Sunanda Pushar Guide to "Sweat Equity"

There is lot of media controversy over Shashi Tharoor now-a-days with entrenched stances in the media.

The first lot led by NDTV are an upset lot – their line of thought is “But he speaks such good English, married to a white woman” -- to add to the credibility has divorced twice – now is cultured and sophisticated enough to have “girl friends” (perhaps solely to uplift them from their messy divorces). You get the idea, he is the poster boy of NDTV brigade – the politicians they dream of to rule India.

The second lot is a brigade that bristles as to how he has gatecrashed into the IPL club (Lalit Modi, Sharad Pawar & Co, which is also known as BCCI) they are determined to get at Shashi Tharoor so that the IPL can be kept within their privileged club. I for one, simple do not believe that Lalit Modi would have chosen to go against Shashi Tharoor unless he had the backing of the higher-ups of BCCI.

If you look at the chronology of events, company registrar's log books (documents shown on TV) one thing is painfully obvious that Shashi Tharoor is guilty of playing the game on someone else's behalf.

20th Aug 2009, Rendezvous company is formed with two directors both Gaeckwads, Sunanda Pushkar is no where in the picture.

8th Mar 2010, Rendezvous changes its name to appear an international entity with an additional director another Gaeckwad – again no Sunanda Puskhar.

Now suddenly just 15 days before the bidding a director is added to the company books guess Who, Sunanda Pushkar of course... It is no coincidence that Mr. Shashi Tharoor becomes Hyper Active in steering a franchise towards Kochi... Rest is history.

Now, against all company law norms why would you include a director in the company books, who is not in the list with the Registrar of Companies, Pune. That too when the law specifically bars any “Sweat Equity” within the first year that too under 15% only. Ms. Sunanda Pushkar has gotten within 30 days of the company being formed that too 25%. If you thought this is it, there is more. She will get 100% of her share of the profits, but only 1% of her due losses. The rest of the equity holders willingly agreed to “bear” the losses. All this for someone who is nothing more than a glorified receptionist in the Gulf. Her claims of having been an expert consultant on bidding etc. were immediately trashed by none other than Shah Rukh Khan himself !!!

I am sure that the Equity was “Sweat Equity” but Shashi Tharoor seems to have done all the sweating both in the boardroom of Kochi Franchise and in the Bedroom of Sunandar Pushar. She of course has gotten all the equity...

It is a shame, that such facts which are readily obvious to a lay man like me, are proving very difficult to the government and most importantly, to the “Intellectual, Economist and Honest” PM – Manmohan Singh !!!!

Arrogance of Railway budgeting...

I spent some time reading up on railway budget, with each passing minute became convinced more and more that we need to do away with Railway ministry as a separate entity and to completely do away with the process of “railway budget”.

I am convinced that presenting this “budget” in parliament is leading to delusions of grandeur amongst the ministers and half their proposals have nothing to do with railways, its operations and profit.

E.g. read through the following proposals.

1. Housing for all employees
2. Railway hospitals, schools and higher educational institutions
3. Karmabhoomi trains for unorganized labor
4. Reduced exam fees for minority, women and economically weaker sections
5. Knowledge parks (no idea what the hell this is)
6. Permanent employment to casual laborers.

There are many many more non-sensical socialistic proposals that have nothing to do with efficient running of railways….

Believe it or not, the only good proposal was the strategy of conducting Railway recruitment exams in various languages in line with state’s official language!! Only thing missing, were building roads, running buses and similarly airports and starting an airline. The arrogance and megalomania that has come into our railway budgeting needs to stop!

I for one was of the simple belief that Railway ministry existed to develop railway as a means of transport for both passengers and freight and be a damn good professional company at that, hopefully earning profit. Even if it were not profitable, it would have been OK.

When we have a union budget that is now-a-days is meant only for women/minorities and the Aam Admi amongst the Hindu Males, why the hell we need a railway budget mirroring and needlessly even duplicating some…..

I am sure unless this delusion of megalomaniacal grandeur is reduced future “railway budgets” will be nothing but non-sense. I really wish, that railways are made just a department in the ministry of transport (including Railways, Road, air & shipping). Socialistic aspirations of individual ministers/departments should be through the reality check of the finance ministry and be moderated. Because, the union government exists for upliftment of all, yes including railway employees. All said and done they deserve the same as the Aam Admi, nothing more nothing less….. Definitely not a budget exclusively for them in parliament....

Real woman role model (aka having the cake and eating it too...)

Just as I relaxed from blogging due to several constraints, an urgent issue came up that forced me to spend some time and get it out of my chest. It is Sania Mirza’s wedding and the media circus around it. Just to give you some context, Sania is getting married to disgraced Pakistani Cricketer Shoaib Malik – who has been expelled by the PCB !! She is following a long line of role models (Shabana Azmi, Hema Malini, Jaya Prada, Sri Devi) into entering into a marriage or engagement while the first wife was still contracted, starting out their lives by destroying that of another woman.

If you had followed Indian media it had showered heaps of (undeserved) praise on Sania Mirza on how she is the next best thing to happen to India (after Maatha Sonia of course) and how women all over the world have to emulate her for the up lifting of the society -- blah blah etc. How after her retirement Indian Tennis will go to the dumps etc… Yes, Indian tennis is really in the dumps – if the search of another player who is capable of getting knocked out in the first round of major tournaments is this difficult.

My problem with this episode stems from the fact, that folks who make their living out of public adulation and being in the public eye, complaining that they need their “Privacy”. It is not that the media wanted a video of what happened in their bedrooms, but just wanted a shot of their Marriage and in the case of Sania a shot of Nikaah-naama. All are public documents, BTW. The Lot of jobless anchors is debating as to what the limits should be for the media etc. I am perplexed as to why aren’t they getting a simple question right -- that of asking Sanias of the world to decide whether they want to “have” the cake or “eat” it. You can’t have it both ways…

The “adding salt to injury” happened in this whole episode when the marriage contract between Sania and Shoaib was shown, with Rs. 61 lakhs as “Mehr” and every (pseudo) secular anchor waxing eloquent about it on the air. For those of you who don’t know, Mehr == dowry. Yes, it is a stiff crime to give and receive it in India. The law doesn’t distinguish between the giver and the taker and doesn’t distinguish between religions as well. Please don’t hold your breath waiting for the government to prosecute either the bride or the groom here…

This woman is supposed to be a role model – Give me a break…. I would any day pick a maid who works in our household, ensuring that her siblings go to school, pitching in for her family’s house construction and yes – saving for her marriage (and yes the dowry) too… Who is the real role model for women ?

PS: having a very good laugh at Paki media having blast, projecting as to “Sania is the next best thing to Benazir Bhutto” or “How it is going to have a monumental effect on Paki tennis etc…”. All I can say is Good Riddance !