Reactions, late reactions!

1. Vehicles off roads in Kerala
Today, the ruling left parties and their affiliates in Kerala had given a call for all motorists to stay off the roads to protest against the fuel price hike, introduced by the union government. From what I could gather from the TV grabs, the call has been very ‘successful’. The common man went through untold suffering, in that schedules were upset, connection flights and trains were missed and urgent medical aid to the needy was nowhere in sight. Who benefits and what is achieved from such mindless acts is something that has baffled me, always. And mind you, there’s a ruling of the Kerala High Court that bans all forms of strikes! God save ‘God’s own country’!

2. Shashi Tharoor in trouble again.
Shashi Tharoor seems to have a penchant for shooting off the cuff remarks and landing himself in avoidable trouble. He’s highly photogenic, extremely articulate and eager to do something but the fact is that he’s no run of the mill politician who can resort to glib talking and get away with murder. What baffles me is that he’s too intelligent to be bumbling time and again and so, is there an agenda behind all this? No one, other than the PM, is permitted to announce major shifts in foreign policy and that too, after its endorsement in parliament. So is he the sounding board for the PM to bring about a change in the core thinking of the government or the ruling party? Does he have the backing of Sonia Gandhi and her son? Or is it that he’s too vain to want the spotlight on him, time and again, though I refuse to believe this after my interactions with him, in connection with the PN Panicker foundation’s activities, where I found him to be a jolly good fellow.

3. Indian hockey on an ascendant note?
Very belated though, I was extremely thrilled to see our hockey team thrash Pakistan 4-1 last Friday, in their opening game. The team was tops in all departments of the game that evening and the Pakis didn’t even have a chance to show their mettle. My heartiest congratulations to each and every member of the team though as I script these thoughts of mine, they seem to be doing badly against Australia. Anyways, hope that they do well in the tournament and may God be with them in their endeavours, I shall be watching them at every outing of theirs.