"Samose me alu"

The creativity of Indian politicians/common people to coin slogans at election times never cease to impress me.These few words slogans convey the message you just can not convey even in an hour long speech.

Other day I read the slogan"Congress ka lafada hai,Natwar to Bakra hai"
Wonderful.

This is in context of Indian Foreign Minister Natwar Singh resigning in the wake of allegations of kick backs in dealings with Saddam in Oil for Food program.The opposition party is alleging the ruling pary Congress is involved.

Remember Lalu's supporters had many years ago used to shout at election meetings "Jab tak samose me alu, tab tak Bihar me Lalu"

Lalu ,his wife and their cronies have lost power in recent state assembly election.

Lalu's opponets have been now saying 'Samose mai hai abhi bhi alu ,par Bihar mai nahi hai Lalu'

It seems Indian immigrants are bringing the same election passion to New Zealand .

New Zealand recently held its parliamentary election.I was watching the results on television .
At end the party leaders were giving speeches about the verdict. Brash was entering his party office to make such speech. And suddenly there were shouts of 'Brash Zindabad'(Long live Brash)

For a moment I was taken back .I wondered whether I was in India or in New Zealand .

I watched on TV the several Indian faces at the Labour Party office at the same night .

Someone asked me why Indians are so crazy about these things.

I said in India there are many elections -parliamentary, state assembly, local bodies etc.
They enjoy the experience .It is unlike immigrants from many other Asian countries who may not have seen the ballot paper in their life time in their home country.

Long live Indian democracy.

Interest rate

The governor of Reserve Bank of New Zealand Alan Bollard will announce the decision about the interest rate on Thursday 08 December 05.Half of New Zealand is waiting with anxiety his decision .He is widely expected to raise it by 25 cents .

Reading between the lines his statement at the time of last rate rise in October 05 and his public comments since I however personally believed until last week that he would increase it by 50 cents .Not any more .He can not afford to raise it by more than 25 cents.

Expecting the hike the foreign investors are buying NZ dollars in large quantity pushing the NZ dollar at unrealistically higher level and this is hurting exporters .The exporters are also coming under pressure from softening of commodities prices in the world market.

Ballard can not ignore their plight.The Stock Exchanges are the first to sense and discount the future economic situation .The NZX index is continuously falling for last some days indicating difficult economic situation in short to middle term.

There was another bad news today.A major international credit rating agency has hinted at lowering of NZ' s credit rating mainly due to continuos adverse current account situation.

All in all Bollard will raise the rate .He wants to halt the boom in house prices which are at unsustainable high level now .However the rate rise will again be usual 25 cents and no more.

"Khachakhach" Hall

I have some feedback on yesterday's Bollywood Stars show.
I was listening to radio Tarana this morning ( I was at home on sick leave)

The female presenter on air then it seemed had attended the show last night and was impressed by Kunal.

When Kunal Ganjawala came on stage and said "hall to Khachakhach bhara hai"the presenter informs her listeners of her reaction - hum Kunal ki is bat par fida ho gaye .

The presenters of NZ Hindi radio stations are not less entertaining than Bollywood stars .

Keep it up..

Unaccompanied children

On debate of banning men from sitting next to unaccompanied children on their planes by Air New Zealand and Quantas I think I would add my five cents.

The ground staff should have ensured that the sitting arrangement made by them followed their company's policy rather than leaving it to the air staff to sort that out.

The air staff should have shifted the child rather than the man.

They both did not do their work properly show unprofessionalism all around .

Now the ban itself is symptom of the sick minds .

Why not ban women too from sitting next to unaccompanied children .There have been many news stories of the female teachers or custodians developing the relationship with the minor boys under their charge.Women can be as dangerous as men.

Why not charge extra fare for unaccompanied children to discourage their parents from sending them so .

That extra money can go towards providing exclusive space for them and taking extra care of them by air hostesses.