My space

The real heroes..

2008-02-07T14:27:00.000Z

I think this is the most powerful and heart wrenching ad I have seen. This was forwarded to me by a good friend of mine.I can feel a lump in my throat and tears trickling down my eyes each time I read it.If it was not for the sacrifice of gallant soldiers like Vikram Batra , I wont be even able to share this thought with people, sitting in peace. The unsung, unknown heroes guarding our borders day and night, fighting off militants, thwarting insurgents, helping us when natural disasters strike - have you ever spared a thought for them. People who have put the interests of a billion people ahead of themselves and who lay down their lives for their motherland.

I also came across this article in rediff http://specials.rediff.com/news/2008/jan/23resld1.htm

The story of another brave young officer who gave the ultimate sacrifice to protect his motherland.

There are so many such heroes who dont even get a passing mention in the star struck Indian media for whom Shahrukh Khan and Sachin Tendulkar are the only great heroes alive. Cut through the media hype and please shed a tear for the real heroes - the faceless nameless Indian soldiers who have stopped breathing so that others can breathe.

Veg or Non Veg?

2008-02-06T15:08:00.000Z

Veg or non veg -A question that generates a lot of divided opinion and heated arguments.

I was just thinking of my next topic to blog and what do I stumble across - a post on vegetarianism written by a person whom I know( not so closely though) enlisting the benefits of vegetarianism and even taking potshots at people who eat non veg. I really could not agree to some arguments put forward in the post.

The author argues that human beings are herbivorous by nature and the whole body and digestive system are programmed to accept only veg diet. I remember learning in high school biology that human beings are omnivores - meaning we can eat both meat and plant produces.Are humans not part of food chain.Dont animals of higher order eat animals in the lower links of the chain. Did not cave man roast and eat animals along with berries and fruits. I am not a historian or scientist, but going by the images and whatever knowledge I gained of my science education I believe what I have written is correct.

The writer argues that Brahmins are not supposed to eat non veg. I know most people including me( If eating egg and chicken once in a blue moon counts as non veg:)) in my community of Goud Saraswat Brahmins eat non veg , especially fish is eaten widely in Mangalore side.As per the ancient caste system, the varnas are decided by Guna ( quality) and Karma ( action). That means Brahmins are those who have the qualities and skills of a teacher , scholar or priest. But now a days Brahmin people are into lot many occupations, so just from my Karma point of view I am not a Brahmin. And people have this misconception that not eating non veg is the hallmark of a Brahmin; in fact not eating meat might be just one of the gunas or qualities expected in a Brahmin.

Telling that all non veg people have animal instincts and are not good people shows lack of maturity. I am a person who does not believe in generalisations. Are all veg people good. Just eating eggs or meat does not make/break the character of a person. What about the monks and Swamis who are getting caught for bad acts these days.They are fed on vegetarian diet , but their actions are far from noble.I remember having a ' pure veg' colleague of mine staring disapprovingly at my lunch plate for taking eggs and proudly declaring he will never have those. I have lot of vegetarian friends who are so by reason of faith/ religious practices or by personal choice. Most of them never question other people on their food choices . I respect them for being vegetarian, thats their wish, I respect it.But the same way people who are vegetarian should also not look down upon people who are fond of meat. Everybody in this world is entitled to their own opinion and choice.If we argue that all non veg people are bad , then in western countries atleast 90% of population is gone case. Thats why I told generalisations dont work. Also I have to mention that some of the really wicked and money minded people I have met were/are vegetarian incidentally.Bottomline is it takes much more than what you merely eat to determine what sort of a person you are.

Another factor that comes into play is when you are out of your home country. In UK and US there are lot of options for vegetarians , of course not as much as in India. But if you go to remote areas where mobility is an issue, you may have to taste unpleasant things because it is pretty difficult to get vegetarian food.My husband had to stay in Finland for a while in a hotel and his diet consisted of just bread, potato mash and French fries. The only other thing that was available in that area was half cooked reindeer soup. I am sorry for almost killing your appetite.But many people turn non veg as they have to constantly live out of their comfort zone. My father who works with a bank gets transfer every 3 years and most of the time he is on his own. I have never heard him complain of the food because he just adjusts with whatever is available. He used to tell that when he was working in a remote area in Malappuram the breakfast was malabar parota and chicken/beef , a far cry from the idly/dosa routine of our household.But sometimes there is no room for being fussy especially if you cant cook on your own or you are fed up of the staple diet of bread and curd rice.

I have heard people complaining about how UK stores put eggs in cakes and ice creams whereas we get ' eggless' in India.In western world, egg is considered vegetarian. Most of the veg people I know really dont make this an issue , they are fine as long as they dont smell or see the egg. When foreigners come to India dont they adjust with whatever food available. Do they ask for steak and mash and scones and croissants.One thing we have to understand is we cant have a mini India wherever we go.The superstore near my house in UK can't stop putting eggs in cakes and ice creams and pastries to cater to just less than 1% of its customers, they will incur loss by doing so.Most of the joints here, Subway, McDonalds , Pizza hut, Burger King etc have atleast one vegetarian option and again its driven by how many customers are actually there for vegetarian items.

Having said that I strongly believe in treating animals well and detest all cruelty meted out to them. I respect the conviction of people who could make vegetariansim a part of life and enjoy its benefits.I tried hard, but had little success.Eating too much of non veg is also not good for health as it leads to cholestrol and heart problems. Even non veg should be eaten in moderation.The whole world works on a fine balance. If all are vegetarians or all are non vegetarians, the fragile ecological system will be threatened; so its important to keep an eclectic mix of both.

My one wish is that people who have opted vegetarianism are genuine in doing so and it does not end up being a fad and a way to bash up people who are different from them in eating habits.And humans are not judged by what they eat, but how they behave and how good they are at heart!!

Good old DD

2008-01-02T11:20:00.000Z

Have you ever felt that there are too many channels , but nothing worthwhile to watch? Have you spend your Friday night just browsing channels , but never able to make up your mind what to watch and ended up exclaiming ' all is crap on TV'. It is very strange that despite so many channels being there, we some times have nothing to watch.

Now rewind back to 20 years when only DD was there in India.The time when we use to wait eagerly for the serials and other programs.Atleast I used to wait eagerly for serials like Circus, Tehqueqat, Vyomkesh Bakshi, Oshin, Giant Robot, Didi's Comedy show, Vikram Betal etc etc.I used to watch Chitrahar, Chitramala, Rangoli, Turning point, Ankh ajube, Siddharth Basu's quiz show and all that.Now also I tune into DD to watch Rangoli some times. After coming to UK partly because of dearth of Hindi channels ( I get only Star channels) , I started watching DD and seriously I feel DD is a much better bet than all those entertainment channels. Before dismissing me as a colossal bore for watching DD, just think. This is the only channel where you get all the stuff in one place whether it is news, entertainment, educative programs or social programs.

I am not a great fan of Sony or Zee or Star as I feel they just provide mindless entertainment. They have money , but the shows and serials are just too monotonous and over the top. I do watch some programs on these channels , but what I find is most programs are directed towards urban middle class people who want just pure entertainment and nothing else. There are only talent shows( read singing and dancing) , serials, film based programs and films. Not even a single thought provoking or educative program. Now people might say if you want documentaries why dont you watch Discovery/ Nat geo, yes I do watch them as I find those channels extremely educative and atleast my brain cells work for a while. I feel like if people watch only the skimpily clad dances and biased singing competitions in Sony and the K serials in Star or Zee, the IQ levels are definitely going to be low. Those serials teach people all the bad things on earth like cheating, lying, extra marital affairs and even murder.Compare this to the innate goodness that DD serials used to have, very simplistic and down to earth stories.

The new age news channels like NDTV were good at start, but now they are hovering at the verge of sensationalism and always try to show their opinion rather than what the actual news is. And too much of celebrity gupshup also reduces its status as a news channel. Many important news is just skipped or ignored and only the ones which can grab eyeballs are shown.

I also dont think highly of some of the regional channels especially the Sun network stuff. For any festival , Surya in Malayalam and Sun inTamil broadcast interviews with film stars; some obscure ones at that through out the day. And of course some very stupid movie will be playing that day.There is not even a program on why the festival is celebrated or what the common man thinks about it.

I may be wrong in criticising these channels, but I feel they should stop being all glitter and glamour and too 'filmy' and infuse some amount of simplicity in their programs. I am fed up of seeing people dressed in weird costumes anchoring shows with a weird Hinglish accent. I also am fed up of seeing people getting touchy and crying in talent shows and all the hype surrounding it.Is this what our kids should see and grow up. Or they should see some programs that enable them to think and enjoy at the same time.

Just see DD once. It would be a refreshing break from all this hype and hoopla of all other channels.And we get to relive the easygoing days of our childhood where simplicity was the norm!

Back to Blogging!

2008-01-02T11:12:00.000Z

Well after 4 months of hiatus from blogging I am back on public demand.( A little bit of self praise never hurt anyone, right?) :).

A new year has come by bringing with it new hopes and of course once more time for those resolutions which are the hardest to abide by and will invariably be breached at some point of time.Last year was not all that great for me , I had to quit my job, travel abroad and did not succeed in getting another job also. But I am optimistic and looking forward to this year and all the things it has in store for me.

On that note wish everyone a very wonderful year ahead!! There is only one life, live it to the fullest!!

Sabbatical from blogging

2007-09-07T10:30:00.000+01:00

I have decided to take a break from blogging. Dont know how long this is going to last, may be for a couple of months. Somehow I am feeling like I have become overtly pessimistic in my posts and need some time to rewind and see some positive things also to motivate me to write cheerful posts. Given the pessimist that I am , guess I see all negative things first. In the past 3 months I have bombarded my blog with so many posts. In past 2.5 years,I have written on most of the topics I feel strongly about .Call it a test of will power or whatever, felt taking a break from blogging is a good idea.

I wanted to write a travelogue on my very memorable Swiss trip, may be after some time I will post that.

For the time being it is bye and thanks for all the encouragement provided.

See you all later.

Destiny's daughters

2007-09-04T17:25:00.000+01:00

'Pitro rakshati kaumare
bhartro rakshati yauvane
putro rakshati vardhakye
na sthree swathanthram arhati'

This is probably a rough version of a quote from Manu smriti which literally means

A woman in her childhood is protected by her father, in her youth protected by her husband and in old age protected by her son and hence a woman never deserves freedom.

I am not sure what the intention of the original quote was , but this (mis)interpretation, especially the last line seems to have been the foundation stone for the ill treatment of women.

She might have come out of man's rib or might have been worshipped as Goddess, but the position of women is still very deplorable in our society. There is not even a single country in this world where women are not ill treated. Even in the greatest of the nations or the most advanced and liberal minded societies, there are so many instances where a woman is treated like dust on the road.

The role of woman is often taken for granted. How many guys even bother to realise how much of efforts their wives/mothers/sisters put in cleaning the house, cooking, managing kids, getting groceries, managing household expenses etc etc. But alas! in our male dominated society we dont have place for super woman, we only have super man to save the world.Juggling between her multiple roles in office and at home, yet carving an identity for herself, taking care of everyone in the family - after all women are born multi taskers - how easy to say that!So if your wife does not bring you morning tea as she was doing 10 other tasks , you have every right to shout at her-How ridiculous an argument.

The situation of women even after 60 years of independence is really nothing we can be proud of.I remember having a chat with one of my male friends on that domestic violence bill that Renuka Chaudary introduced. Guys were arguing that the bill had loopholes that would even trap people who are really innocent and have not indulged in domestic violence.Yes there might be women who take advantage of this kind of laws, but just how many of them.Most of the women are not even aware of their rights nor the bill or anything outside their own house. Do you think these women who suffered abuse will ever come out in open.When they dont open their ghoonghat in front of their own spouses, how will they come out.

Look at the rates of female literacy, in states like Bihar it is as low as 34%.That too literacy just means ability to read and write. What about having a mind of one's own. How about reacting to the inequalities or protesting against mental and physical abuse.Now if you think in educated modern society the gender equallity is better, things are far from good. Women who are well educated, know the rules or have finacial stability also never come out in the open against atrocities they have to suffer for fear of social stigma. In our society there are even educated men who consider their wives as ' pair ki jhooti'.I have always believed in India , education for most just remains getting degrees and getting a job; but education is supposed to be the overall development of a person and that definitely includes inculcating good values and the ability to discriminate between good and bad. But sadly so we have conveniently left the values part, so we have even engineers and doctors torturing their wives for dowry.Dowry system, like Sati -should have been abolished, but its there very much - a system which degrades a woman to a commodity in the marriage market.As they say the biggest enemy of a woman is woman herself. So we have no respite from dowry deaths in the hands of in laws or from the constant mental abuse if a girl child is born.It is taboo to get a girl child in many parts of the country still. Look at the dwindling female numbers in Punjab which has got the highest female infanticide rates.

Why a womans life is not valued at all. A woman is always supposed to adjust. Have marital problems , adjust. Have professional problems, adjust. How much of adjustment will she do in her life. Is she not an individual. Does she not have her own ideas, aspirations and beliefs. Does she not have emotions and a mind and heart.How much can she bear, isn't there a limit to her patience also.whatever goes wrong especially in a marriage the general tendency is to pin point a woman - ' Its all her fault you know.' ' He is not like that. She must have said something to provoke'. Cant a man go wrong anytime.I strongly believe adjsutment is not a one sided term, both parties should compromise something for any relationship to work out. Its unfair to expect woman to sacrifice everything after marriage and adjust to the husband's choice. She is also somebody's daughter, somebody's sister and above that another fellow human being - respect her individuality.

Today on one hand there are successful women like a Kiran Bedi or Sunita Williams , but on the other hand, we have those nameless faceless women who are victims of male dominance and domestic violence and the very derogatory eve teasing.I am not blaming all guys, some are really encouraging, understanding and supportive, but there are some who still dont give woman her due. Its time we changed our attitude towards woman and help them grow in a society where gender equality and women's empowerment is not there just on paper, but in the thoughts and actions of each individual.

Note - I am not a feminist. I dont believe in feminism, but I believe that women should be respected and appreciated and given their rightful place in the society.

East vs West

2007-08-06T08:41:00.000+01:00

The Indian society is becoming increasingly westernized - this is one common observation many people, especially the elderly have in India. So what exactly is westernization - wearing bare all clothes, roaming or being overtly friendly with opposite sex, late night parties, unwanted pregnancies, doing drugs, frequent divorces - just what aspect of our lives do we associate western culture with.In fact we associate only negativity with western culture, but it is much beyond teenage pregnancies and unruly youngsters and drugs. Every culture has its own pros and cons. Even Indian culture ,that we are so proud of, has so many drawbacks like caste system, ill treatment of women to name a few. So why single out western culture and always bash it up for promoting bad habits and immorality in a supposedly civilised society.

I strongly believe that culture is an assimilation of vices and virtues. Culture is something very collective in nature and includes aspects that are of day to day importance also. The very way in which we talk, we behave, we work all reflect our culture.

Thats why I decided to write what I personally liked about western culture .The things probably we overlooked in our hurry to condemn western culture, the things which we knew did not even exist in western culture or never bothered about.

1. Hygiene and cleanliness - This has to go first for me because in India hygiene comes as last of our priorities. 'Cleanliness is next to Godliness' is just another phrase we study in school , later to discard all practicalities of this.I can never imagine going to a public loo or a train toilet in India. Here everything is so clean and tidy.The public toilets and the toilets in the train are maintained well.Toilets in homes are also pretty well planned and treated like a room , whereas in our country toilets are strictly meant for relieving oneself. People might laugh at me for writing this, but this again shows our light attitude towards hygiene. The roads are so clean and dirt free, there is no garbage strewn all over the place with stray dogs and cows feasting on it.There are waste bins at each point of the road to effectively dispose off the wastes. Even in our flat there is a separate refuse store to dispose the wastes. Actually it is a far cry from the dirty lane we lived in, filled with half km stretch of garbage in the posh Indira Nagar area of Bangalore.We are just living in the country side here, not any major city and the care the Town Council and people take to maintain the place clean and beautiful is laudable. The parks maintained by the Council are so neat and pretty. I have never seen anyone spitting on the road or throwing garbage or bottles , atleast not in the main roads.Some people do lack personal hygeine here also, again thats there in all the countries. The overall cleanliness of the place is very impressive.

2.Facilities - You may be wondering why I am putting all this under culture , the reason I have already stated. Culture reflects essentially what we are and what we do.

Some of the facilities here provided by Government are amazing.

Medical care - There is the system of National Health services under which we have to register and then all medical care is available at a subsidized rate.What more all the hospitals and pharmacies across the country are interlinked and even if you shift to some other place within the country, all your details are readily available in the data base for the next doctor.Can we imagine going to a Government hospital in India or can we imagine any hospitals having such facilities. We can afford private health care may be in India, but there are millions in india who die every year for lack of facilities in Government hospitals.

Library - The Council library here is just incredible with its vast collection of books, CDs and internet facilities - and guess what it is all for free. So much for the tax you pay. They have amazingly combined technology with every aspect of their lives. There are online catalogues, 24 hr renewal services - things which even private libraries cant boast of in India.

Job centres - This is a boon to all the job hunters and again for free. We can go browse online jobs and take how many ever printouts without any questions being asked. They even have free telephones in the office to contact the prospective employers.

3. Trust and honesty - This is what impressed me the most , they trust you. We had gone to the council office to ask for concession on council tax as we are not permanent residents of UK. The lady was very kind and she clearly explained us what needs to be done.She just took our passport xerox and took down our address in India and next week we got a letter with the revised taxes.Tell me guys if this is possible in India, have any of you got your tax returns any time. And for any file in a government office to move it takes months together or years together coupled with a good dose of bribes. If we show passport, they want ration card. If we show ration card, they want PAN card. Why is it that we have to prove each time that we are legitimate citizens of India. The reason is we simply dont trust each other. With corruption and red tapism ruling the roost money is the key factor for any thing to be done.

Our blender was spoilt just 32 days within its purchase time, 2 days beyond the stipulated 1 month exchange time.We took the blender along with the receipt and walked over to the store and told the lady in charge it is not working. The only question she asked was what is not working, we told her it is the motor and she just replaced it with a new one, without any questions being asked. There was nothing like ' you people must have done something' or ' its 2 days beyond the exchange time.' That shows their immense trust in people, a thing which I am sure will be misused and taken advantage of to a great extent if in India.

There is honesty and openness in this country. People just say it on your face, whether pleasant or not.When my friend got her dress spoilt the dry cleaners here were polite enough to say ' sorry, this cannot be dry cleaned '.

The government itself works with a lot of transparency. We receive newsletters from the council stating how they are using the tax money and what are the forthcoming plans.They even have open markets for farmers so that they can directly sell their goods.They also take care of the senior citizens who are often neglected in india.

4. Respect for all jobs - IT people and doctors are not the only respectable people here. All jobs right from cleaner to businessman are considered equal. Its not surprising that a plumber or mason may earn more than a software engineer here, thats because no job is considered inferior to others. This is very important aspect of their culture as it gives equal respect to all individuals irrespective of their professions. In India how do we treat the labourers who toil hard to build our offices or homes , for that matter people who do odd and menial jobs - they are considered third class and we look down upon them. Why cant we consider that also as a decent job, after all they are working hard to earn their living. This hype about software is really killing sometimes.

5.Gender equality - This country is one of the foremost in gender equality. Women are treated with atleast some respect.Yes stray incidents are there, but not the kind of abuse women are subjected to India. In India all this talk to women empowerment is just a sham. Women are emerging in the mainstream, but just how many of them. The horrid stories of female foetuses being dug out every day in some part or the other of the country tells a different tale. Why are women still subjected to domestic violence even if they are educated. Why are they treated worse than cattle in some places.There are even women workers who are discriminated on the basis of wages for the same work. They cant even complain against their husbands or families or employers for fear of social stigma and because of the sati - savitri image we attach to women and we expect them to bear everything.The divorces here may be shocking for us , but I feel it is better than being victims of unhappy marriages - bearing everything and leading miserable lives.

6.Preserving heritage - They preserve their old monuments and castles and take great interest in maintaining them . In India people are hell bent in destroying public property, they wont even spare the Taj Mahal. My cousin was telling me that people had written over the white marbles in Taj Mahal, one of the 7 wonders in the world. All the monuments have writings and paan stains and garbage and what not. Even places of worship are far from neat and well preserved.The Government is also not bothered about the revival unless UNESCO declares it as a heritage site.Even the museums are ill maintained for lack of interest from Government and over zealous destruction desire of people.

7. Work hard, party hard - Yes, they believe in this.We may find them not so ambitious as us, but they strongly believe in working only for stipulated time and enjoying their life too. Good or bad , I feel we should take a cue from this and learn to take it easy in life. I mean Indians are very hard working, but I think we should also start enjoying life a bit rather than focusing on career and work all the time. They never miss a holiday or doing interesting things or pursuing their passions outside the work life.

8. Infrastructure - This is just mind blowing. Even the most insignificant roads and highways are interlinked in a well planned manner. Hats off to the planning , the whole infrastructure is very well built , be it roads, schools, parks, malls or whatever. The public transport system of buses and trains is so well connected and it does not take years to build a flyover.This is one thing India lacks completely and it contributes to India's traffic woes and adds to congestion.

9. Regard for law - This is the most important thing which I really admire about all western countries. No one is above law. In India there are 2 laws - one for the rich and powerful and the other for the common people. And needless to say the mighty escape the long arms of law very conveniently.Here, no one can ask the police man 'do you know who I am ' when caught in an act of crime like drunken driving or rash driving or anti social behaviour.No one cares even if you are the prime minister's son; law is law and will take its own course.

People have respect for the law of land unlike India where people show scant respect and in some cases are not even aware of the laws. How many people obey traffic rules or lane discipline in our country. We even make fun of people who try to obey law or any rules. For us lawlessness is slowly becoming a way of life and days are not far when whole country might plunge into a Jungle Raj.

These are some of the facets of the western culture that I felt like appreciating.I am not being a spokesperson of western culture, let me clarify this. But how long will we live in this assumption that our culture is the best and rest all are useless and have corrupting influence. The problem with us is we have adopted the wrongs in the western culture and conveniently ignored the good aspects.Thats the natural tendency of humans I guess; to see the wrongs first. Perhaps our youngsters consider that pre marital sex ,PDA( public display of affection) and dance parties are cool. But what they fail to see is western culture is not just about that.Why cant we incorporate some of the good things like good and transparent governance, clean and well planned infrastructure , punctuality and honesty, wise use of tax money etc.

The comparisons with India are inevitable as I wanted my points to be seen in right light. I have not meant to demean Indian culture , but all I wanted to say is we should see good points about western culture too.My dream about India is that it emerges as a culturally sound country devoid of corruption, bad politics and dishonesty where equality and respect for one and all is present and for that we need to have a cultural revolution. We definitely need to change our narrow minded attitudes, stick to some virtues and fast track our development in order for our country to reach its rightful place in the world.

' A Suitable Boy' - Review

2007-07-30T12:24:00.000+01:00

Well a book with 1474 pages might not be one's ideal idea of light read. When I picked up ' A Suitable Boy' by Vikram Seth from the nearby library, my idea was to read an Indian author's literary work . Another compelling fact was;the library being British I could not make out who 90% of authors were, I had never heard of them. With a bit of effort , I saw some familiar names like Vikram Seth, Salman Rushdie, Jeffrey Archer, P G Woodehouse, Jane Austen, Charles Dickens to name a few.

I picked up Seth's book and just checked the outer cover to get a glimpse of the story. The story line in a nut shell went ' At the heart , this is essentially a love story , the story of Lata's and her mother's search for a suitable boy..and at the same time the story of a young and newly independent India' . It did appear interesting to me , but the length of the story and the small letters in the book were not an appealing sight. 'Anyways I am sitting at home, why dont I give it a try'- I just thought that and picked up the book.I also picked up 2 more books just in case this was boring.

Little did I knew I had brought home a book which went thru 3 renewals over a period of 9 weeks and an incredible reading experience that was to remain for a life time.
The other 2 books I was sure I could not read along with this one and hence I returned when the first renewal was due in 3 weeks.Sometimes 100 pages at a stretch, some times 10 - I was in a world of magic that Seth had woven so intricately. Ordinary places, ordinary people, ordinary situations , ordinary language -all blended in an extra ordinary piece of literature.

A story set in 1951 -1952 period when India was just independent in a fictional city called Brahmapur , the characters are so vivid, so unique , so real , sometimes I felt their pain, their happiness, their loneliness, their struggles.The language is very plain , no embellishments , so my vocabulary was not put to test each time I read a paragraph. I always believe that connecting with all kinds of audience is important and hence I think the flow of a literary work is more important than the language.Yes language is important, but there is no point having the Oxford dictionary in your book when there is no story.

The story, as the title suggests, is indeed the search for a suitable boy for Lata Mehra, one of the protagonists.Her widowed mother, Rupa Mehra who believes in lineage, caste and religion wants her to be married to a boy of her choice by hook or crook and hence thoroughly disapproves of Lata's affair with a Muslim Boy.The interesting fact is the story is not only Lata's but there is a gamut of characters, the whole of Mehra family of 2 brothers and 2 sisters with an imposing and utterly brash daughter in law and a simple and upright son in law, the Chatterjis, the Kapoors, the Khans, the courtesan Saeda bai, the socialist Rasheed - all characters important or not, big or small have a unique identity and characteristic behaviours. Never once did I confuse between any of the charcters.Its interesting to see how Seth fits the legendary Jawarhal Lal Nehru in the scheme of things.He does make his appearance in the book every now and then and I never felt odd about having a real life character along with other fictional characters.

Another fact that is laudable in the book is the painful recreation of the social, economic, political and cultutral backgrounds during that time. The Zamindari abolition act to give powers to tenant,Hindu Muslim conflicts, first general elections, state of Indian villages plagued with poverty, illiteracy, exploitation and ill treatment of women - all are real life accounts and left me thinking about the India today as we know it. I could relate to the humiliation of the chamars, the pathetic life of shoe makers, minority appeasements of Congress, politicians' hunger for power, women in burqa denied a life outside, caste system and it ills, people still raking in the glory of British rule and looking down on their fellow Indians - doesn't it persist still. Yes lot of things did change, but the spirit of modern India is non existent in many villages today also.I commend Seth's efforts for sticking to facts of the time where the story unfolds.They are very much accurate.

Also what I liked is the introduction to the 19 odd parts of the novel which is each a story in itself. Seth has used his poetic skills to describe each part in a couplet, which I found was good compared to the normal titles we have for parts.

But having said good about this book, I also have to warn about the infinite length that might be a hurdle in peaceful reading.I believe around 200-300 pages of the book could have easily done away with as it containd descriptions that neither help the narrative nor is relevant to the context.I did skip a few parts like the court room scenes on Zamindari bill. This was relevant, but so much of description was not required.The problem is you cant skip too much as you never know when the next character is introduced and hence have to be alert while reading. But I guess Indian authors tend to be descriptive , so this can be forgiven.

I finished reading the book on Friday and was happy to see Lata finally married off , but ever since I have been feeling a sense of loss.I got some other books, but not been able to get Seth's fictional city and its characters out of my mind. I wish this story could go on and on. The last novel which I thoroughly enjoyed was 'Da Vinci code' as it completely mesmerised me. But ' A suitable Boy' with so many different characters and so many different shades of life appeared to be a complete novel for me.

Agree or disagree with me , I thoroughly enjoyed reading ' A suitable Boy' as I could connect to the story and its characters who are painfully real. I think this reading experience is going to last a life time unless I get Amnesia. Period.

Travails of a blogger

2007-07-06T13:27:00.000+01:00

This issue has been in the back of my mind for very long and I want to address it atleast now. It has been 2.5 years since I started blogging , when I started off I was intending it as a place to put down some of my so called literary works which I had penned down in the spur of a moment.Anyways somewhere down the lane my blog became a reflection of my social , political and general views.Let me just come to the point than beat around the bush.

Its really difficult having blogging as a hobby especially when you dont have likely minded people around you.There are so many of my friends and of course most of my family who dont even have an iota of idea I have been blogging to glory though I had passed my blog address to them when I started one. But alas! no one has the time or mentality to encourage a budding talent.sob!sob!.It is okay they are forgiven, not everyone might take interest in all such things, we hardly consider writing as a talent. Thats why I had passed around my blog address to only selected few afterwards, who I thought would atleast say ' Its not a bad attempt' and my only source of inspiration to keep my posts alive for such a long time , else the hit rates are so low some times that I used to feel immensly discouraged to continue further.I have to confess this, with so much effort you write an article and then you realise it is given no more importance than a piece of paper in which they wrap pea nuts. Its really heart breaking at times!

I do agree that literature or writing or blogging is not for everyone.Why o why we consider only singing, dancing, arts as the only talent. I have heard people saying 'she sings so well' or 'she dances so well' , 'she makes superb crafts' , but I hardly hear people telling it is written so well. Though writing requires much more of effort and knowledge we hardly consider it as a talent.It just requires a second to thrash a literary work as utter crap though it requires years and years of thorough research and humungous effort to pen one down. I know my posts dont require even one millionth of that effort, but still I cant go around telling people blogging is my hobby because I felt no one really appreciates it.

I really get asked by people what do I do for a hobby and only to people who understand my literary inclinations I say I blog or write, else I simply give the age old past times of reading or listening to music, but I know I enjoy blogging much more than this. It really hurts me when I give people my blog address and they wont even bother to check it once to see what it is all about.So much for my effort put into this!

Now that I have been at home for a while away from work , people ask me how do I pass my time.Again I can't tell I blog and while some of my time because I realise it is a difficult attempt to make people understand what it is all about. Every one asks me to take up stitching or embroidery( thats what a girl's hobby should be!) but except stitching torn clothes it really does not interest me a bit.Some others suggested I take up painting which I used to do pretty well in high school. But it is ages since I did that and to be honest my interest in blogging surpasses that.

But sadly my hidden talent still remains hidden, still shielded from a number of people who know me, what more even from some of my good friends. May be this anonymity is a blessing in disguise, I can freely wield my opinion in this blog space which is a tiny little world in which my thoughts have found an abode.But some times I really wish people understood what my hobby and passion is and took me little more seriously.Perhaps everyone is not capable of doing that.

Anyways I continue to nurture my little talent here in the midst of fellow bloggers and all the anonymous or known visitors who have visited my blog atleast once.Thanks to all ya guys and I hope there will be a day when I can proudly declare that I blog for a hobby.

Kyunki janta ko ullu banana hai....

2007-06-22T13:32:00.000+01:00

Have you ever got a chance to watch Ekta Kapoor's K serials. If you watch that once there is all guarantee that you will never again watch it.Its dragging, monotonous and of course logic defying.I have even joined the ' I hate Ekta Kapoor' community in Orkut as a silent protest against such serious brain damaging exercises.Really man, this lady seems to have taken the whole country for a ride..

If you want to really torture yourself tune into Star/Sony wherever they show these K serials and you would find that sitting at office with piles of work is much better..And to get the story you can watch just one episode in 2 months as mostly there is no story as story/screenplay and the characters are on the fly..

Some interesting things in the serials..( hey I dont watch them, just seeing 1-2 episodes is enuf to be an authority to write this article):-

1. Marriage - this is like a never ending loop. Girl A gets married to Boy C even though she loves boy B . Boy B gets married to Girl D .Girl D would have had a crush at Boy C way back in college and vows to destroy Boy C as he had rejected her love.After a while we see girl A is divorced and remarried boy B, the original love of her life. Girl D gets married to Boy C and then she realises now she has to take revenge against boy B as he left her for girl A.Oh what a complicated life.I am sure Einstein's mass-energy equations make more sense than these stories.In this iterative loop of marriages the viewer's cerebral capabilities are put to good test..

2. jug jug jiyo - There are upto 6 generations of a family alive in one serial..By any available laws of science this is rather impossible unless all get married as teenagers.Even if all generations have a gap of 20 years in between them, the oldest members are 120 years old. The Guiness records people got it all wrong when they made some Japanese man at 111 years the oldest person, it is actually ' Ba' of KSBKBT( Kyunki sas bhi kabhi bahu thi), who is close to 200 years old with 6 generations to look after.

3.Whos who - You will never be able to identify who is saas, who is bahu, who is grand mom, who is father, who is son. The character cast is also completely illogical.You will have a 20 year old playing mother to a 25 year old son.They did time travel or what to stay so young. Even though they have innumerable children, they have a superb figure and no signs of age.A problem arising with 25 year olds playing 50 year olds without even a hint of greying or wrinkling.Please gimme a break!

4.Solah Singaar - The ladies in serials dress up as if they go for a wedding every day.Kancheepuram and fancy sarees, matching jewellery,full facial makeup, hair dos in tact.They never get tired or never wear clothes which normal people wear at home.What more they even sleep with make up and Kancheepuram/sherwani on.Very rich ,huh..And not to mention the weird clothes they wear which I have never seen anyone sensible wearing at home in real life..There are ways to identify Vamps and heroines.If they dress up normally with a mangalsutra and kumkum thats heroine.But if they have triangle shaped kumkums on forehead or weird stones or tattoos in face or body its vamp.This thumb rule does not hold true sometimes though.

5.Kaam vaam - Its interesting to note that none of the characters in serial do any work , but have lot of riches. they are full time at home celebrating weddings or festivals which is anyways galore some times takes 2-3 full episodes for a wedding.Gosh, I wish I also got some work like that where all I have to do is sit at home celebrating everything.

6. Special effects - No dissection of serials is complete without mentioning the crazy and irritating special effects. Suppose there is a scene where the vamp( remember girl D?) has decided to malign our sati-savitri heroine(girl A). The camera zooms into D's face..zzzzzzzzoommmm..she has a crooked smile , but the ghar waalas are so innocent( I would say stupid) they dont notice it.Now suddenly lightning strikes on Girl A's face..all her hopes are lost..zzzzzzooommm..girl A's face...ZZZooommm..Girl D's face..zzzooommmm..Girl A's face..This goes on for 5 minutes ..now if u are still awake and watching you get a zoom in of other ghar waala's expressions too..some shocked, some happy at the defeat of girl A etc etc..By the time it zooms back to girl A the day's serial is over.

7. Punar janam and humshakal - these concepts in hindi movies are used in abundance especially when they have to drag for another 500 episodes or one of the characters is leaving the serial. On friday we see the heroine A is dead and all are mourning her death.For 1-2 weeks all mourn her death and then one day one new girl comes to the house.She is girl A itself in new avatar.She was actually not dead, she miraculously escaped death and came back to life.yep meta physcists should hang their head in shame.This means another new season of torture has started.When u thought finally this wretched serial is ending, there is twist in the tale..
Humshakal is used to drag the story mostly.when they dont have anything at all to tell, to add masala kill the original character and bring in a humshakal or lookalike..And surprise-o-surprise, the humshakal knows everything about the original's family, even mannerisms , height, weight, voice everything is same.Really even identical twins can afford to have differences, but humshakals cant.

So when the bitching and gossiping of queerly dressed females and males who have no work other than to have extra marital affairs and pre marriage affairs and plot against each other fill in your living room, Ekta Kapoor must be counting her crores. And fortunately or unfortunately looks like it is here to stay.So tune in and watch what happened to Girl A and Boy B .Even after 6 years they will be still at where we left them, but in the serial they must have leaped another 50 years.

Champion of racism?

2007-06-22T13:01:00.000+01:00

I was watching 'Koffee with Karan' 2 weeks back and the new found champion of racism Shilpa Shetty was on the show. Karan Johar was describing her as the Spokesperson of racism and the lady herself was acting as a victim of racism and a preacher of equal rights.

I was just wondering a few remarks in a silly show and so much media hype and lo and behold we have a new champion of racism.I am sure Shilpa must not even know the great people who actually fought against racism.I really wonder what has happened to our social consiousness that we forgot all the great struggles against racism and are hell bent in praising some one who is not even sure till date whether or not she is a victim of racism.

Do we remember a young man called M K Gandhi who was thrown out of first class compartment in South Africa despite having the ticket as he was non white.Do we remember his years long struggle against whites that had its origin in South Africa.Do we remember Martin Luther King whose 'I have a dream' speech was one of the most influential speeches on civil rights.Do we remember his contributions to equality of races.Do we remember Nelson Mandela whose protests against Apartheid landed him in jail for 20 plus years.Do we remember Abraham Lincoln who dedicated his presidentship for the abolition of slavery.

Well, placing some people whose contribution is nil except some people teased them behind their back in the same league as these extra ordinary champions of civil rights and racism is a huge injustice and really shows how much of a pathetic society we have become.

I may be wrong in saying this , but really I cant agree to all this hype media creates .We just cant belittle the real contributions by great people by placing Shilpa in the same slot as them.

Banoongi Nahin Mein Miss India!

2007-04-24T10:35:00.000+01:00

One more Miss India has come and gone and some beauties with 'Brains' have walked away to glory with the titles. Was there something new this year, well, I just had a glimpse and in 10 minutes I knew it was full of glitz and glamour and usual cliched answers and usual questions. Those who won have got a shortcut to shake a leg in Bollywood movies.Thats all what is this high profile event has been reduced to - a sham.

Not only Miss India all beauty contests are just over the top , all style and no substance. I saw in one Mega model hunt ad in paper, they are calling for women whose minimum height is 5 ' 8 ". The average height of an Indian woman is 5' 2" or 5' 3", but who cares for an average Indian woman. Who cares for the woman who works in 8 houses to feed her family or hops 2-3 buses to reach office after finishing household chores.They dont have attitude you see.

The contestants in such contests look the same, same anorexic body which is supposedly 36-24-36, the magic figure most girls die for!And without make up some of them looked really horrible to say the least. In fact anyone looks good when one gets to wear good clothes and gets groomed by experts.I am not intending to demean anyone, may be it is their choice to be in the glamour field, but projecting this artificial event as India's showcase to outside world is absolutely wrong.And what is irritating is the artificial reactions that the contestants have perfected in the last few years.Also its not for people who cant expose their bodies in front of millions.I am sure the men who enjoy watching all this are not so broad minded to have their sisters or daughters sashaying in such skimpy clothes. I am not sure how much have the Miss Universes and Miss Worlds done is increasing awareness on global issues like poverty, AIDS, equality of women etc. I mean for one year they do some charity work, but mostly all of them end up in Bollywood immediately after that.

May be Miss India is just a passport to better things in the respective people's life. But I cant agree to statements like it essentially reflects the free spirit of the emerging Indian woman whereas the real Indian woman is far removed from all this. She is still coy, has to obey the males in her family, has to do menial jobs to feed her family, has to run from pillar to post to get her children a good life. They are the real 'Miss' and 'Mrs' Indias.They dont have garments designed by top class designers nor branded jewellery or designer shoes . They just have their confidence( not boosted by any trainers) and their vision to live a respectable life as their assets.I would prefer the anonymity of a nameless woman who has the ability to take on each day single handedly without any formal training rather than people telling me how to talk, walk and smile.

Note : I just could not resist writing this article. In some channel I saw images of some personal trainers for the contest interrogating the girls as to why they deviated from the diet perscribed to them. Why they ordered Roti and Idli from hotel, instead of salads. So what is it they were trying to prove, the measures of your body are far more important than what kind of person you are and you are going to become Miss India because you belong to the type hyped by some people. I cant disagree more!

Images of a super power

2007-03-28T10:03:00.000+01:00

I had a trip to my in law's place in Chennai recently. We went to a temple in the outskirts almost 50 Km from main city . Chennai heat was really awful and I was thinking it was horrible to travel in the hot sun though we were in a taxi.But what I saw really altered my thought and I felt ashamed of myself.

The road which goes to the temple was being laid by some workers.They were working diligently braving the sweltering heat. Most of them did not have shoes; forget shoes, some had broken Hawaaii sandals.They were not wearing sun screen to protect their already black skins. They were wearing torn clothes with traces of tar and cement all over it.They were working amidst the hot sun and rising dust quietly as if it is a silent resignation to their fate.There were no shops atleast in 2 KM vicinity, which means they had to get water and food also when they come to work.That too carry it and walk as they dont have vehicles of their own.I felt so bad seeing them , but as most of us do, I just remarked ' Paavam' and diverted my thoughts.
On the way to the temple I also saw poor farmers and ladies dressed in old clothes taking buffaloes for grazing.The place where the temple was a village and I could see many poor faces around.

This is the country that is going to become 3rd largest economy by 2050. And the images what you see no way assure you of that.Roads are being laid, but what about the lifes of the labourers who actually do that.They get a measly 50 Rs a day, which amounts to just 1500 a month if they work for all 30 days.and 50 Rs is hardly one USD.Statistics show that half the population of this economic super power live at less than 2 USD( around 100 Rs) a day.And if you see the prices of essential commodities , they are sky rocketing.Do these people atleast have right to a hand-to-mouth existence.

Ever wondered how people like this live in India. We dont bother as our main consideration is impending promotion or salary hike.Media also has failed in generating public awareness as all they show is Liz Hurley - Arun Nayar wedding saga or Ash-Abhi episodes. Or trying to play the 'India arrives' theme time and again when a biggie like TATA or BIRLA acquires some company.For God's sake TATA and BIRLA are not whole of India. Gandhiji said ' India's heart is in its villages' , but who is bothered to develop people from grass root level.

I dont know how to improve situation here, but next time you hit a road or highway be thankful to the labourers who have toiled in hot sun to lay it.That is the least we can do.And next time you complain about your job, just think how lucky you are to work in the comfort of AC and not in hot afternoon sun.

Why our temples are full and minds empty

2007-03-27T08:27:00.000+01:00

This is one question that makes me really ponder on the state of affairs in our world.People are more religious and into spirituality than ever before, but the collective consciousness of our society has suffered a silent death.

All temples, not only temples all places of worship are so crowded and praying has become a business.You go to Thirupathi stand in queue for 4 hours and see the idol for 2 seconds amidst pushing by temple priests and authorities.Where do you feel the devotion.Go to Mookambika, same story on special days. I still remember paying 50 Rs to get into the special queue on a crowded day on which we ventured to the temple.Special queue is through another door and allows you access to 'God' faster.Some temples have VIP queues also. Remember how Karunakaran ( who was chief minister of Kerala) used to visit Guruvayoor temple with his security pushing the common people aside.

So we have made God exclusive property of the rich and powerful, common people who cant afford to pay have to stand in queues and languish.The more you can donate to temple, the more special privileges you get in return.And its an ideal way to hide all your black money.People who dont even spend one 'phooti-kodi' on the really needy go and give diamonds and gold to God. If they have so much money, why cant they spend to alleviate atleast some problems in our world. There are too many things that need attention like poverty, AIDS reasearch, education for poor etc.Swami Vivekananda had told that service to human kind is like serving God. But who cares about human beings.

I am not against anyone putting money in temples. But What is that utilised for.Temple renovation and maintenance to a certain extent Yes. There are temples which get as much as 700 crores a year in India. Do we know what is being done with the money.God is just a concept which came into existence so that morality and discipline prevails in society.And temples were places for social gatherings.But today they have become arenas to show off your wealth and opulence.All the simplicity and divinity of temples are lost because they are run like business houses today.

People are extremely religious now-a-days but forget their basic responsibilities towards their family, society.There are lot of saints also who have sprung up to cash in on this trend.You see any of those channels dishing out spirituality, those are the things which we know already, but still people go and throng those abodes of 'spirituality' as if it is fashionable to do so.And the main beneficiaries are those ' Acharyas' and 'Acharinis' who make fast buck by selling spirituality to a spirituality starved world.

We would expect people who are extremely religious to be extremely good too.But unfortunately that is not the case.It may be because people just go and pray for all material benefits .How many of us actually pray for others, for our world.The ladies who are in temple for most of time are the ones who actually torture their daughter in laws.People who spend fortunes on 'Rath Yatras' think twice before giving a 20 Rs hike to their poor servants.Not every one of course, but there are too many people whose aim is just to pray in all possible temples but do not have any sense of responsibility or sensitiveness to understand and help others.There are people who are so religious, but forget to keep their own minds off destructive and negative thoughts.Why the crime rates are so up even when people are religion oriented than ever before.Is this the purpose of religion and God - to instigate all sorts of violence against humanity; Or to turn a blind eye and deaf ear to problems of other people and indulge in just devloping oneself by hook and crook.I dont believe in any religion or God which does not ask human beings to live peacefully and let live.

Next time you go to temple fill your mind with righteouness and virtues.There is no point in getting our temples crowded and emptying our minds of good values.It does not require temple, religion or God himself for you to be a good human being.Remember each little word of kindness, each little act of love makes this world a much better place to live in.

Betrayal

2007-02-20T06:49:00.000Z

My heart was bleeding inch by inch
Even now ; can I feel the pinch
Hear Sire, what I unfold
A story of friendship never told

I had a friend years back
Never thought his mind was so black
In him I had placed my trust
Truth was different , say , I must

Worthy aide, beloved guide
Under this facade did he hide
He made deal with an enemy of mine
For just a few pieces of dime

Pray what seized him that moment
For his soul he had lent
To the dark tempatation of money
And gone all mad and looney

Etched in my mind is the dark chilly night
Where I almost saw my end at sight
For my trusted friend had stabbed on my heart
Shocked I was, could not even alert

I lay in the pool of blood like a corpse
With a faint glimpse of an aide without remorse
It would have been my last day
If a good Samaritan did not come my way

So here I sit and narrate the tale
Of a trust misplaced, Of a man who failed
Never seen that friend again
Who betrayed a friend for a gain

Kindly listen to me O Sire
Pure friendship is so rare
Trust your friend no doubt on this
See who he is and what mind is his!

India Divided

2007-02-06T11:07:00.000Z

If you ask me what is the biggest threat our nation faces you might answer terrorism.But sorry guys, the threat is within this nation and is all set to consume the nation if it grows at such alarming rates. And the threat is 'REGIONALISM' , in fact narrow minded regionalism which is forcing us to sling mud at each other and grab each other's throats even over sharing natural resources the country is blessed with.

Bal Thackeray expresses his dissatisfaction and angst on non Marathis invading Mumbai.He expresses his apprehensions on whether Marathi culture will be lost.Kannada activists rallly to make Kannada compulsory in schools. In Tamil Nadu Government decides to make all court proceedings in Tamil. ULFA asks all Hindi speaking people to leave Assam or face dire consequences.

These are some images of our rising , shining India. If you thought in 21st cetury India; language, religion and caste were a thing of past, think again.Call it a political gimmick or whatever it is pathetic that even educated people are victims to this unhealthy trend.People are just too proud of their state and its culture and history. I am not saying you should not be proud, but where do you draw the line between being proud and forcing the culture on people who have come from other states generally termed as 'outsiders'.Why should a person be considered outsider when he is also as much Indian as you are.

May be I feel this way as I have no state to call my own. My mother tongue Konkani is of Goan origin, but I was born and brought up in Kerala, did higher studies in Karnataka, worked in Maharashtra for some time, got married to a Tamilnadu guy and again back in Karanataka.So I am an outsider here.When I go to my home state Kerala I am an outsider there also as I had left Kerala 8 years back.In Maharshtra and Tamil Nadu also I am an outsider.In Goa also I am an outsider as my forefathers had fled that place centuries back during Portugese invasion.So basically I am a person suffering from an identity crisis.I am neither a Goan nor Mallu nor Tamil nor Marathi nor Hindi nor Kannadiga.

My house owner was once blaming all outsiders for Kannadigas not getting job. But when it comes to receiving 10 grants of rent every month the outsider tag is inconspicuous I guess. Why are people being hypocrites I dont understand.I do understand Kannada and can manage to pull off a bit of spoken Kannada as well. But expecting me to be an expert of the language is too much I feel. The same goes with all states. Just because some megalomaniac politicians raise a hue and cry,why should we master all languages and why should the so called locals line up with arms to get rid of outsiders.India as a whole belongs to all of us and we should have the freedom to live where ever we want and do our job.

If IT was there in Kerala, probably I would not have been here at all.But what can be done if people have to leave their homes due to circumstantial pressures and come to alien places.Instead of welcoming them , do we raise our voice and blame them for all the sad plight of our state.I cant agree at all. Are we a nation stupid enough to be instigated by selfish politicians for their selfish motives.I would not like to believe so.

India belongs to all of us irrespective of language, caste or creed.Instead of channeling our energies in fuelling regionalism and showing animosity towards people of other states, cant we use it for the wholesome development of our nation.Whether we work in Karanataka or Maharashtra or Delhi or Gujarat what matters is what we can do to put our nation in the path of progress.It requires a lot of effort may be, but not impossible.

Please stop harbouring ill feelings towards each other and over reacting on trivial issues related to language, caste and religion.Rise beyond the shackles of regional interests, stop acting like fanatics and take the nation forward!!

Chicken curry for the soul

2007-01-22T10:53:00.000Z

Shilpa Shetty must be laughing her way to her bank account, which of course will be booming post all controversies and allegations of racism in the show 'Big Brother' of which she is a part of.The story goes that a 'bully' named Jade Goody called Shipa names and even commented on Indian people's eating habits and other chicks in the house were not too far behind when they all jointly attacked her for uncooked chicken curry.And this news appears in all major News Channels and India's leading newspapers as 'Breaking News' and headlines respectively.And each time you switch on any news channel you could see Shilpa in tears , some scenes of argument between Shilpa and Jade , Indian Government and UK government condemning racism and blah blah playing all the time as if there is no end to it.And at the end of this high voltage drama Miss ' Goody two shoes' Shetty takes back her stand that she was a victim of racism and Miss Jade sheds some fake tears telling she is repenting after she is evicted from the house.There goes- the sensational news- with the wind.

So who is the beneficiary of this whole futile exercise.Channel 4 which airs the show, whose viewership raised by a whopping 2 million in 2 days following the racism controversy.Shilpa, the dame herself who was just a second rate actor here and got her 30 seconds of international fame.The issue has generated so much public sympathy that bookies are betting big time on her chances to become Big Brother's 'Big Sister'.And not to mention the sure shot ads Miss Shetty will endorse after she gets out of Big Brother's house, after all she became a household name in UK.So much for all the unnecessary hype created by media.

That leads me to what I was originally intending to write.Why dont we have a responsible media in India.I mean I really dont comprehend why they should give such news more importance than it deserves.And why on earth should the Gov meddle in individual affairs. Just because it involves some air headed celebrity and for God's sake nobody coerced Shilpa to be on the show.After all 3.5 crores is too lucrative to be turned down especially when one's career is not so happening.Okay, Gov has voiced its concern for her, but tomorrow if some White skin insults an ordinary citizen or bullies him because he is an Indian, will the Gov still interfere or stand up for that person.Racism is a reality that Indian and other brown skinned people wake upto every day in UK.It required one chicken curry and an Indian actress and a stupid show for everybody to react and have a discussion .Beats me!!

I am not squarely blaming news channels as they might have dearth of news to show everyday, after all it has to run 24x7.But just showing this news every half an hour is pretty disgusting.Its not only this, many non issues find its way to our TV sets just because the channels decide to show them.The classic example was the child Prince who became an overnight celebrity when TV channels broadcasted continuously the whole rescue process, and what more his education was sponsored and even he was bestowed with benevolent cash prizes - all for accidentally falling in a pit.I sympathise with that poor kid, but all media attention was uncalled for.The print media is also no less when it comes to hyping things.One lady had written an article on Prince describing him as 'Stitha Prajna' ( steadfast in awareness) as described in Gita. I sympathise with such journalists, if only the lady knew what she was talking about.And not to mention the larger than life importance given to some celebrities.Why O why - I really agree there should be freedom of speech and expression , but how can media publish or show anything and everything that is non important and some times at the cost of far more important national issues.I cant believe people want to read or view only exciting and sensational news items or are the channels just showing whatever they think will raise their TRPs in the facade of giving what people want.

And as for the Gov, the lesser said the better.They have opinion on all non issues.I dont know what meaning their periodic outbursts have.Its just a meaningless exercise to show they are still in power.They have no time to address any of the real issues the nation faces and when some silly thing springs up, all politicians rush to have an opinion on that.And the protests in Patna, its another time pass by some people who have no work other than to march with banners when any issue arises in any God damn country of the world.

We, in our hurry to show we our iron fist on racism forgot the mess back home. Regionalism everywhere and hardly people consider themsleves as Indian, all are Mallus, Tamils, Kannadigas, Northies, Maharashtrians, Assamese, Oriya, Bengali, Telugu etc etc and not to mention Muslims, Hindus, Christians, Sikhs et al.Then we get on a global stage and condemn racism when we cant set things straight in our very own country.When will our media grow up? When will our politicians grow up? When will our people grow up? When will our so called celebrities grow up? Till they grow up let them do what they do the best now - cooking some one's undone chicken curry.

India 'not' shining

2006-12-11T11:15:00.000Z

How long before India becomes a super power.I really want to laugh this question off as in the heart of my heart I know this is never going to happen.Dont believe it?The brouhaha about fastest growing economy and world's 8th largest economy and all other hype surrounding this conceals the ground reality here.The real fact is India is a crippled nation.Crippled due to so many reasons, some of which could have been avoided altogether.

India's economy may be booming , all thanks to IT and other industries, but what about the hundreds of farmers who commit suicide in different parts of the country, some for paltry debt amounts.Why is the disparity between the rich and poor so stark in the fastest growing economy.How long before we stop farmers from committing suicide.How long before we introduce agrarian reforms and ensure middle men dont eat away the profits.How long before the relief package intended for the farmers finds its way to the deserving rather than to the pockets of the unscrupulous and exploitative political goons.How long before we educate the poor and improve conditions of Government schools.How long before we eliminate illiteracy from the Indian heartland.How long before we empower villagers with self reliant jobs.How long before we introduce electricity and safe drinking water to the still inaccessible and remote places.How long before we eliminate poverty, child labour and exploitation of the weak.How long before we save women from the throes of discrimination and prevent female infanticide.How long before we abolish caste system and drive superstitions and blind beliefs out of this country.How long before we have good governance in place without bribery in any system of bureaucracy.How long before we get educated and sensible administrators rather than uncivilised criminals.How long before we stop the mighty and rich from taking law in their hands and escaping unscathed.How long before we abolish quotas and give importance to only talent.How long before we do away with appeasements and lay our focus on the wholesome development of the country.How long before we improve infrastructure and repair roads so that our cities and towns come to world class standard.How long before we provide protection to citizens without being hand in glove with criminals and thieves.How long before we shed our narrow minded regionalism and think of our nation as one.How long before we show an iron fist on terrorism than nurturing soft spot on terrorists.How long before we learn to keep our environment clean and learn the importance of preserving public property.How long before we stop strikes for the silliest reasons and learn that work is worship.How long before we stop going on a public property destruction spree at the drop of a hat.

I can go on and on about all these, but how long before we shed away our 'chalta hai' attitude and march towards righteousness.If we dont have any answer for the questions asked above, I have to say outright that India is not shining.Unless we do a total makeover of this place, the rules, the people and embrace atleast some virtues and genuinely work towards the goal of becoming super power , we will remain the same way years later also.The rich becoming richer and the poor becoming poorer. Forget about shining, India has to rise first to shine.Hoping that one day it will rise and one day it will shine too.

A More Reserved Nation

2006-11-16T05:20:00.000Z

The reservation debate simply refuses to die down.The reason; our politicians seem to be toying with the word so much, I feel Congress/UPA will be best remembered for all the reservation conundrum it has got into during its ongoing stint.

When I wrote the last post on reservation, the issue was reservation in IIT and IIM and other centrally funded institutions.After hue and cry from the 'Upper caste' students, they reached a solution of implementing reservations for OBC seperately without eating into seats for general category.Then came discussions on reservation for minorities.

Day by day, we are adding more and more people to reserved list, I wonder who is left in the general category.A few souls like me who had the misfortune to be born in this country as upper caste. I never thought it would be a crime to be born as an upper caste in India.The Government is making sure they are penalising some people for some crimes some one had done generations earlier.

Now the latest is reservation in private sector.Some ministers like Meira Kumar, Paswan, Antulay and Kamal Nath have donned the role of playing champions for the down trodden cause.They are so convinced that reserving jobs in private sector will solve all problems of the down trodden and backward. They have even threatened that if private sector does not bring reservations, there will be legislation to make it forceful.And please note, this is despite the fact that the private sector industries have promised to take affirmative action for the poor and backward by providing them education and honing up their skills.This is what is called killing the goose which lays the golden egg.Just because the Government has failed in all aspects of administration including upliftment of backward castes, pass the buck to some one else. How easy to do that!!

The private sector gives importance to only talent, a candidate is never asked which caste or religion he belongs to.There is no separate treatment for upper castes and lower castes.The UPA with its divide and rule policy is all set to change this.Dont be surprised 5 years down the lane, if people start asking your caste.The appraisals will be based on caste, promotions and remuneration based on caste.There might be legislations that only SC/ST and OBC should be given top ratings and salaries and upper caste should be left to languish for the crimes their forefathers committed.Well, dont worry, such a situation will never arise as industries will pack from India and move to elsewhere in the world where talent alone is respected.What does the Government think, it can simply increase its stranglehold on the private sector and they will sit and see the drama.Most of the private sector people are business men and they want good talent to take their business forward, they are not working for charity.Imagine the loss of jobs concurred on India if they move out from here.Does not the Government have any sense.Or they lose it when elections come near and vote banks become more important than life.

Please spare private sector from this futile exercise of reservation.It is not a solution for any damn social injustice.Empowering people with education from grass root levels is the only solution.Unless Government is willing to do it, please dont force other people who work for the economic devlopment of this country to make senseless and forceful decisions.Dont kill the proverbial goose which lays the golden egg.

PS: Next time any so called backwards have any problem related to anything, please contact the Government.They have devised a new 'RESERVATION TOOL' to solve any problem of any kind.

Clean-whats that?

2006-11-10T10:30:00.000Z

Cleanliness is next to Godliness - Whoever said this, the saying does not seem to go well with Indians.May be it is not appropriate to generalise this, but yes a large section of our society is blissfully unaware of words like cleanliness or civic sense or hygiene.I am just attempting to highlight the civic sense or rather the lack of it amongst Indians as I see, day after day.

Sample the following scenarios:

1)RED RAIN: You are riding a bike and suddenly red color thing is sprayed on your crisp white shirt you had saved for board meeting.And before you get all scientific and think it might be acid rain, just look up at the bus near you.In all probability the red spray was the by product of some person eating PAAN and spitting in whichever place they thought it is convenient.Is it their fault that they eat PAAN, they cant carry a mobile SPITBIN you see.Anyways for most of the people, spitting is like a hobby here.Once I was slowly walking from my bus stop to home.There was a lady walking just 5-10 m ahead of me and for every 10 m she walked she was spitting on the road without even seeing if somebody is passing by.

2)FAG TROUBLE: Yeah, these are the next menace. People who cant give up cigarettes even if they are going to a hospital.Some people smoke so much in public places I wonder if some competition is on.And they cant just stay stationary and smoke.They have to walk while smoking( note its not smoke while walking), ride bikes while smoking and I dont know what.No consideration for people walking on roads or other vehicles on road. I even saw one expert who was riding on one of the busiest roads with a mobile transfixed between his ear and shoulder and cigarette in other hand.In all these things we are more than capable of proving our expertise.

3)GARBAGE RELOADED:We talk about mosquito menace and fatal diseases like Dengue and Chikungunya.One look around where we stay and we wont have second thoughts on how much susceptible we are to such diseases.We dont have concept of garbage bin as world is our Garbage BIN.We just dump our waste wherever there is free space even if it means some body else's vacant plot.Or we just literally let it down the drain.The road to my house has a small place where all the possible garbage from the area is dumped.The stench is so horrible that scientific community must have to start thinking of inventing nose clips or filters.Who cares but, people from the most posh houses there also indulge in this.Even hotels, road side eateries all have public property as dumpyard.People buy snacks, eat like gluttons with that loud crunching noise and drop the remains and cover on the road. How convenient!!

4)MESSY LOO: Have you ever tried public toilets anywhere in India , especially bus stations or railway stations.If you have tried out of necessity, there is high probability you wont try it once again.They are the most unhygienic places in the entire universe.No regular cleaning, no water nothing.And even taking a long train journey is a pain in the neck.The toilet is just going to be absolute mess and that stench can make anybody pray to lose their smelling sense.Even the pay and use ones are just marginally better.Even if the people who manage it clean it regularly , people make sure they leave their marks behind.aaargghhh.Its no surprise that in the matter of sanitation, India lags behind countries like Bangladesh.When people have public places for sanitation purpose and all other dumping purpose, what to expect.

These are some of the very common problems we encounter in India.Now before we start bashing illeterate people for making country unclean, its a fact that most people indulging in such uncivic behaviour are well educated.How come Indians who behave so irresponsibly here go and obey rules like no spitting, no smoking in a country like Singapore.Then we go and blame Government for not cleaning the place and blah blah.I believe as citizens we all are equally responsible for keeping the country clean and hygienic, whether its road, public toilets or any public place like parks or hotels.Unless Indians have a change in mindset of preserving public property and doing their best to keep places dirt and pollution free, we cant expect anything to change.There is no magic broom to clean out all the mess we have created.Remember charity begins at home.Unless we learn importance of cleanliness and have some civic sense, Dengue and Chikungunya and malaria will continue to haunt us for generations to come.

Narendra Nele - An unusual day

2006-11-03T10:23:00.000Z

24th september 2006 would have passed like any other Sunday lazing up at home or doing household chores or shopping, but it was not meant to be that way. It was the day when We, a set of around 25 volunteers from ANZ decided to do something for the society.The place we had chosen was a 'Nele' (Narendra Nele) - I think it means Home in Kannada and no name could have been more appropriate for this centre which has been a home to 60 odd destitute and homeless children.In fact it was more than a home for those hapless and innocent kids who had been abandoned by fate, it was their passport to a better life.

We reached the place at around 10.00 and it was one of the most modest places we have seen.Just a godown turned into a really liveable environment.We were greeted by some warm and nice people who offered us a simple, but nice breakfast.We had brought some fruits for the children.The children from other Neles - Nivedita Nele for girls and Namma Nele for boys above 12 years of age were also present. The whole place was very well kept with pictures of all eminent personalities.Should admit we had a lesson or two to be learnt from these small children who had kept the shoe rack so tidy.

Next in line was a really and absolutely wonderful performance by these kids which included dance, music, Yoga and Sanskrit recitals.It really was exhilarating and hurting at the same time to see the children performing.They were real powerhouses of talent , but they needed sponsors to cultivate their talents, to be respected people in the society.The trust which owns the Nele was doing a good job, but their resources are also limited and they needed more sponsors to take these kids's life forward.

After the performances and speeches from the management of the Nele , we headed off for a lunch , again very modest in nature but tasty nevertheless.And after lunch only we got to interact with the kids and swear it was not easy to manage 90 plus bundle of energies.We had drawing,crafts, dodgeball, carrom and magic tricks arranged for these highly enthusiastic children.They were running, fighting, screaming and were all over the place. Quite different from the disciplined children we met in the morning.We interacted with them and entertained them with games and fun for 2-3 hours.The girls, should admit, were a very quiet and obedient lot compared to the hyper active guys.Some of the drawings these kids made were to say the least, amazing, very artistic in nature and usage of colours.

And then it was time for evening tea for us and milk for children.We distributed the prizes for drawing competition for winners amidst the clamouring of other children who did not win.We also distributed all the goodies we got for them like erasers, pencils, sketch pens, crayons, books, CDs, tapes etc.

It was time for us to leave,we just assured them that we will be back again and will spend time with them and left the place with a mixed feeling of content and sadness in our hearts. Content for utilising some time of our lives in doing something meaningful and sadness thinking about scores of such children who are still loitering in the streets for one square meal. May be organistaions like this should come more and we as responsible and priviledged citizens should contribute both in terms of time and money to light up a little world or two.

Election Offers!!!

2006-10-09T10:21:00.000+01:00

We have all heard about festival offers like 2 sarees at the price of one, new fridge in exchange of old, gold coin on purchases above so and so amount etc. Our politicians in Tamil Nadu seem to have taken a cue from this and started a new trend. Election offers!!This one is much more lucrative and tempting than all festive offers and guess what , it comes free, means you dont have to spend a penny to avail this.The ever generous Indian public which diligently pays taxes will pay for this also.

I dont know who started it all, the magnanimous Amma of AIADMK or the influential Anna( read Kalaingar) of DMK, suddenly there was a gush of offers during TN state elections which would have put 'BIG BAZAR' guys to shame. So when Amma offered free computers Anna was quick to offer Colour TVs and lands for farmers.Not to forget the rice for 2 Rs/kg and free rice offers.Even with the 2 parties closely vying with each other, the public gave a thumbs down to Amma and elected Kalaingar.Looks like many people did not have color TV or they lacked the knowledge to operate computers.

Well, that helps us draw one important conclusion. In India irrespective of the criminal cases, accusations, illegal wealth, corrupt image, our politicians rule the roost.They are the uncrowned kings of Indian socio-economic culture!! In other words, people are absolute and complete fools.Politicians do have a penchant to fool people with false offers and nothing being done by anyone after the elections. Still people got carried away by a color TV and voted. They are least bothered about their long term problems like food, water, sanitation, employement, education etc. Their solution is simple.They got a TV and they can forget all their worries by watching it and enjoying.One lady was even saying if she is given an option between having a TV and a toilet( which she did not have) she will go for the former.That says it all.

And what about the price of these color TVs. Simple, the exchequer pays for it.Anyways the hard earned money citizens pay is tax is wasted on maintaing useless politicians and their fancy life styles.So will it make any difference now. If the politicians are so interested in giving away goodies, they should have funded it from their own pockets and not eat into tax money which is meant for betterment of public life and development activities.But who cares if development activities are done, people have TV and they are more than happy.Who cares for the electricity bill and cable bill they have to pay.May be salaried middle class people will pay for that also.

BTW, I suspect Anna's ulterior motive in giving away TVs as a way to expand his ever growing empire of Sun TV networks.Whatever the reason is, such cheap gimmicks to lure people into voting are not expected from the political class of India.When will this people ever grow up and think for the welfare of nation.

Our politicians have absoultely managed to make a fool out of the massess year after year and I feel the scene is pretty much bleak in the coming years also. Empowerment of people with education and taking them out of their poverty might be a solution. The thinking voting class is just a dream in India, dont know when our people will start making sensible and proper choices rather than the usual ones.But as long as such election offers pour in and people remain illiterate and are attracted by such offers, we hardly have any hope to make things work for the benefit of state or nation.

Next year dont know what is in store, free DVD players or Ipods may be.So be ready to fund it!!Amma can even consider giving off some sarees from her saree collection which is like a mini Chennai silks store.

God, I sincerely hope all other states dont emulate example of TN now.Then all our tax money will just go in buying freebies and not benefitting people in the way it should!!

Language of education

2006-10-07T11:15:00.000+01:00

You know what is the speciality of India.For every step we take in forward direction our politicians or so called people's representatives(phew!!) make sure we take 2 steps backward.Whether it is by intoducing reservations even if nobody benefits out of it or increasing prices of essential commodities and burdening middle class or mass sealing moves to close all trades in the capital, whatever the issue is or however it affects the masses, our unscrupulous politicians have an uncanny ability to mess it all up without an iota of consideration for the people directly impacted by it.

One such classic instance is closing of a large number (read around 1440) of schools in Bangalore and leaving 2.5 lac innocent students to lurch in the dark.Apparently the schools had taken permission to teach in Kannada and they were instructing the kids in English.As per language act of 1994, schools opened thereafter should use Kannada / mother tongue as medium of instuction in primary schools i.e 1-4 classes. from 5th class onwards you can decide which medium of instruction you want.So these schools made the mistake of teaching in English and honorable education minister Mr .Horatti could not take any of this.So he decided to teach them a lesson in movie ishtyle and ordered to close all schools which violated language policy, right in the middle of academic year .

Well to begin with, that was the story.Now lot of things come running to my mind reading this news. Why nobody realised so far that schools violated the policy.After 12 years it dawns on the minister that schools are not following rule.Were all the government and education department people sleeping all this while. I sometimes feel these politicians need some issues to disrupt the normalcy of life and of course to sustain the unholy vote banks.How can politicians indulge in such mindless acts otherwise.

Now Horrati has a solution also for the children who have to leave in the middle of the academic year. Join Government schools!! I saw the photos of some Gov schools TOI had published. To say the least they looked like cattle sheds to me rather than places were our future citizens would be nurtured.Now isn't it the responsibility of education department and minister to provide good learning atmosphere and infrastructure for all those unfortunate children who cant afford private education. The zest and vigour shown to close schools would have been shown to improve conditions of Gov schools and provide quality education to children.But which politician is bothered about his/her duties. As long as they are in power they are eager to show it off and force it on people.

Imagine the trauma the children and parents have to go through. There are so many low earning people who spent a lot on childrens education, whose hopes are pinned on their children, who want to better their lives through their children.No amount of justification can be given for the trauma and insecurities these families have to go through.What about the tiny children who have to leave their teachers, friends everyone in the middle of academic year. Will any of these politicians out to protect mothertongue/regional language send their children to these Kannada medium schools. I am sure their children must be going to top class private schools which charge a fortune as fees and donation and of course where English is medium of instruction.That explains their insensitivity in handling such issues.When they are directly not affected why should they bother what happens to ordinary people.

And lastly the million dollar qustion is who is Gov to decide which medium of education schools should teach in.That too why this rule goes only to schools opened after 1994 which makes it a case of discrimination.Schools might be under pressure from parents to teach in English as nobody wants their child to be behind in this age of competition.Denying a group of children right to educate in English is certainly not done.In this age of globalisation, turning back on English is like the most retrograde thing to do.If you see why India occupies top slot in outsourcing industry, it boils down to just one thing - ability to converse in English!! If people still consider it as a remnant of British Raj, they should go and get their brains checked.English has become the one language that unites the whole of India and one language which can definitely take India to dizzying heights in this golden age of globalisation. On one hand we talk of booming economy and on the other making sure only a very miniscule part of population enjoys benefits of it.

Having said all this, I am not against teaching Kannada or any other regional language. They should be very much there, but as a subject and not as a medium of instruction as it is very difficult to switch to another medium after learning first few years in one medium.In order to take India to a greater and rightful place in the global map, we need to bridge the flaws in our education system and provide quality education in a fearless atmosphere to one and all.

PS: It seems Horrati has extended his deadline to close schools to the end of this academic year.I hope some sense prevails and he revokes the whole meaningless exercise of closing schools and punishing helpless children , parents and teachers. May be fining schools for flouting Gov rules and also giving them permission to teach in English hereafter may be the most painless and feasible solution.

Well, hope sanity prevails in this nation!!

Bollywood Hungama!!!

2006-08-03T04:07:00.000+01:00

I have lost interest to watch our very own Bollywood movies off late.The following are the reasons I attribute this disinterest to.
1) All films are subset or superset of some other films.There is no genuine story or the story line is ripped off from some Hollywood flick or the storyline is completely overshadowed by songs and actions.Gone are the days when the power of stories were overwhelming.Some films which have good story lines do manage to gather moolah( Very rarely does a different fare score well), but some of the very good films which are issue based just come and go like a whiff of wind. And Love stories( Triangular, quadrilateral or whatever) and family dramas are not the only stories in this world,for Heaven's sake.

2)The common man has ceased to appear in movies.Barring some movies, all the philums have VRFBBC( Very Rich Foreign Born Brand conscious) people.I guess Indians have stopped being born in India. It looks like it is a necessity that they have to dance around trees and streets in foreign countries as if there are no trees and streets in India.OOPs! I forgot, they are all VRFBBC.So how will they know about a country like India where millions of common people struggle each day to make ends meet.
Even if the story is about some fisherman and his wife who live in some remote place, they have to dance in Switzerland for their dreams to come true.The film stars, in short are playing themselves in their movies with all those designer labels and designer cars and etc etc.

3)And why in the world do we need item numbers to pull off a movie.I dont know what value do skimpily clad females gyrating to equally outrageous tunes add to any movie.The bottomline is as simple as this.No one wants to even try anything different.They are happy if the tried and tested Masala methods bring in the moolah.And 'ITEM' girls are equally happy to be the 'centre of attraction' in a very forgettable movie.

4) Every 4 out of 5 songs in Bollywood are sung by Himesh Reshamiyya giving other singers a run for their money.He croons every other song he directs.I frankly cant even differentiate one song from another.Okay, some songs have become hit, that does not mean he has to unleash his nasal vocal chords on the people of India, in every song he directs. May be that is poular music, but puleezzz, it has reached saturation level.I really crave for some of the olden goldies which had meaningful lyrics and sweet melodies.

5)Starry tantrums are really going overboard.I really cant tolerate the way some film stars with no acting skills and dare-to-bare attitude are conducting themselves.They just want all the attraction and fanfare to be intact.But seldom do they raise voice or express compassion for the millions of people suffering in our country.And how I hate the cat fights between actors and the 'me holier than thou' attitudes.Definitely a turn-off!!And I hate those newspapers also who praise these stars as if they are the second best thing, next to Big Bang, to happen in this world.

Some examples of star talk:
'I am doing a very different role in this movie' - This role is as old as the age of earth itself.This has been done umpteen times by umpteen actors in umpteen movies.
'They were looking for a fresh and innocent face' - Good you kept the make up on, else they would have changed their mind.
'I am not exposing, I am wearing clothes aesthetically' - whom are these people trying to emulate,If this is dressing aesthetic, then common people all dress crudely.
'I love to shop in London malls' - Yes sure, if you have that kind of money why not
'My favourite vacation spot is Paris ' - another show of opulence, if u take crores per film, u can travel the whole of world, what big deal
'He is such a darling.he does anything for friends' - says an actress on an actor who is booked for multiple offences - including killing people?? How can such people have sympathy for co actors, but no heart for the people he killed.May be money buys friendship and make people forget their basic moral responsibilties.
'I am thankfully blessed with a good body, I dont need to exercise at all' - what about the personal fitness trainer who does rounds in your house.Please be honest enough to admit what you are indulging in.
'I am hot, whats wrong in what I do.' - Have these people heard of one eight letter word in English called HUMILITY.Well with such arrogance, I bet they would not have.

I am really and absolutely fed up of hearing all this crap, artificial stuff, I am even correlating the reel life and real life( which ceases to be different in 95% cases) and end result - I am not willing to spend my hard earned money to see some meaningless acting, melodiless songs and sidey storyline if at all there is one.May be when some good movie comes in I will go and watch it for the movie sake, if not for the actors. I hope people make more issue based movies than the usual song-dance-melodrama routine which for God's sake does not make any one weep.Its time our Bollywood started using Cinema as a channel to voice peoples views, rather than their own one sided views about life and living.

Hope we get more good and strong movies and more sensible and responsible actors!!

A Reserved Nation

2006-05-18T09:33:00.000+01:00

Government planning to increase the seats at higher education level by 27.5% taking the overall reservation to a whopping 50%!!!My first reaction was 'What the heck.This is utter non sense'. I know many people would have reacted the same way or much beyond.Perfectly justified.

How else do you describe government's totally irresponsible and brash act that correctly coincided with the state elections.Are we to buy the story that government suddenly got interested in the upliftment of backward classes and decided quotas, that too in IIMs and IITs, are the only way ahead for the salvation of the down trodden.Any responsible citizen who must have had a close look at this must have understood the real motive behind this sudden interest in backward classes.A political drama aimed at garnering votes.Thats it.Full stop.

India is all set to celebrate 60 years of its existence as an independent country.And weren't these 60 years enough to do something substantial for the down trodden.The problem is politicians are just not interested in their welfare.In fact they are not interested in the welfare of the whole nation.How can you try to bring social equality by denying the general public the right to education in prestigious institutions like IITs and IIMs or other medical colleges.There are thousands of students in this country who burn the midnight oil for the coveted seats in these institutes.Now they have to compete even more for a far less number of seats.And does any real benefit come out of this whole exercise.Answer is a sad NO.

Recently I heard an Ex director of IIT talking on the television.Apparently most of the reserved seats just go waste as there are not enough qualified candidates to fill them up.So if 50 seats are getting wasted now , government can take pride in telling it has managed to waste 100 seats after the quota is implemented.So how are you doing justice to a general category student.Just imagine a student who might have lost the last seat in one of the premiere institutes by a small margin.We can afford to waste 100 seats, but cant give that to people who truly deserve it.This is what you call murder of merit and talent.That too a brutal one at that.Unfolding right before your eyes and set to consume the nation gradually and kill it one day.Then our politicians can have the last laugh.

Is reservation the only way to do justice to the backward classes.How can you do justice to someone by denying justice to a larger populace.There are hell lot of issues which the Government has failed to address.India has the highest number of malnourished children in India, beating even the African countries.Isn't that an issue of national shame.What about the millions of children who have dropped out from school and doing menial jobs to make ends meet.What about the millions of people who live below poverty line, who cant have one square meal.What about the widespread superstitions and beliefs that has spread like a contagion in thousand of Indian villages.What about the tax payer's money that the government always squanders away.What about the bad roads, infrastructure and widespread corruption prevalent at all levels of Indian bureaucracy.Can someone please tell me why all this issues were never addressed nor did the successive Governments take any steps to build a concrete solution for all this.Now we suddenly discover that reservation is the solution to alleviate the poor of their sufferings.Well done, Gov.

I am proud of the students who have called for the strike.I very well support their cause.It proves two things.First, people wont take all things lying down.Secondly, the ability to react and respond to things is still very much there as the hunger strikes country wide are proving.It is indeed a call to all the people who are really interested in the wefare of the nation.We must always remember that the collective power of people is much more than the politicians and their goons put together.Government cannot go on implementing laws that are to wreck the very delicate framework of this society and divide people on the basis of caste.What is the difference between the 'Divide and Rule' by the British and the present government.Except for the origin, the very face of governance has not changed.People just have the power to vote and elect people, but seldom do these elected people do any justice to the people who elected them.

Increasing seats or expanding infrastructure is just an awkward solution to an awkward problem.It is more like a quick fix.It does not address the root cause of the issue and wont serve the purpose in the long run. How are we going to build India as a nation, where equality for all is respected, should be our long term goal.I hope this issue has atleast opened up the eyes of the apathetic politicians who are addicted to power and the benefits that come with it.Let us exhort them not to reduce democracy to a mere melodrama.

State of affairs

2006-05-18T09:29:00.000+01:00

In the journey of life
When you stop for a while
And reflect on your past
And do it quick and fast
Realization dawns on you
Life is not of that hue
That it ought to be
And you are not a wannabe
Perhaps that’s the strangest thing
To your past, you cling
And there! you put a frown on your face
And try to move at a different pace
But again and again in your mission you fail
And don’t know what is head or tail
Flustered in your life you get
That’s what the state I bet.

Much Ado About Nothing

2006-01-23T08:41:00.000Z

You see people who are dressed in the queerest attires, doing all possible gymnastics with the mike, crooning and swaying to their own tunes, reacting like characters you see on Cartoon Network( I guess it all started with Sushmita Sen's big O expression when she won the Miss Universe crown), shedding tears at the drop of a hat etc etc..
Hey, you are in no wonderland my friend.Welcome to the world of reality shows.This seems to be the latest buzz word in our television industry.

The television channels seem to have taken the word 'entertainment' tad too serious I feel.Every channel is bombarded with some reality show or the other. This is in addition to the regular 'saas bahu' soaps which have become so predictable, boring and monotonous and of course brain damaging.You aspire to be a singer, dancer, choroeographer,comedian, millionaire or anything else you could think of, you have it all here.

Talent shows have everything but talent.There might be genuinely talented people, but mostly it is the style, glitz and glamour and ability to do a thousand expressions with that one face that helps in the long run.The reactions of the contestants are so perfectly timed,well rehearsed and irritating to the nth degree, I swear!! Looks like the world is thriving on artificiality.And the worst part is people are actually glued to all these programs.They SMS/Call/mail the contestants, give them the required boost,make and break them and even be present on the spot to cheer them up!Well well people seem to have all the time in the world.

Are these programs worth the hype they create? Unfortunately NO is the answer.May be I sound like a person who is totally disinterested in watching TV or a snob who is upto bashing all people who aspire to make it BIG("Making it BIG" is one more thing which is doing the rounds).But in reality, it took me all my strength to resist myself from writing about the reality shows, still I could not.May be I should get immune to the utter non sense that the televisions are dishing out now-a-days in an attempt to keep up the competitive spirit..well..huh...if at all it is worth competing.Till then let me keep my brain aside and tune into the latest reality show on the "Idiot Box"...

What your love means to me

2005-09-16T16:51:00.000+01:00

Your Love is the breathing force
With what I am alive today
It’s the undying spirit
That makes me face every day

I know I will survive
Through thick and thin
If you are beside me
Like a dazzling sun

I cant see tears in your eyes
Nor can I inflict any harm
Its you and you all the way
With your loving charm

I cannot prove my love to you
All words present are not enough
Whatever I do will still fall less
Expressing is seriously tough

Your love means the world to me
And by all means its meant
Your love is the loveliest gift
That God has to me, ever sent

Wedding Woes

2005-09-01T13:46:00.000+01:00

Wanted a fair, slim, very beautiful , homely, convent-educated, God-fearing, vegetarian etc etc girl for a 27/170 cm engineer boy..Excuse me anything else??A typical newsprint ad of a guy seeking an alliance…
Well to begin with , this is the first phase of horror a girl opting for arranged marriage is subject to..Okay so we go and see Mr.Engineer, an okay-okay 6 figure earning guy settled in US of 'A' in 70% of cases or in some God damn Timbuktu in another 30% cases. Now if its a Hindu family the horoscope matching follows ..Mind you this is the entry criterion..Some people give it so much importance that you feel transported to some 16th century( BTB did they have this that time?)..
Fortunately or unfortunately the horoscopes are matching..What is the next step..The Engineer in US who is so busy , who has no time to go to even loo wants to chat with the girl..The guy's mother ,who thinks being in the US is the ultimate thing to happen , tells the girl's family " My son is so very busy, Can your daughter go at so n so time n chat with my son..??"..Yeah sure why not? The girl who is a software engineer herself seems to be hatching eggs at her office..But does any one care?? The guy is too busy you see..
So the girl goes and chats to the guy in some other part of the globe..Guy's mom still not satisfied..she wants more snaps of the girl to send to her son..The guy did not have a clear view it seems.. Now is the actual fun..She wants the snap in three different poses in three different costumes..That makes it 3 * 3 = 9 ..well you have to be strong in permutations and combinations you know..
Okay so what next?? The snaps are scanned and mailed to Mr.Engineer..Then a realisation suddenly dawns on the guy's head that the girl is .5 " shorter than his requirement..and also one shade darker than what he wanted ..Dhadang!! all hopes crashed for the poor girl to marry an engineer who is busy next to only Dubya..Well now if we assume our guy is Brad Pitt to put such filter criterion, he is, provided you take Brad Pitt and hit him hard with a hammmer so that his face is inclined at a 15 degree angle and paint him little dark ( some 7 shades darker) and hit him on the head as well so that the height reduces by atleast 8", then you have our GUY..Not much of a difference is it?? Not as much as with the girl...
Now the poor girl has to wait for the next TECHIE in the US of "A" to be merciful on her..After all she is born into an Indian family you see..And her woeful story continues till she finds some guy who has more matter in the upper portion if at all she finds one..Else the lesser popular option of "Timbuktu" is always there...

Thoughts of a loser

2005-02-25T09:50:00.000Z

Alone I sit at this juncture
With no one to depend on
Reflecting upon the memories
That keep me go on

Silver spoon in mouth I was born
With all luxuries at my feet
My wayward ways made me a loser
And,there!I accept my defeat

I had a time of prosperity
When luck was at its peak
Lost are the days of fortune
Everything seems so dull and bleak

I had a lot of friends
Who promised to be with me till the end
Cannot find a trace of them now
No love,no regards send

Shivering,in these streets I sit
Wondering what has happened to me
There is no way out from here
It is dark as far as I can see

No where to go,nothing to do
No vision of good tomorrow
I try to close my eyes and sleep
I am haunted by nightmares in a row

Wrecked and drained I am sitting now
One of the unfortunate lots
Waiting for some ray of hope
To ward off my dreadful thoughts