Is nobel really noble?

I remember keeping this question for an Independence day quiz a couple of years back at office—“Nobel prize has a black mark that Gandhiji was never conferred with it though he deserved it better than anyone else. Do you know which year was he first nominated officially (he was nominated several times but denied for trivial reasons)?” One person gave the right answer as 1937. This historical fact surprised many. I too was surprised when I thought of this first time. Almost equally surprised at Obama getting it this year. Can’t even imagine him in the league of Martin Luther King, Aung San Sui Kyi, etc. Obama surely is charismatic and has good intentions (I hope). One of the best speech given by anyone in recent times was by him at Cairo Univ a couple of months back...It spelt a great beginning with regard to American view of the Muslim world. During the course of his hour long speech, he quoted from Quoran, didn't use the word "terrorism" at all, spoke about women emancipation in arab world etc and spelt so much positive views. My personal favorite was when he said "wars are easier to start...difficult to end"...One was hoping for action in the coming years to prove it wasn’t just a rhetoric in Cairo. However, Nobel committee faltered this time in trying to do a Filmfare like award for the peace category. Hopefully it puts pressure on Obama to press for action

Additionally it’s so boring to see media frenzy over the award conferred on Venkatraman Ramakrishnan for Chemistry. It has become a cliché (like tamil film industry felicitating Karunanidhi every 3 months showering so much artificial praise on him) that every time a guy of Indian origin makes it big in the world stage, media traces the hospital where the person was born ages ago, school he/she studied decades back blah blah….ufff…he for one, left the country at 19 and did all his research with US or UK funding. Let us try concentrating on improving research standards in our own country than claiming ownership of someone who doesn’t belong here.

Among the funny news in recent times, our CM has amassed 700 crores in 3 days by doing padhyatra (on a van of course) across the city for flood relief. Heart feels for those who are reduced to nothing in this flood fury. When we see the plea state government made the centre (16K crore), one is convinced about the amount of precaution that can be planned by the government before the heavens open so badly. If a country can experience disaster through drought and floods in the same scale within months’ time, there surely is a solution somewhere.