Mutterings that Matter!

There was a time when I could pen poetry in minutes

There was a time when I would blog effortlessly

There was a time when I’d change status messages frequently.

Where is that time gone I think. My present has overtaken my past.

 

Ale1

The Wikipedia states an Ale to be Ale is a type of beer brewed from malted barley using a top-fermenting brewers’ yeast. This yeast ferments the beer quickly, giving it a sweet, full bodied and fruity taste. Most ales contain hops, which impart a bitter herbal flavour that helps to balance the sweetness of the malt and preserve the beer.”

My graduation from Lagers to Ales pretty much happened in London a couple of years back and in the company of friends.

So it has pretty much been either a pub crawl (UK for pub hop) or pretty much the confines of a hotel room.

This time was rather pleasant. I was invited by a friend to his hockey club Real Ale Festival. Some offers are difficult to refuse as they say and this one what was one of them obviously. 14 Ales and 3 Ciders – I didn’t try the ciders eventually. Given a choice it’s Ale, Stout, Lagers and Ciders in that order.

So we decided to do a barrel crawl – go from barrel to barrel with the souvenir glass you see in the image. That glass did hold many of those on the list and I’d avoid mentioning how many, because it is not the quantity but quality that matters. Quality of a good time. An Ale of a time…

Thanks Robbie…it was good, not to mention the overground and underground trains back to the hotel in Central London. 😉

Also the blokes at the Broxbourne Hockey club for being great hosts.

Aleman!

London

London Dreams or London Calling…

Mumbai Congress

Some banner designers have a novel way of ensuring their business suffers. Look at the banner of the Congress Party above.

What do you see?

Struggling are you?

Well for one it has a welcome address in all the top 5 languages spoken in the city of Mumbai.
Two, it has the top brass of the Congress across India and in Maharashtra in the photos. Sonia Gandhi, Manmohan Singh, Rahul Gandhi & Ashok Chavan amongst others.

So what’s wrong with that you may ask. My question is who are they welcoming – us or one of them.

Dear banner maker – next time please ensure your template design is not reusable for a longer period of time – your business will not grow.

When the Eagles decided to break up Don Henley had said that the group would reunite when hell freezes over.  For MTM obviously it’s not so dramatic it’s probably like Glenn Frey said when they got back together ‘For the record we never broke up, we just took a 14 year vacation’.

MTM is hopefully back from vacation after 8 months to its first post this year. It’s been a ‘should I shouldn’t I’ debate whenever I have opened up WordPress to remove the cobwebs from the blog but really have not given it a really hard look to restart it.

Today is a good day in some form – already has a milestone attached to it from six years ago, and I’m happy to have MTM restarted today.

Thanks to all my friends who have been a support on this blog in the past and especially thanks to that one who threatened to pull MTM of his blogroll. Thanks A.

I like the new look at WordPress and hopefully the Mutterings are back for good.

Cheers!

Oh my great state what has become of thou!
Thy politicians are fighting o’er pohe and pav.

To each it’s the food of the soil
Yet it’s all a clever political foil

Oh my great state what has become of thou!
Thy politicians are fighting o’er pohe and pav.

They beef up their security
While our lives are full of anxiety

Oh my great state what has become of thou!
Thy politicians are fighting o’er pohe and pav.

In all the carnage that happened down south
Thy politicians just put their foot in the mouth

Oh my great state what has become of thou!
Thy politicians are fighting o’er pohe and pav.

When time came for hard decisions
Their parties quickly took away their positions

Oh my great state what has become of thou!
Thy politicians are fighting o’er pohe and pav.

I have new found power in that one vote
Get the change that the world will note

Oh my great state what will become of thou?
Will thy politicians ever stop fighting o’er pohe and pav?

Loved the new look WordPress…will not say much…better get blogging….

I quit

Posted on: December 1, 2008

Someone took moral responsibility

Someone listened to his conscience

Someone was put under pressure

They all quit

I wonder who will clean up the mess – or will that person quit too?

It’s finally over.

Nearly 60 hours of an ordeal that will go down in the history of our country as one of the most trying. A monument left in shambles, more than 160 casualties, close to 400 injured, souls scarred.

As I watched the last encounter taking place glued to my television mixed emotions prevailed, happiness that it was over, sadness to the ones who died and the loss to their loved ones, apprehension about the future, loss of faith in the establishment, and above all pride that we still have brave men defending this country and its people.

May the souls of all who died rest in peace and may god bless all the brave men who fought for us. Thank you NSG, RAF, Mumbai Police, Ambulance agencies, Hospitals, Doctors, Nurses, and all Good Samaritans.

As the encounters now turn to investigation I wonder what next? It’s probably time for the citizen movement to begin to decide what we need as a country and a people and who is equipped with the will to get us there. As someone said on one of the channels yesterday unless you are a vote bank in this country things don’t get done. It’s probably time to create that vote bank that rises above regions, religions, and castes. It’s time to uproot the perpetrators of region based, religion based, and caste based politics.

That’s probably when change will happen. Maybe that’s what is next.

While our state politicians were busy fighting over pohe and pav, vociferously defending the terror attacks in Malegaon and blaming the ATS (Anti Terrorist Squad) as partisan, they gave a red carpet welcome to approx. 26 militants to hold the financial capital to ransom. And this time it was not some coward militants who planted bombs and walked away from the destruction, this was a declaration of open war in the financial hub of the country. Walking around with automatic weapons and grenades, making easy targets of civilians, tourists and policemen having outdated weapons.

Who do you blame for this, the security agencies, the intelligence agencies, the central and state governments, the opposition parties, the common man or the news hungry media.

So where are those people who are so concerned about the sons of the soil that they haven’t been able to protect either the sons or the soil. Where are those people who are bothered about the health and morality of citizens but have no clue what to do when it comes to the safety of the citizens.

Mr. PM, sir, did the happenings not wrangle your being that you required a teleprompter to address a nation.
Mr. Leader of the Opposition, sir, did you need to use this as a means of advocating your election agenda for the coming general elections. We’d be happy to make you PM for a day if that’s your agenda.

Mr. Home Minister, sir, managing the home ministry is not like managing a bunch of loudmouthed and unruly members of parliament, it needs much more prompt reactions and actions. 5 hours to make a decision is a wee bit long don’t you think.
Mr. Finance Minister, sir, do we not pay enough taxes as a city for us to afford a NSG unit in our city, I’m sure if not we will be more that happy if you tax us even more if it ensures safety for our city.
Mr. Defence Minister, sir, I hope we take some serious action to our neighbours who have a free hand in taking our country for granted.

Mr. CM, sir, if you had spent some more time concentrating on the state than your seat we would have a better city.
Mr. State Home Minister, sir, if you think honest and brave police officers can be sacrificed and be gorified as martyrs, we would much rather have them alive. They are no use to us being dead.

Dear Free Media – If you do not understand the difference between a terrorist attack and the slog overs of a 20-20 cricket match you are better off doing something else. We do not need your running commentary and sensationalism.

Dear NSG – I do hope sincerely that you do not have north indians in your ranks that you sent to protect my city as they will take away the jobs of the sons of the soil.

And finally to the Terrorists, you may have dented the spirit of this city but you have not killed it. It will take much more than your audacity. May your souls rest in peace as may have been promised to you.

As fresh reports talk of various sources as the planners of this siege including the Pak army, ISI, Laskar-e-toiba, Mumbai Underworld, and some obscure Deccan Mujahideen, it remains to be seen when we see an end to this 40+ hour ordeal.

It’s time for the Indian Polity to unite above petty regionalism and sectarian politics and work in unison for a stronger and safer India.

Thank you Indian Army, National Security Group, Rapid Action Force, Anti Terrorism Squad and Mumbai Police for taking the bullet for us.

Hibernation…

Feels good to be back!

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