Historic Moments

Hermann Goering: Naturally the common people don't want war; neither in Russia, nor in England, nor in America, nor in Germany. That is understood. But after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country. quote verified at snopes.com

Herman Goering was no philosophist, He was a close aide of Hitler but in the above quote makes a very important observation. This was recorded during an interview in a US prison cell after World war II. A tyrant himself probably being completely dejected made the philosopher inside him speak. This has particularly a lot of relevance at this crucial juncture which I believe could go down as one of the most important moments to define the way this nation is headed to.

After a brief hiatus, I am back :). Being in DC for the last two months I have been watching the election campaigns very closely, I can surely say that I have been "at the right place at the right time" :). I have been watching all the presidential debates, vice presidential debate, the republican national convention (the democratic convention was over by the time I was here), the Bill O Reilly, Al Franken shows very religiously. Surprisingly the media here in the US seems to have very biased opinions unlike in India. I almost started hating programs on Fox: Almost every show host was campaigning for the republican party.

Being from the world's largest democracy myself and having enjoyed freedom and liberty that it brings, one unfortunate thing about it is the inability of the majority to assess the things right and even more the inability of contestants to reach across all sections of the society. Well, I should say the Republicans have done their homework pretty good, but it is going to be the Kerry's , the Vajpayee's (I am not trying to compare the two here) to figure out where they went wrong and if they did at all. Anyways let me not predict the results when the american media is expecting it to be resolved in courts !!

Keeping aside the global affairs ;), the last two months have helped me analyze my strengths and weaknesses to some extent and in reflecting the past. After a fairly persistent search for my job, I landed with two job offers. Both are reasonably small companies here in the DC region. I did start with one before I got the second and decided to switch over for a couple of reasons. I would be starting from Monday..

Current Music: Imagine by John Lennon