Bommu goes to USA

I have a friend called Bommuraj.He joined my engineering college in the 2nd year as a lateral entry student.He comes from a rural background.When he came to chennai 5 years back,it was his first time in a big city.From the beginning I was attracted to Bommu due to his enthusiastic spirit and straightforwardness.He is a simple guy who can never involve in any kind of chicanery.We have been close friends for the past 5 years.

Bommu would often say how his parents (who are daily wage agricultural labourers)forced him to study engineering, though he himself wanted to get into some job soon and start supporting his family.After completing engineering he stayed in chennai with some folks from his village(KK Patti).He immediately started his job hunt.For 2-3 months he roamed around chennai at the peak of the summer like a dog.Finally he landed a job (and he was among the first few from our class to land a job).It was in a small software company and it paid him just Rs 4000 pm. The office was on the other side of the city to where he stayed.Every day he would start from home at around 7 am and return at 10 pm. And saturday was not a holiday.

After all the struggle, he is finally going to USA on behalf of his company on the 25th of this month. Of course his parents must be very very happy and proud now.And so am I.

Bommu would always say that his dream is to buy a large piece of land for his father so that he can see his father finally own the land he cultivates.He also wants to build a large house in his village and see his parents spend their last days in comfort.(Bommu says that his parents would never agree to leave their village and come and stay with him in the city).

I hope Bommu earns a lot of money in the US and comes back and sees his dream come
true.But please Bommu, dont stay there for too long.Come back here soon, we shall have a great time together.

The state of my country

We live in a democracy.And we pay a certain price for it.

Tamil Nadu will soon have assembly elections.This is what the main opposition has to offer to the people so as to woo them to vote their party into power:

Quality rice at Rs. 2 a kg on ration cards, free colour television for every family "for women's recreation and general knowledge," a maternity assistance of Rs. 1,000 a month for six months, wavier of all cooperative loans to farmers and free electricity to weavers in addition to farmers, were some of the highlights.

The DMK has promised free gas stove to all poor women, a monthly financial assistance up to Rs. 300 to unemployed youth, assignment of two acres to landless poor families, restoration of all concessions withdrawn to government employees and teachers and reservation for Muslim and Christians.

This reminds me of a scene in Ayutha Ezhuthu (yuva) in which Bharathiraja gives a campaign speech to a crowd of poor illiterate people and woos them by talking absolute crap. We might have had a good laugh watching that scene in the movie, but its not so funny when you see that it is actually reality.

I know that this country will soon wake up and be a model democracy, where there will not be any place for such political bull shit.I just hope that its soon enough.But right now,this country is going to the dogs..