A Happy Day

Today I am feeling happy. Elated in fact; if I could represent the last few days of my life on a graph, today would be a steep spike upwards. Especially considering the past few days;
Now what caused it… let's see; talking to people can make one feel good. Taking some time off for yourself to think and plan about your life can make one feel good. Listening to pleasant news can make one happy. Well, in my case it's been a combination of all of these that has done the trick.
Spoke to some wonderful people in the past few days. Amazing how some good old plain talk can make you feel better. Especially to catch up with friends and family; it's like talking your heart out and laughing it out. Always helpful; Thank God I have been blessed with some good friends.
Then I took what I believe is the first step towards a long journey henceforth. To sit down and actually evaluate myself- the journey so far and the road ahead as well; I've done this a lot of time but not on paper. At least not anytime recently; getting things on paper always helps coz it gives you a better picture; I'll have to thank all of you readers for helping me initiate this as well.
And lastly, Singh is King again. The Indian election results have definitely brought in a lot of joy in me. The dance of democracy as they say is a peculiar affair. You never know what lies in store. It's not always that you are judged on governance. There are a plethora of issues at play and you can never be sure which one will click. And the whole exercise being what it is – there's just one word that comes to my mind when I think of it – Stupendous. I mean look at the sheer degree of management that's required to get it working. Whatever it is, without going into the details, I'll say I am happy for Singh and the whole breed of politicians he's going to usher in.
On the whole, I feel happy and am all set to start another delightful week. All charged up to tackle my problems head on. :D
Now, before I close I just want to go a little bit into politics. I hope this time around we'll have all round development coming in. Healthcare, Water, Sanitation, Infrastructure, education, Telecom – lots of sectors deserve due attention. And like sidharth varadarajan said, the economy is in a completely different state from how it was five years ago. With the worst economic crisis after the great depression still not seeming to fade away, economic reform team would be very careful before opening up to foreign investments. This is not to say that we should stay away from foreign capital; they are definitely needed to boost our growth but it should not be in a way to shun local growth and more importantly we should protect ourselves from exposing to unnecessary risk. The present crisis has not eroded any of our banks, thanks mainly to our strong regulatory framework. This should remain while still encouraging innovative ideas to further bolster the economy and help generate further local employment. India has invited quite a lot of funds from both FII as well in terms of FDIs. A good sign and with the outsourcing funda still staying strong, it is likely to go up again.
The nuke deal will give us access to further energy resources as well. Let's not go into the problems of that now. I only hope our Iran relationship also improves. Pakistan still remains in shambles and tackling them would still remain a key concern. That country would need to get its grip very quickly and being our immediate neighbor, we would need to watch out. Terrorism and its off shoots would require greater resilience and strength from the government. I only hope that all sorts of fanaticism gets wiped out.
I for one believe that I can trust the present team to deliver in terms of economic reforms and all round growth. With ahluwalia, Manmohan, Chidambaram and their likes, it sure is a re assurance. In Kerala, my hometown the left has suffered a major setback. This of course is more to do with their factionalism than the good of congress. But of course with candidates such as tharoor, congress surely has got an elegant team up there. The number of young blood is on the rise. Definitely a good sign; I only hope they bring in results. Another good sign is rahul's mature way of handling things; I have found him good so far. With his bottom up approach to reforming the inner roots of congress, I am looking forward to seeing more from him. Like he said, it's a paradox that in a democratic country it requires personal liking and nepotism from senior leaders for a person to rise up in politics. He very honestly admits that it was his surname which got him his status more than anything else. And he was quick to point out that now that he's there he might as well do something to clean the system rather than refuse to accept his new found glory. His strategies so far have so paid off big time. The rise of the congress in UP after deciding to going it alone has been proclaimed as one of his key achievement. Not surprisingly, you had lots of hullabaloos about rahul being the next prime minister. Thankfully, all such speculations have been put to rest immediately by his mother and the party chief whip.
This is one thing about congress. They've found it hard to come solid without support from the Nehru family. That I feel is a real shame. I have nothing against Sonia. Indeed as Ramachandra Guha says, she would definitely go down in history as one of the key figures of modern India. What is sad is that it required someone like her to get congress out of their shackles.
Anyways, with Manmohan Singh all set to become the second prime minister after Nehru to get reelected after a successful five year stint, it sure does bring in relief.
Jai ho it is!