The King of Poets

Song writers have always been at the very top of the list of people I admire. The great ones make it look easy. Yet, sriting a song is anything but easy. The brevity of the format calls for extraordinary precision in language. Poetry calls for a certain kind of imagination that even the best of novel writers can afford to lack. Song writers move and change generations, urging us to look beyond our petty troubles at the world and even life itself. There is Bob Dylan. There is John Lennon. There is Bruce Springsteen. And there is Kannadasan who was utterly magnificent in uniting emotion and expression into wisdom, and towers above them all.

I wrote this impromptu essay this morning on Kannadasan. It is an essay that has been waiting to come out of me for years now.

Kaviarasu (King of Poets) Kannadasan is considered to second only to Subramania Bharathi among modern Tamil poets. He has been relegated to second place because, I suspect, he made his name and living in the crass and commercial world of cinema. One could argue that some of his work surpasses even that of the illustrious Bharathiar.

I have been his fan ever since my Tamil master handed me on his poetry in 10th standard, and ordered me to read them. “You haven’t lived until you’ve truly understood his poetry,” were his words. The Tamil words, எளிமை and தூய்மை are used to describe his style. Simplicity and purity. These are often the traits of genius.

In his youth, he was inspired by the Dravidian ideals of egalitarianism, atheism and rationalism, as enunciated by Annadurai, and enthusiastically embraced them. There must have been some discontent within him because he eventually gravitated back to the spiritual ideals of Hinduism.

It is said that there were two contributing factors to his return to faith. The first was the effect of Andal’s Thiruppavai. Moved by its mystical nature, he renamed himself Kannadasan (a servant of Krishna) even though he was born and raised in a deeply Saivite Chettiar family near Karaikudi in Saivite heartland. He was named Muthiah at birth.

Muthiah’s return to being Kannadasan caused him to go in search of a teacher. He spent hours in the company of Maha Periyavaal who, according to him, weaned him away from “useless rationalism” and towards a meaningful pursuit of atma-jnanam or self-knowledge.

There is a story involving the two. Apparently, Kannadasan, who had developed a critical, and perhaps cynical streak during his years as a rationalist, once asked the seer, “if milk is white, then why is the Paar kadal blue? Has Vishnu’s color washed into it?” The question was tongue in cheek. To which the seer replied, “Wait for a few hours and you’ll know why,” perplexing Kannadasan who had not expected the question to be taken seriously. A couple of hours later arrived Vummidi Bangaru, also a Chettiar like Kannadasan. He brought an emerald that he wished to donate to the Kanchi mutt. Upon this gesture, Mahaperiyavaal asked for a bowl of milk to be brought and placed the emerald in it. Vummidi Bangaru was taken aback. This was a test normally done to prove the purity of an emerald. The seer asked Kannadasan to take a look. A light emanated from the emerald which had turned the milk green in color. When Maha Vishnu (Paranthaaman) lies in Paar kadal, he emits a radiance and hence the “megavarnam.” Moved to tears, Kannadasan composed his now famous song, “Thirupaar kadalil palli kondaar Sriman Narayana.”

Vummidi Bangaru eventually made a “mukutam” (crown) with the emerald for Sri Varadaraja Perumal in Kanchi, per Mahaperiyavaal’s directions.

I was a boy when I first read his poems. I was too young to grasp the profundity of his poetry, but its simplicity drew me in. Like him, I too was drawn to the Dravidian ideals when I was in school and college, embracing atheism and rationalism, and eventually returning to faith like him. Perhaps I like to think that I have gained a greater appreciation for his journey. Over the years, my admiration and awe have only grown. He is a genius like no other in Tamil culture, a phenomenon that combined the ancient with modernity with ease and beauty.

Like all geniuses, Kannadasan mind was perennially troubled. He suffered from depression throughout his life and is believed to have been on the bipolar spectrum, though these were terms not prevalent during his life. He died at the age of 54 in Chicago while on a trip there. It’s surprising that he lasted that long because the fire of genius burns bright and often consumes itself early.

There are too many songs and poems to quote. To merely quote a snippet here and there is to trivialize a genius who cannot be easily fit into the world of Instagram. But there is a line in a song in the movie “Karnan” that comes to mind.

Karnan, the son of the Sun God, while propitiating his father sings,

“Naanilam ula naal mattum, potruvom potri potri!”

Translation: “As long this world turns and there are people, we will adore you.”

Perhaps these words apply to the King of Poets as well.

Long live the memories of Kannadasan. Long live his poetry.

Have a great weekend!

Thoughts on the journey and what’s ahead

I started this Substack during Covid. It seemed like an appropriate time to start a newsletter called the Vaccine. I hadn’t written for years and I missed writing, which is why I did this.

There was a time when I was prolific. I had a blog named What Ho! on which I wrote regularly. Some of you may have even read it and remember it. I was looking through the archives of What Ho! recently and discovered that I had written, over a 3 year period, about 200 posts on all sorts of things, each averaging 40,000 to 50,000 views. The most popular ones have well over 100,000 views. In case you’re curious, you can find it at whatho.in

The funny thing is I started What Ho! on a whim, with no rhyme or reason in mind, other than to give vent to some vague creativity that lay inside me. It’s one of those things that sensible people, who are serious about their lives and careers and what not, will consider a waste of time. “What are you doing? Where is this going? Don’t you have a job? Aren’t you supposed to be busy? How do you find the time to do this?” I have heard it all over the years. Somehow the What Ho! blog became a body of work unto itself. To be honest, I used to wonder myself. I completely agree that it wasn’t the most sensible thing a career minded person could do. Then again, I have never been one to take my career seriously (topic for another day). And, I had a lot of fun writing the blogs. A few days back, a close friend wrote me out of the blue, “Whenever I have time and want to laugh a bit, I go to What Ho!” That alone is enough to convince me that it wasn’t a waste of time. It’s still bringing a smile to someone’s face. Thanks for letting me know, man.

These days, I’m struggling to be as prolific as I once was. Looking through the Substack, it turns out that I have published 91 posts since 2020, averaging a measly 18 posts a year. It’s not terrible. It’s not prolific either. I’ve struggled over the last couple of years to find something to write about. There was a time when I wanted to write about everything under the sun. These days, few topics grip me. My posts have been largely about politics, I think, which signals a desperate lack of imagination. A few of you keep liking or commenting on the posts over the years, which kept me going. At one point, earlier this year, I just gave up. One of you (you know who you are) wrote me and asked me to keep going. Thanks man. I needed that push.

I’m going to try to keep going. But I’m going to make a few changes, and it’s fair to let you know. Hitherto, What Ho! (the Substack) has been largely about politics and satire and poking fun at the establishment. There have been a few serious posts in between. I’m having a hard time being motivated by the political situation to keep writing week in and week out. So, I’m planning to write about other things that are closer to my heart.

When I was 18 years old, I did not plan to grow up to be 57 years old. And yet here am I. I am finding this process of aging and growing old terrifying in some ways, calming in others but mostly fascinating. I’ll share my experiences of growing older. I’ve been dabbling with a bunch of things over the last couple of years. I’ve been traveling a lot. I’ll share whatever is interesting about those.

The last year or so has been challenging on the personal front, in some ways. I’ve failed in areas that I did not expect to fail. I thought I had grown up. Turns out I have a lot of growing up left to do. It’s utterly disappointing. I plan to write about the good fight that we’re all fighting, and my own journey to becoming a better person.

At some uber level, I seek refuge from my fears in my beliefs, as I’m sure you all do. Our beliefs are our armor. I personally am deeply rooted in the Vedanta school of Hinduism, which is not to say that I am an expert practitioner. Anger and ego must be conquered, I know. I’ve listened a lot. I’ve read a lot. You name it, I’ve read it on Vedanta. Yet, I struggle daily with staying the course. I think it’ll be worthwhile to share thoughts on Vedanta and my struggles with living my beliefs.

What Ho! is about to turn a whole lot personal. Maybe even like the diary of an aging man. It might not be everyone’s cup of tea. Do what you will with this information.

When I was in my third year in college, I was introduced to this gorgeously beautiful girl. I was smitten from the first second I laid eyes on her. I remember we were standing next to a telephone booth near the Adayar telephone exchange. I, for once, wore a clean shirt and combed my hair for this “date.” The thing is Sudha and I were never supposed to meet. There was literally only ONE person on this planet who knew us both. She convinced Sudha to meet me that fateful day. I remember it distinctly. I went back to my hostel room, drunk and exhilarated. I knew she was the one, right then and there. I had no idea why.

A close friend asked me last week if there is such a thing as true love. (These are the Whatsapp exchanges I’ve been having these days!) First, I don’t know why I’m being asked questions about love. I’m no expert. But here’s what I said: Everyone who comes into our lives is there for a reason. These reasons have to do with connections that are made across lives, past, present and future. I truly believe this. These connections are not necessarily romantic, but romantic connection is one such karmic connection.

It’s how I felt about this girl who I met for the very first time. That we were old souls and we were meant to be with each other. Yes, I’ve always tended to rely on my intuition even from when I was a boy. Sudha and I will celebrate our 32nd wedding anniversary on December 9. It’s amazing how everything has changed and yet nothing has changed in the last 32 years. We’ve practically grown up together. Even now, I’ll catch a glimpse of her chanting a sloka or making tea or combing her hair, and my knees weaken and I turn into an 18-year-old boy. We were never supposed to meet. Thank you, Sudha, for everything.

I will see y’all next week. Have a great weekend!

The Project 2026 handbook for Democratic (and some MAGA) voters

Ever since the prestigious What Ho! Report pivoted to full-on socialism, the phone has been ringing off the hook, mostly to berate and call me a commie. There has also been a smattering of American people who have anxiously asked, “How can I be good socialist?” To help you make the perilous journey across the chasm, I have put together a handy guide in the form of a Q&A.

Q: What is rule number one of being a socialist?

There are good socialists and there are bad ones. For god’s sake, be one of the good ones. This is rule number one. Don’t feel compelled to wear army green t-shirts with Che Guevara’s face on them and try to burn everything down. There are better ways to do this, and I will tell you how if you ask nicely.

Q: Why on earth have we turned into socialists?

Yes, it’s important understand why we are becoming socialists. Contrary to popular opinion, we’re not embracing socialism to free Palestine or to help gays buy wedding cakes in stores that don’t want to sell to them or allow biological men to run the 100 meters dash against teenage high school girls. While these are no doubt important matters, but they have nothing to do with socialism.

Let’s remember we were capitalists just last week. Not all of capitalism is bad. Not all capitalists are bad. But most of them are assholes like Sam Altman, and they’re trying to replace us with random, non-human things, put us out of jobs and keep all the money for themselves. They know that they’re doing bad things to us. Why else would Sam Altman build underground bunkers in California and New Zealand? He wants a place or two to go to when we the people eventually figure out what he’s been up to.

We’re switching teams because we no longer want to be on the side of bad capitalists.

Q: What do we want?

Who are we? Good socialists. What do we want? Good, well-paying jobs that will allow us to pay for Starbucks and Apple products and a decent home in a decent neighborhood. We also demand that the Starbucks baristas and the Chinese tweens who build our iPhones are paid a living wage. Sam Altman et al are working on software and robots that can serve coffee and build iPhones. No one asked them to do this. Yet they are doing it. We demand that Sam et al stop doing dastardly Bond villain level deeds. If they don’t stop, we demand that they share with us the profits they made by putting us all out of work.

Q: Why would Sam share the profits? Did he not build the software so he could make even more money and keep it all for himself?

Yes, Sam won’t share the money voluntarily. We will vote for those socialists who will force Sam to share the spoils. All the while we must take great care to not “accidentally” burn any datacenters down. That’s a nice building you have in Lubbock, Texas, Sam. It’d be a shame if anything happened to it.

Q: What else do we want?

We demand free healthcare for all. This is non-negotiable. Sam is trying to put us out of jobs, without which we will lose employer paid insurance coverage. Adding insult to injury, the Republicans have removed all subsidies for Obamacare, the only way to buy insurance if we lose our jobs. Imagine more people losing jobs because of Sam, who then must pay higher and higher Obamacare insurance premiums, all without a salary! This will not stand, man. We demand free healthcare for all. If Canada can do it, why not us?

Q: What do you mean by “all” when you say free healthcare for all?

To be clear, by all, I mean all US citizens, not illegal immigrants. We are socialists but we will not be irresponsible like Gavin Newsom.

Q: Do we not care about the illegal immigrants in America? Come on, man, don’t be a dick.

No, we’re not heartless like Trump either. To those who want to deport all illegals, I say: If you believe that a person with no money or education can walk across the border and take your job, it’s you that has a problem, buddy, not me or them. Yes, we care about the illegals in America. If someone is Palestinian, gay and illegal all at the same time, we will fight to the death for them.

But, we’re gonna have to deport the criminal illegals, and keep the border closed while we figure out the situation for the 12 or 18 million peaceful illegals already here. I don’t know what the answer is, yet. But, for now, let’s stay focused on citizens first. After that, we’ll get to the Mexicans and Palestinians. To be a US citizen must count for something, right?

Note: I am not taking any objections to this approach currently.

What else do we want?

We want the following to be lower – inflation, mortgage rates, gas prices, home prices, rents, home insurance, grocery bills, college fees, weight, blood pressure, cholesterol, A1C, and insulin prices.

We want the following to be exactly zero – number of Trumps and Kennedys in public office, crypto tokens issued by the Trump family, American funded Chinese virus labs in Wuhan, Op-Eds criticizing Gen-Z, and the number of children killed in wars anywhere in the world.

Q: Are socialists allowed to eat in fine restaurants, smoke cigars, and wear stylish clothes?

Yes, we’re socialists, not the Amish people.

Q: Wasn’t Venezuela fabulously rich before it became socialist and then it became poor?

Venezuela was corrupt and screwed up back then. It’s corrupt and screwed up now. Don’t blame their woes on socialism. Hey, take off that Che Guevara shirt. Those guys are bad socialists. They are not one of us.

Q: Are we communists?

Bro, NO, we’re NOT commies. Communism is a form of government. Socialism is an economic model. We’re democratic socialists as opposed to being authoritarian communists or undemocratic capitalists.

Q: How do we feel about free speech?

Yes, you may speak freely.

Q: How do we feel about gays buying cakes in stores that don’t want to sell to them?

Listen, while this has nothing to do with socialism, it may be one of the most important issues of our times. Here is my advice to the gays: I love you guys. I love your fashion sense but for god’s sake, also have some common sense. Don’t buy anything from a guy who doesn’t want to sell to you. He’ll likely spit in the cake before giving it to you, if you force him.

Q: Capitalism fosters innovation. If we become socialist, won’t that mean the end of innovation?

Aha, what an intelligent question. It is true that capitalism fosters innovation. Socialism is not anti-innovation per se, but it’s not exactly great for innovation either. It would be terrible to lose innovation ONLY if that innovation was useful. If you look at the innovations over the last 2-3 decades, it has been about creating social media platforms on which you can spread lies at the speed of light, building virus labs that can shut down the world, and now AI that will put us out of jobs. The smartest people on the planet have spent a good part of their lives over the last 20-30 years on figuring out ways to get some noob to click on a link and buy something he does not need. Their innovation has resulted in “an attention economy” in which people doomscroll through Insta reels. If this is the sort of “innovation” that capitalism brings, I’d rather shut this whole thing down and go full on socialist until someone promises to cure cancer or even better, figure out ways to bring down the prices of Taylor Swift concerts.

Q: How do we feel about billionaires?

I recommend that we maintain an uneasy but peaceful approach to billionaires. Everyone thinks we don’t need billionaires and worse, that they don’t need us. That is so wrong. We need the billionaires so we can tax their wealth. The billionaires need us so they can test experimental drugs on us before using for themselves. Also, Elon need a human audience for his tweets. I’m confident that they will keep most of us alive until they escape to Mars with a handful of white people. We should do our best in the meanwhile to keep 2-3% of their money.

Don’t hate the billionaires. They are people too. We are gonna need about 200-300 billionaires to fund our retirement.

Q: I already miss capitalism, man. I didn’t want any of this. What happened? When did things go so wrong?

Calm down, don’t be a drama queen. Things are still okay. The average American lives better than how millionaires and kings did in the 19th century – with running water, electricity, antibiotics, spas, iPhones and HBO Max. We’re living through a golden age for the average human. I just don’t want this to turn into a golden age of oligarchs in the next 50 years. That is all. All of this can be avoided if Sam puts the gun down and walks out with his hands in the air. None of us had a problem with inequality. No one said anything when Ambani spent billions on a month long wedding for his son. But I draw a line when they come for our livelihoods. All we want is to be miserable in our jobs during the week and party on weekends. Is that too much to ask?

Despair not. I’m confident we will screw things up enough that capitalism will be back, better than ever, in about 25-50 years, if you manage to live for that long.

Stay cool and look for new socialism merch from What Ho! coming soon to the government run grocery store near you. If you make me a billionaire, I promise to be one of the good ones.

Have a good weekend, folks.

American capitalism has failed us

The 1980s were the golden years of capitalism in America. Ronald Reagan was its cheerleader-in-chief, and the movie Wall Street, released in 1987, made famous the iconic line, “Greed is good.” Before that, in 1985, a relatively unknown band named Dire Straits released its now famous single, “Money for nothing,” along with an equally groundbreaking video, the first ever to be aired on MTV Europe. The song was inspired by the band’s frontman, Mark Knopfler’s own experience in an electronics store. There, standing alongside a delivery guy in overalls staring at a wall of TVs playing the MTV channel, he listened to the working man rail against the lifestyle of the rock stars. Here I am working hard and making a pittance, while the rockstars get money for nothing and chicks for free, the man railed. One of the most iconic songs of the 1980s was born thus. Capitalism had already begun to fray in America back then. We were too busy watching MTV to notice it.

I grew up in socialist India, where as a boy, I had a visceral fear of being unemployed and avoiding family functions if I didn’t go to the right college. It’s how it was back then. You needed to know someone to get a job. It took a year or three just to get a telephone connection, if you could pay for one at all. Nothing ever got done without bribing someone or the other. There were only two types of cars, and few could afford either of them. Both my parents were well educated and hard working. In America, they would have vaulted into the upper middle class or even got rich by virtue of their work ethic and intellectual horsepower. In India, they stayed middle class throughout their lives until they retired.

By 1989, I had arguably one of the best and highest paying entry level jobs in the land, as a Systems Engineer from Tata Steel. It was one of the first corporate IT jobs in the country. Yet I took the first flight out of India. By then, the fear of and the disgust for “the system” was far too strong to overcome. I knew nothing about America other than they had cowboys, money for nothing and chicks for free. I was willing to roll the dice because anything had to be better than what India was back then. Just a few years after I left, India liberalized and became more capitalist, and here we are, decades later, marveling at its transformation. Delighted, I went back to live in India for over a decade before moving yet again back to California.

All of this is to say that I am no stranger to either capitalism or socialism. Having escaped the clutches of crony socialism, I turned fiercely capitalist when I got here. America treated me well, and in turn, I became its citizen and have tried to be a good and loyal one. But I have to say, the decades spent in America have taught me that all is not well with capitalism either.

I believed in free markets until I learned that few markets are free. To be fair, markets start out as free and open. In the early 20th century, there were hundreds of car companies. There was fierce competition at first, and then there were three left. When leaders emerge and markets consolidate, they become no longer fair and free. The incumbents become too big and powerful. When you’re powerful, there is a tendency to ignore the rules or change them to suit your needs. The pharmaceutical industry is another example. Wall Street investment banks are another. Somewhere along the way, markets fail and become corrupted, and capitalism starts to fail to resemble itself.

The only exception to this rule has been the technology sector. It is one of those breathtakingly unique industries in which each wave of innovation brought about by the market leaders ironically made it cheaper and easier for upstarts to challenge them. There are few parallels anywhere else, if at all. The saving grace of my career is that I got to spend some time in this sector. Even here, in Silicon Valley, where everyone drives a BMW and there are long lines outside the Gucci store, capitalism has begun to fray. For the first time ever, there is a generation of workers who, even as they make hefty paychecks, despair if they’ll ever be able to buy a home.

There was a time there were only two Americas, rural and urban. Now we have probably ten or fifteen Americas. There is the America of the top 0.1%. There is the America of the next 20%. Then you have the Black America, the single mother America, the Gen Z and millennial women America, the incel America, the crypto bro America, the racist America, and so on. Social media has made it easier and costless to find each other and form these micro-Americas. Each America marches to its own drumbeat and has its own leader and spokespeople, who are all busy talking past each other.

There is one thing that appears to be uniting them – a growing disillusionment with capitalism. When it is time to pay the bill at a supermarket, there is no ideology. You’re neither a Democrat nor a Republican. You’re neither a socialist nor a capitalist. You’re neither white nor black nor brown. There are only prices on a piece of paper, and you must pay the bill. It’s not the fault of capitalism that we have inflation. But it sure isn’t helping solve the problem of price gouging, rising rents and home prices. On one hand, you have folks with 1,500-dollar iPhones paying a thousand dollars to attend a Taylor Swift concert, and on the other, you have someone maxing out their credit cards to pay an emergency hospital bill. On one hand, you have parents with 2% interest rate mortgages and multi-million-dollar homes, and on the other, you have their children frustrated with being unable to afford 6.5% mortgage rates and sky high price tags for homes. On one hand, you have upwardly mobile young women, in larger numbers than ever, making good money and emancipated from the drudgery of domesticity, and on the other hand, you have young men with no role models, falling behind in larger numbers than ever, and disenchanted with the world at large. It’s no wonder there is a market and audience for any idea, no matter how zany or radical it may be.

Capitalism is what made America the greatest nation on Earth in the Industrial Era. But it may be the thing that destroys us in the end. Vast amounts of capital, unchecked by corrupt or ignorant policy makers, is being deployed towards developing technology designed to make human labor obsolete. This will be our undoing. It will be the world’s undoing. There are people working hard right now on things that will put millions out of work in a decade. This is happening right under our noses in broad daylight. No one is talking about it, neither the Democrats nor the Republicans. Capitalism takes ideas and turns them into whirlwinds. It has no way of knowing a good idea from a bad one, when it comes to societal ramifications. Social media was a bad idea. Yet billions were spent on it because it is lucrative to be able to hold people’s attention for six seconds at a time. Facebook made billions even as it shrunk and withered away our attention spans. Now that we all need our shots of dopamine every five minutes and have become largely useless, our overlords want to replace us with software and robots. We can’t even be trusted to drive our own cars anymore. Cars will soon drive themselves.

I like to believe that, somewhere along the way, the road will turn sharply towards a Utopia, even if things look gloomy right now. Someday, we will get money for basically nothing, maybe not chicks for free, and we will be free to unleash our creative spirits with abandon. For that road to emerge, America will need to embrace its inner socialist. We the people will need someone on our side to distribute the profits made by robots, self-driving cars and AI girlfriends back to us in some form or shape.

I still carry the memories from my childhood of the struggle to achieve escape velocity and break free of the drudgery of a middle-class existence by finding a well-paying job. I cannot believe that capitalism is leading us to the same place of rampant unemployment I once fled from. I cannot believe that I am now on the other side, with the socialists. And yet here I am. Time has a way of rendering the most sacred of cows irrelevant. You either die a hero or live long enough to become the villain. There is a choice looming ahead of us.

Have a good weekend!

The Democrats win the skirmishes but will they win the war?

‘Tis the best of times

Zohrab Mamdani is a Muslim. He is married, 34 years old and has never held a job. He initially refused to renounce “the global intifada,” whatever that means, and then backtracked and said it isn’t what people think it is. We still don’t know what it means. If elected mayor, he promised to arrest Israel’s Prime Minister Netanyahu for war crimes, if he sets foot in New York City. He calls himself a democratic socialist, which is basically a modern spin on an FDR style socioeconomic reform. He wants rent control, free buses and government operated grocery stores.

Mamdani won the elections last week, becoming New York’s first immigrant, Muslim mayor. He beat out a dynastic scion, Andrew Cuomo, who was the governor of New York, like his father before him. The Cuomos believed themselves to be the Kennedys of NYC until last week.

Mamdani won slightly more than 50% of the vote, settling any questions about the legitimacy of his mayorship. The last time someone received more than a million votes for mayor in  New York was back in the 1960s. Mamdani, who was polling a mere 2% in February 2025, ascended to the highest office in the greatest city in the world by November.

Like him or hate him, you’ve got to take a minute to appreciate Mamdani’s impressive win.

There are a lot of reasons why he won but the most important reason may have to do with his opponents demonizing him. They said he would bring Sharia law to NYC. The Republicans who are friends of Putin called him a commie. No one cared, especially the beleaguered Gen Z and millennials of the city who are struggling to keep up with inflation, pay rent and buy homes. The Democrats did the same to Trump, demonizing him from 2016 onwards.

Fear mongering doesn’t work any more. A third of New York Jews voted for a Muslim. The odds of Mamdani imposing sharia law in NYC are about the same as the odds of Trump cancelling his Big Mac and fries order on any given day. Let’s hope he brings in the Shakira law.

The democrats also won every other election last week- two governor seats and a whole bunch of other meaningless skirmishes, all of which they were SUPPOSED to win.

But ‘‘tis also the worst of times.

Tuesday’s victories can be misleading for the Democrats. Sure, Trump was on the ballot and the elections were a referendum on his pathetic performance in office since January. Trump in fact endorsed the loser Cuomo in NYC. Sure, the democrats won a bunch of skirmishes around the country but they risk losing the war that is coming in the 2026 mid term elections for congressional majority. For one, democrat voters may have blown off steam and prematurely vented their anger. They may be spent and not show up next year. The republican turnout may end up being stronger next year, stung by last week’s losses.

More critically, the Democrats continue to meander without leadership. They haven’t yet had the BIG INTERNAL FIGHT among themselves to decide their platform for next year. Should they go all Mamdani-style socialist or should they be more moderate? Maybe this will be settled in the primaries. Let’s see.

Trump,in the meanwhile, is demolishing the east wing of the White House to build a ballroom. Have you seen Trump dance? He moves his hands like he is jerking off two guys at the same time. It’s not clear why he needs a ballroom.

On a serious note,

I want to speak to my fellow Democrats. The future is here for the party. And it looks a lot like some form of socialism that Mamdani talks about. You may recoil at getting behind a socialist. But, remember these are all mere words and terms. The people asking for lower grocery prices, rents and wanting to be able to buy homes is not socialism. These have been the basic needs of humans over the millennia. Don’t fall for it when someone calls your guy or gal a socialist or a commie. It’s simply not true.

Also remember: there is absolutely nothing wrong with winning. I know many of you have a deep seated desire to lose by your way, which involves a bunch of senile white men singing kumbaya and pretending that they’re saviors of our liberties. The truth couldn’t be further from that. Biden did nothing for civil rights. He stoked wars and let 4 million illegal immigrants into the country, and refused to abdicate until it was too late. I wish we had had a No Kings protest in November of 2023. We might have fared better against Trump in 2024.

I’m convinced that a strong dose of populist socialism is the only antidote to MAGA. It’s time for the moderates to cede way to the young Turks of the party. It’s time for fresh, new blood. Their words may scare you but they’re the ones who can and will beat MAGA.

You may say, “I didn’t come all the way from India to live in a socialist country.” But we didn’t come all the way from India to live in a right wing anarchy, which is dismantling institutions and openly encouraging the end of democracy either.

War is coming next year. It won’t be for the faint of heart. Save your energy. Spend it thoughtfully. Don’t waste it on inanities that Trump wants you to. He wants to wear us down before the big fight.

If we lose our nerve and refuse to get behind our progressive friends in the party, we will lose everything. Anyone who disagrees with this should speak up now. Let’s get the squabbling over with pronto.

Shots have been fired in Gotham and they are ringing all around the world.

Have a great weekend!