after the concert and congratulated him on a very fine performance. My evening was made and fond memories to cherish.

I have been travelling to Washington DC every week and tried the train and the flight as my options. Delta shuttle (hourly service between NY and DC) is proving to be a hit with me since it is very flexible in terms of timings, airport terminal is separate (security check is fast), tickets cost the same price even if you buy on the same day and very quick for me to travel to the airport as well. They serve alcohol on board. This is very surprising considering that none of the domestic flights (i hate the flights in US) that i have travelled on before in the United States do so. One more trend i am noticing is that i get called for the special screening at the security (happened 3/7 times now).

The summer has begun and it feels good not to wear a coat or jacket while stepping outside. Baseball season has started, NBA playoffs are in progress and the soccer season for the leagues are completing and the cup fever is catchin on. Looking forward to an exciting world cup and watching some good soccer games.

1 comment:

My Thoughts said...

I completely agree with you that India has lost a few promising forward looking politicians rather tragically. Their style was comparable to that of a corporate CEO.