India's fate in various fields has too often been influenced by persons or events or otherwise whose surname or name begins with the alphabet 'M' or it is present in between them. It is both revealing and interesting. It however happens to be the thirteenth letter of the English language. Perhaps lucky for some and unlucky for some. The epic which has a profound effect on our culture and lives is the Mahabharata. It was under the Mauryan kings that India reached its zenith in the ancient times. Lord Mahavira was the founder of the Jain religion. Islam founded by prophet Muhammed is followed by Muslims who are a significant minority in India.The most important Muslim rulers in India were the Mughals.
India won its independence under the leadership of Mahatama Gandhi or Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. Mohammed Ali Jinnah formed Pakistan. Lord Mountbatten played a very critical role during the time of India's independence and its partition. V P Menon was the key aide of Sardar Patel and played a very vital role in amalgamation of princely States into the Indian Union. Maulana Azad was India's first Education Minister. Krishna Menon was India's first High Commissioner to UK and later on was the Defence Minister during the Indo-China War in 1962. India's first scamster after independence was named Mundra.
In sports we are all aware of the legendary Milkha Singh and his exploits.Michael Ferriera was the second Indian world champion after Wilson Jones in billiards. Jaideep Mukherjee was one of the first tennis players from India to make a name in international tennis. Sania Mirza is India's first world class female tennis player. Manuel Aaron was perhaps India's first international grandmaster in Chess. In cricket Mohinder Amarnath bowled India to victory in its first World Cup title in 1983 in London and Mahinder Singh Dhoni won the T20 World Cup. Then there were the legendary cricketers like fast bowler Mohd. Nissar, or the batsmen Vijay Merchant, Vijay Manjrekar, Mushtaq Ali, Mansur Ali Pataudi and Sunil M Gavaskar. Murlitharan is the highest wicket taker in Test cricket.
In Hindi films there were the legendary singers like Mohd. Rafi, Mukesh, Mana Dey,Talat Mehmud, Mahendra Kapoor and the nightangle Lata Mangeshkar. The heroines like Madhubala, Meena Kumari, Madhuri Dixit, Waheeda Rehman and the comedian Mehmood. Heroes like Amitabh, Dharmendra, Rajinder Kumar, Raj Kumar, Salman Khan, and Aamir Khan. Bollywood is well established in Mumbai which is in Maharashtra.
Mukesh Ambani and Laxmi Mittal are the richest Indians. Kumara Manglam Birla is the doyen of Aditya Birla group. Narayan Murthy was a founder of Infosys. Azim Premji is the founder of Wipro. Jamshed Tata founded the Tata group as did Ghansyamdas Birla the Birla group.
However it is in today's politics that M is playing a very important role. There is the wily Mulayam, the fiery Mayawati, the unpredictable Mamata, the ever silent Manmohan Singh, the hot and cold M K Karunanidhi and the ambitiousr Narendra Modi. Pranabh Mukherjee is out of the PM's race. In the past we had for a brief period Morajee Desai as the Prime Minister. Narsimha Rao was an effective PM for full five years.
So on the basis of M's we can say that Manmohan Singh has an edge over Narendra Modi in the race for PM during the 2014 elections, simply because he has two M's vs one M in Modi. Rahul Gandhi on this theory does not stand a chance. Before some of you are wondering how come the Nehru-Gandhis have ruled for so long please note the fact that the base was laid by the powerful Motilal Nehru long back.
Crazy, but the letter M does bestow some advantage to the person in whose name it appears. You may agree or not agree.