Resurrection of Dreams!

“The old dreams were good dreams; they didn't work out, but glad I had them” – Robert Kincaid in “The Bridges of Madison County”.

We all carry an emotional pain that is ever lurking behind our ventricles. It’s called the pain of dead dreams! Every time there is an occupation of our dreams by reality, it feels like something that you built so lovingly for years has been smashed to smithereens in a second. Dreams! What would we be without them? They lift our meaningless, rudderless lives and gives us reason to an aimless life. Do you remember the endless dreams that filled our minds as a kid-Astronaut, Amitabhbachchan, Spiderman to the eager and hopeful days of our school with dreams of Archeologist, Actor, Dancer, Singer and finally making informed dream choices in college as Filmmaker, Sportsmen, Writer?

What happened to them now? Where did the sails lose its direction? Is it when the lifeboat entered the rough winds of reality? Did we get lost in those winds? Or Did we become complacent blaming the lack of strength to fight inevitabilities? Is there such a thing called inevitable when you are pursuing dreams? Did we burn the dreams because we were surviving? Or did surviving itself become a dream because we were afraid of extinction?

Dreams die! And it gets a special burial in a special place in our hearts. We have learnt to live without looking up at the stars because it reminds of the astronomer who never flew. We have learnt to stop wondering about being Asha Bhonsle because it reminds us of the ambitions of a bathroom singer. We have learnt to watch the awards shows without emotions because it reminds us of the filmmaker who won only in front of the mirror. Old Dreams! Innocent, bold, focused, impossible, assured, confident!

New Dreams! Realistic, pragmatic, timid, cautious, precarious, unsure and even ready to change the dream when the going gets tough! Have we become so weak, scared, and happy to simply exist than actually Dream? What happened to that young kid who had the confidence to cure all diseases and change the world? Has cynicism and skepticism robbed his ability to wonder and Dream?

We can displace dreams, re-define them, change them but we can’t afford not to have them at all! The day we stop dreaming and believing in our dreams is the day we lose our soul! We have sacrificed enough of our dreams over the years. Let’s not bury anymore. Let’s have the courage to ‘Resurrect our Dreams’!

Don’t we owe it to the small kid in us who dreamed Big and Impossible?

Written on:Friday, 03 September 2004

Let's have more Tragedies!

Why on earth would I utter such a thing? Well…since the only way to move our politician's ass...seems to be some tragedy, where they can conveniently place a flower garland at site, donate some money from Prime Minister's relief fund and move back to their couches until the next tragedy occurs, there doesn't seem to be much of a choice!

Amma finally realizes that "thatched roof" can actually catch fire! Not just that...there are schools with thatched roof that has built-in Restaurant inside them! Isn't that ridiculous? Let's ban all schools with thatched roof within two weeks!! Good Job! The government has finally taken action!

Don't act naïve and ask "Wasn't there an accident a year ago in Srirangam where 60 people died in a marriage hall due to fire accident ?" Why wasn't there a ruling to make sure all buildings had enough exits and followed the fire code(if there is indeed one) on every building(including schools)? Now I am talking Greek and Latin! How can the government be responsible ? When the accident happened last year, they made sure all Marriage Halls took fire safety measures. This year it is Schools. They are two entirely different things. Ah...I see!

What about the entire "slum" areas that are covered in thatched roof? What about the people who live in the fragrance of "Koovam ", the great River that spreads its joy all around Chennai ? Well, we have not had a fire accident there...yet! We'll worry about them when we have to cross that bridge (Napier).

Sun TV, because of the mere fact they own a camera, broadcasts live Pictures of the Kumbakonam accident! Let's award them "Most Sensitive, authentic, accurate News broadcaster" award for showing all the charred dead bodies of kids piled on one another! What about the warning for "gruesome,nauseating footage ahead"? Hmm…we will think about that after you have vomited for a week, had nightmares for a month and if you are still in shock…who cares ? Now you won't forget Sun TV! Would ya?Even the CNN's, MSNBC's and even Fox is a wuss compared to the dare devil news coverage by Sun TV! Bravo!

Let's keep it coming!

Maybe at this time, I should look back on the various tragedies in India and the measures taken after them, if any!

Floods in the North East, Andhra Pradesh -- Annual Affair - people die invariably and since 40 to 100 people die every year it can't really be considered a tragedy! A tragedy is something that's sensational, something that would catch the media's attention like ransacking a theatre bcoz "Girlfriend" is too hot or Tendulkar having yet another low score!

Don't be a pinhead to ask questions like "What about India's super Computers that are used for Weather forecasting? Can't they detect Floods? Can't we evacuate the people before they arrive and save lives ?

Isn't it Sriharihota in Andhra Pradesh,where they launch fancy Satellites, each year ?

Hmm...do you really see the weather forecast and plan your day ? Wake up Dude!
Bus Accidents due to overload -- Well, what do you suggest ? It's not Government's mistake that India has a population problem! It's not their job to restrict the number of people getting on board.

Train Accident - Well...not an issue unless you're travelling in one of them! (Keep the faith in LALLOO!)

Mid-Air Plane Collision - Is it even Possible? Hell Yeah! The world's first Mid Air Collision at Chakri Dadri between Saudi Arabian Airlines and Kazakhstan Aircraft in 1996 killing 351 passengers.

Who is to blame?

One of the reasons quoted is antiquated air traffic control equipment. Now they have improved the equipment. We haven't had a single mid air crash since then. Just the regular 737 crashing into homes at Patna killing 60 (July 7,2000)!

But again, who has time to ponder over these silly issues? Question the government on the measures following tragedies and monitor continuously on their effectiveness?

Don't I have some files to send to the Client before 6 PM?

Written on:Tuesday, 20 July 2004

Phases!

A Revelation! You don’t know when it happened, how it happened but u know you are out of it! The Phase is finally over! In the middle of the day you realize you are not thinking about her anymore, your mind is less obsessive and you know you have moved on. The end of a ‘painful breakup phase’. Your kid comes up to you and says “Mom! I am not a kid anymore!”. The end of ‘smothering your kid with kisses in public’ phase. You get the courage to tell your co-worker that you can’t put up with his bullshit anymore. The end of ‘being rookie’ phase. You tell your Husband ‘You’re not going to pick up his dirty laundry anymore’. The end of ‘being the submissive wife’ phase.

Phases! What would we be without them? We define Life through them; we learn what Life is through them. Given a choice, I wouldn’t want to go through them but when you are out of it, you are glad you survived through them. Each phase tests your character. Your strength. Your attitude. Your perseverance. The strangest thing about phases is that you may not know you are in one until it is almost over. Your best friend who is in love with a Chinese woman is not going to like your suggestion that he likes her because he couldn’t find any desi’s to date. Because he is in the ‘Phase’. Tell the smart intelligent financially independent wife to leave her abusive husband; she is not going to listen because she is in the ‘Phase’. Somehow it’s a process that each one has to go through themselves to realize that they have reached the dead end where there is nothing to give anymore. Why did you waste your time all those years? Why weren’t you smarter not to take this decision before? Because you wanted to make sure whether the problems were a phase or a never-ending repeating story. And because you were in a phase of ‘it will get better’, you didn’t want to get out of it.

Each phase shows a different avatar of us. From a timid shy child to talkative teenager to worried early twenties to confident thirties to explorative forties, each phase takes us on a new adventure with ‘us’ as the hero morphing our character along the way. Someone asked me what my age was and I told him 18 and he couldn’t stop laughing. Ofcourse, he didn’t know that I measure my age by the number of phases I have been through in my life. The more phases you go through, the more you become prudent, sensible and mature. A 25yr old with 15 phases is lot more mature than a 35yr old with 10. It’s the experiences that are the real indicators of age not the number of years from birth.

Reminiscing phases can be good as well as bad. We all can recollect our worst phases in an instant because those are the ones that have shaped us more. I have often wondered when someone cries for the pasts even though their present is much better, for whom do they cry? Do you cry for the pain caused by someone? Do you cry for the lack of comforts at that time? Or do you cry for the people who aren’t there anymore? And then it stuck me! We cry for the helpless ‘little girl’ or ‘little boy’ in ourselves, who was put in that situation without anyone to protect. You know you became an adult in that moment. You grew old in an instant with all your innocence and wonderment lost in a second. You stopped believing in Santa’s, Superman and Cinderella’s all at once. Would it have been better if you didn’t have to go through that phase? I don’t know.

We don’t choose the phase we enter into. But I know I am not afraid of them anymore. I have been through them so many that I know it’s an inevitable part of our life. As we get older, we have the strength to steer its course. The Phases don’t control us; we control them. The question is whether you have the courage to plunge into the ocean of phases, swim through the tides, weather the storms, know when to change course and reach the lands. Whether you drown in it or swim across with your chin up determines who you are. But when you do survive them, it would be a journey worthy of your life! Maybe it is the ‘Life’!

Written on:Friday, 24 September 2004

Un'verse'al Person!

Poetry Appreciation! Somehow I never get it ! Not that I don’t try. I sincerely read the lines…try to appreciate the effort in the rhyming, eloquence in the flow of words or the use of metaphors. But in the end (assuming its not a long one bcoz I never reach the end in long one), somehow I am left with a sense of “ok-now-what?” or “ok-so-what-was-this-about?”. Maybe I lack that sensitivity to understand…to get down to that emotional state of the poet to perceive things through his eyes! (Just seems way too gay to me or is it just too much effort?) Perhaps an honest introspection would reveal my inability to write a poem...ergo...vis-à-vis (should stop watching Matrix Reloaded too many times) I can’t appreciate it with an open-heart since they are doing something I can’t! (What an egotist ;))

Why can’t I be magnanimous?

Well…now I have to come up with a contrived logic to overshadow my real reason (which is I can’t write poetry) with a supposed logical explanation. And that is…most poems seem farcical. First of all, normal people don’t talk like that! Prose seems the natural way to express things.
It is honest.
Hard hitting.
Straightforward.

They say things as they are. If they want to say “she hurt me with her words” they say “she hurt me with her words” instead of
“Her lips moved to spit venom
that I would endure all my Janam”

Well…cud find only a hindi word to rhyme(no cure for Poetic Stuntedness)!
Moreover most of the poems wallow in self pity, emanate loser attitude (ok...i am gonna get killed on this one) and just seems to be sad, depressing reflection their owner’s self . Maybe poems are born out of confusion and sadness or maybe I just haven’t read enough poems to see the brighter ones. Whatever it is…I think the burning question is “why can’t they say it in simple terms? “

Top 10 Zombies in India!

We all love countdown programs,somehow it keeps our interest more than others,since you really don’t have to think much during those programs and also u wanna know where ur favourite song or movie is ranked in it (obviously depending on the ranking of our favourites we decide whether we like it or hate it). Being a desi in Pardes, one of the few ways to demonstrate patriotism is talk incessantly about india, wonder when India would have a decent infrastructure like US and ofcourse yap about how farce our democracy is (compared to US that can have someone make a funny movie about their president while he is in power and we can’t stand two women kissing in a movie). So I thought let me make my own countdown of patients that are in “emergency” ward in our country and if someone doesn’t attend to them soon, any one of those patients can turn out to be like the zombie in “28 Days Later” and we don’t have to worry about the existence of a country called “INDIA"(bcoz it won’t be there!)

Pateint No.10 in Ward 12 --- Social Welfare System

Wonder how long we will be talking about Food,Shelter and clothing as an issue .Guess as long as there are people without it in our country.
In the new world order with terms like terrorism, jehad, Infidel etc., the people without these three basic necessities of life are the perfect candidates for the “school of advanced shooting of innocents” run by religious fundamentalists.
We still have children begging at traffic lights, farmers committing suicide, ill-treatment of handicapped people,huge neglect of AIDS patients (3.9 mill. according to UNAIDS and ofcourse rising unemployment). With 550 millions of Indians, 25 and under, we better fix these problems soon lest we become another Afghanistan.

Pateint No.9 in Ward 20 --- Strong Patent Laws

Stealing someone’s idea without any guilt or the fear of being reprimanded has become a national hobby, be it movies/songs/products/Research papers etc. One industry that would benefit the whole country by establishing Patents is healthcare.
The SICEclearly shows the reluctance of Pharmaceutical companies from US to enter India as they are afraid counterfeits of their products would be in market in no time and there is no protection of their products under Indian Law. Having patent protection law is a two way street. We lost Basmati to world and Ganesha is being used in all foreign art/fancy things. If we could patent all that’s indian and use the existing intellectual property, it could be a starting point for showcasing real indian innovations at world level.(instead of drum-beating our ego with inventions made 5000yrs ago)

Pateint No.8 in Ward 17 --- Federal System

Lets not trumpet the idea “we are all one" all the time because we are not. Each state people are different. Instead, lets celebrate the differences and live as one. No longer can a central government dismiss a legally elected state government.
“United states of India” sounds great.

Pateint No.7 in Ward 14 --- Removing Social Apathy

Forget about sympathy and even empathy for someone who is handicapped or some kid begging on the streets. People have become so numb to these things that they have apathy towards social evils. They yell and scream if it happens to them but until then they have a "who cares attitude". A country is developed only as broad as the minds of their people.

Patient No.6. in Ward 16 --- Develop Alternative energy

Brazil uses 70% Bagasse—Sugarcane waste to fuel cars. The government needs to encourage R&D and develop a scientific temperament (Kalam’s favorite two words) among our children. Maybe we did not have an Intel in India to develop Vinodh Khosla , but I hope today’s companies will not let go of the economic potential of Brain power.

Check out the following link for a project called The Pedal Power Generator which converts power generated by pedaling to electricity. This helps people in village save 150rs. per month which is lot considering their income.

Patient No.5. in Ward 8 --- Develop Micro-Enterprise

Perhaps the greatest idea of micro-Enterprise came from Gandhiji who insisted we make our own clothes.Let’s not get caught with only High-tech innovations in a country like ours and encourage micro enterprises that generates real employment for poor people like making Papads,Pickles, arts and crafts etc. Give all the fillip to small scale industries and not bury Entrepreneurship in red tape.

Patient No.4 in Ward 9 ---Accountability in Social and Political Structures

Cameras in every government office, balance sheets in internet and access to Media to all public records.Television/Radio/internet are always on the look-out for when the government would screw up.(Remember Tehelka ?).We need more expose’s of public corruption and accountability of individuals.

Patient No.3 in Ward 3 --- Health Care system

Affordable Medicine. Something a rickshaw-wala doesn’t hear when his son or daughter is handicapped or has jaundice. Yes, we have government hospitals . But, would any one of us risk it ? Most of our villages don’t even have proper drainage system. We were so lucky that SARS appeared first in China instead of India. Do we have a system to control epidemic diseases ? Our country was a victim of Plague not long ago. If an epidemic occurs, trust me, rich or poor, it will make no distinction.

Patient No.2 in Ward 2 --- Law & Order

Perhaps the most important area that needs immediate attention. It shocks me to hear that people in US complain about delay in call response to a 911 emergency which is at an average of 6mins!!!

All India conviction rate is at a shameful 6.5%.How can the people of a country feel safe and secure, when only there is 6.5% of a chance that someone who robbed your home or someone who killed your neighbor would be punished inspite of being caught ? That’s a scary reality.(Again we wouldn’t worry about it until it happens to us)

Patient No.1 in Ward 1 -- Population Control

According to 2001 census, our population density was 324 persons per square kilometer. By 2050, we will be 544 persons per square kilometer. Check the following site for the projected chart of India’s population until 2050.

Future India

Its not very heartening to see we will beat China by a significant 200 million by 2050.

We need to FORCE people to have children according to their income. Set a minimum age for having kids at 25 for men and 22 for women.If you violate it,he loses all benefits of government(as if there is a lot..but nevertheless some start). If you have more than 2 kids,then government approved “complete circumcision”. If you need space to breathe,we need to go the “sterile” way.There is not much time left.

When do you get really PISSED ?!!!

Is it when you are in a real hurry and your bathroom door gets stuck?

Is it when everyone in the room stares at you for something you didn’t do?

Is it when you are asked to strip six times in the airport because your goatee fits their ‘Profile’?

Is it when you call the satellite installer after 5hrs of waiting and they ask, ‘What Installation?’

Is it when your colleague takes credit for the work that you did by sacrificing your weekend?

Is it when someone wins a Sports car in ‘Price is Right’ for guessing the price of toothpaste?

Is it when you know you are absolutely right and everyone else disagrees with you?

Is it when your friend gets his Green Card in a year while yours is stuck for years in a black hole called INS?

Is it when someone from your country says something outrageous and everyone assumes you belong to the same pack?

Is it when a restaurant run by ‘Brown people’ treats you badly because you are brown?

Is it when you realize that there is no toilet paper too late into the game?

Is it when you find out that people who came after you were being seated in the restaurant because the Maitre’D couldn’t spell your name?

Is it when you discover after browsing the DVD’s for an hour in Blockbuster that you forgot your rental card?


Is it when you buy the camcorder from Best Buy and two months later, they slash its price by half?

Is it when you marry according to your parent’s wishes and the husband turns out to be mamma’s boy?

Is it when someone cuts you off in the left most lane and drives at 20 below speed limit?

Is it when someone says ‘Whatever’ when you ask his or her opinion?

Is it when newscasters dump stories of tragedies for Paris Hilton’s pooch?

Is it when someone ‘Not good enough’ says you are ‘Not good enough ‘?

Is it when someone talks in a language you don’t understand in front of you?

Is it when you arrive at a party on time and find you are the first one to arrive?

Is it when your Mom praises the ‘Other Sibling’ no matter what you do?

No matter what the reason is, when you are really pissed, take a deep breath and swear your lungs out!

Once your anger has been spilled, you can move on with the knowledge that ‘Life is Not Fair’.

Unless ofcourse your bathroom door is still stuck and you are waiting for toilet paper to grow!

Lord of the Pandavas!

The much awaited final part of the "Lord of Pandavas" is out in theatres and what a ride it is! You were treated to the emergence of Kauravas and pandavas and how they enter into exile in first movie, the second in the trilogy showcased the period of Pandavas in Exile and how Duryodhana tries to expose them..and all the preparation for the War of Kurukshetra. In the Final chapter you have all the pieces coming together,all the sub-plots culminating in the "Greatest War" that dwarfs the "Battle of Middle Earth" in more ways than one.

Only Manirathnam could have created those massive war scenes with a landscape of various war formations ("Vyuhas") of kauravas and Pandavas. The logistics and visual treat would remain forever in the eyes of viewer.The way the camera moves each time Arjuna shoots an arrow across the battlefield(Legolas re-invented ?) and the "hulk" wrestler Bheema throwing soldiers in air is a treat to watch. One of the greatest achievement of this movie is the message of "Bhagavat Gita" which seems to be the whole purpose of the trilogy.Without boring the viewer with "vedanta" and Karmic principles, Mani handles the telling of philosophy akin to "Neo" being ported to "Matrix like" environment and explains the key principles in short stories interspersed during THE War, which is a masterful directorial maneuvre.

With LOTP, you get the combination of Matrix philosophy + Lord Of The Rings  action multiplied three times over. The design of new creatures in Rakshasas makes Olliphaunts look like puppets. In LOTR the viewers had a clear idea of Good and Bad.  In LOTP you have the amazing Duryodhana who smirks,squirms and you can feel his disappointment,anger and frustration.Just like Gollum , Duryodhana would be a character study for a long time in history of Cinema. Surprisingly the bad guys more often come as good in this movie like Karna,Bheeshma,Drona all great warriors and scholars sticking to the wrong side for right reasons. This is what makes LOTP an epic.

The "grey" shades of each character lending depth to the whole narration. You would think the movie can't top the rendering of Gita but the whole fun begins after that. You are taken into each War startegy meetings and how each army outruns the other. The Scene where Abhimanyu gets caught in the "Vyuha" and fights till the end would remind you of all the great Samurai movies.

The treacheries,Conches,Creatures,hundreds of horses,bows,arrows,sword fights..drama..makes Lord of the Pandavas,a movie for Lifetime...

"Dude....i told you not to wake me up when am in a good dream...??!!"

Desi Un-desi!

"We are going to be seeing lot of desi’s today." The very sentence from my wife subconsciously takes my body to Orange alert level.(Damn Tom Ridge!). Why? Just Why? They are your own folk. Your own blood and some of them, from your own place. Aren’t you happy to be seeing them? Yes...and on second thought... No! Yes, bcoz I might see someone in my own frequency...which is as rare as Sunny Deol delivering a dialogue under 10 decibels..(dude...don’t think too much of urself...).No, bcoz the remaining 95% of people I meet, emanate unpleasant "desi-aura".

Is it the unabashed stare that scans u from top to bottom like airport security personnel?

Is it the stern, un-smiling faces that walk past you when u r in the middle of a smile with ur jaw half opened to say Ho...w before swallowing the rest ?

I decided to settle this queasy feeling by deciding to define what are the things that makes a desi…undesi…(which right now is vice versa in my head). Maybe oneday...(Utopia?) people might say…if the following things are NOT seen in a person, then he must be a desi…

Not ask someone how much they earn ?

Not ask someone what caste/religion they belong to ?

Not judge someone by the amount of money he or she makes..

Not put Rangoli outside their apartment to prove their identity..

Not take Dowry…and even worse gloat about it…

Not talk in their own-native-language in front of someone who has no clue about their language

Not segregate men and women in a party…(all women inside...all men in patio...just don’t dare to cross that border)

Not grind another desi in an interview until he reaches a breaking point to say.."I don’t know" and then smile having proven their "intelligence"…

Not talk loudly in a theatre...

Not throw all their guard down when they enter desi area/movie…(what’s up with kids running in the theatre…get a babysitter or don’t go to the movie)

Not scream in their cell phone while talking in a public place…

Not brag they are related/know someone popular or "influential"…(who give’s a rat’s ass about it anyway except another "undesi" ? )

Not talk just about their kids, food , family and husband/cricket …(in that order..)

Not gossip about another desi…

Not wear Lungi/Dhoti and walk to Walmart…

Not claim they know something when they have no clue about it…

Not invite someone because they want to get invited…

Not speed and overtake the moment u see a desi woman driving the car..

Not keep count of every act as a debt to repay…(isn’t it ur turn to gift us ?)

Not get offended when someone has a different opinion than theirs…(Can you believe he doesn’t like Aamir Khan’s acting ?)

Not poke their nose in someone else’s affairs…

Not think the only way their son/daughter can repay is by marrying the spouse of their choice...(Art of emotional blackmailing...by Indian Parents)

Not always protest…for the sake of protesting without trying to understand the facts...(ransacking a theatre for showing movie "Girlfriend"? Puhleese... )

Not share the pictures of their prospective spouse to everyone..(and worse..ask other’s opinion about them)

Not patronize other desi’s because they are elder…

Not give poor customer service…because ur just another "DESI" !!!

Not always feel the urge to showcase their supposed intelligence…

Not talk about Web services at a dinner party…

Not think some movie Hero is God...and his word is gospel..(okay...lemme hide from the Rajinikanth fan club…members of US)

Not "Stare-Stare some more-take a walk and then Stare again" when a desi woman is dressed in westernized clothes in a mall or farmer’s market…

Not screw another desi at work…

Jeez..the list just doesn’t seem to end…am sure y’all can find more to add to the list.

The crux of the issue is that I wish a lot of desi’s would be decent in their behavior, broader in their outlook on things, be courteous and respect their own folk(myslef included)…and agree to disagree respectfully!

Do You have Real Courage ?!!

It’s not always the blood-donating kind in the battlefield! Certainly not fighting in the street with the guy who brushes his arm intentionally with your girlfriend!

Real courage is doing the right thing no matter how inconvenient your action would make your life!

Real courage is standing up for your girl against your parents!

Real courage is not lying in your resume even if you desperately need the job!

Real courage is reporting your company for fraud when you find them cheating!

Real courage is speaking your mind when everyone else disagrees!

Real courage is refusing to pay bribe when you are in a hurry to get the job done!

Real courage is refusing to rent/buy pirated VCD/DVD/Cassette!

Real courage is to be honest with your friends even if it would hurt them!

Real courage is to say, “I don’t smoke/drink” to your friends!

Real courage is to say, “I don’t know”!

Real courage is to get up every time you fall in life!

Real courage is not taking the easy route!

What? Are you asking me whether I follow them? R u Crazy ?

Just was in a self-righteous utopian world for a moment and by the time I reached the end, my boss entered the cube and I had to pretend as if I was working!

Real Courage is continuing working on your Blog even when your Boss interrupts ;)

When a Woman takes "Mirchi" into her own hands!

Over 200 women attack and beat-the-crap out of Akku Yadav, notorious criminal, until he dies, in a courtroom in Nagpur. My first gut reaction after reading this news story was “Wow! Awesome”. It was a mixture of bewilderedness, shock, joy and vanquished feeling as if I was part of that crowd. I am sure I would have felt differently if Akku Yadav was a good guy or maybe he is. But 200 women must have had a better reason not to think so than my internal “proven until guilty” logic. I think the very fact that a bunch of normal, working women, doing something as outrageous as this proves his guilt. He should have known better than to mess with the Indian Women! If she can be considered submissive, passive and sacrificing, the same woman also knows how to wield a kitchen knife to test the depth of your liver.

It can’t get more cinematic than this story. I am reminded of the last scene from “Mirch Masala”, when all the women working in the spice factory, ambushes the lustful Subedhar (Naseeruddin Shah) to protect the honor of Sonbhai (Smitha Patil). It also reminds us, how as a society, we have caused so much despair and helplessness in the justice system that these women had to take this extreme measures of killing another human being (very much like the movie when the women lose hope after all the men in the village decide to send Sonbhai to satisfy the lust of Subedhar).

What happens when people begin to take matters in their own hands? What happens when they lose trust in the justice system? Judges? Policemen? Politicians (yeah right!) ? It would be mirror image of all vigilante movies playing in reality and a society of free-for-all. While I am rejoicing at the instant-justice-system, I am also sad at how we have come to this stage. A stage of being despondent, forsaken, abandoned by social institutions like police, lawyers and courts. The reality is that, it can happen anywhere, to anybody and not necessarily, the bad guys getting killed in the end. And I know majority of us wont be yelling and screaming about it until “it happens to us”. How long can a society survive in a system where the conviction rate is 6.5%? Would we learn from these incidents and recognize that we have an epidemic in terms of credibility of justice system rather than a denial that it’s an exception? Will a day ever come when I can say, “Shit! That’s an Indian policeman and I am in a No-entry zone!” than thinking “I got 500 bucks, its all rite, if I get caught!”?

Dude,What were you thinking ?!!!

A Man survives a snowstorm, stays hungry for 10 days, fights with a polar bear, loses a leg and still goes on to conquer the Alps only to be picked by a helicopter on his way down!

O...k...a…y!

Am I supposed to praise his valor, courage, and chivalry? Or ask,
“Dude...what were u thinking?”

Why do people climb mountains?

Is it bcoz they have such low self-esteem that they have to explore the stinking mouth of death to tell, “I did it” (assuming they survived) to few of their friends? (What a cynic!)

What motivates a person to climb, step after step, all alone, over 3500 feet? (Might be the “Shit! I can’t go back now!” expression when they look down).Is it Pride? Bragging Rights? Some skewed logic where they value adrenaline more than their need to conserve their own blood? Maybe they are passionate about Nature. I don’t know. But I am sure the mountain climbers would argue, “They climb mountains bcoz IT IS THERE! “. Great Answer! And am sure the mountains would still be there when they retrace their way back in less than half the time! (Didn’t u hear the thud sound?)
I agree we need some excitement in our lives. Need some challenges that push our physical and mental limits. I would rather ride a roller coaster, go at 120 miles in a racetrack, take a free fall, go Para-sailing…and even get married! (Well I already Am. who am I kidding?) That’s my idea of having a thrill! Not climb Mount Everest or K2! Why would anyone in sane mind want to do something that can get him or her killed? Am I a wimp for choosing to live a little less on the edge? Guess I like the idea of a living wimp than a dead Mountaineer!

The ones who intrigue me are the kinds who outlive the Super-Hero era (6-12) in their life! I was watching this 16-17yr old kid trying to skateboard on top of side rails and jump into the road, with the background score of his Mom screaming, and an audience of his buddies clapping. To do that he takes 20 hits to his “nether” regions (hopefully no permanent damage “there”), forty “F***ing jeez” falls, free blood donations to the concrete sidewalk and finally, when he achieves the feat, thumping his hands into air, this “Kodak moment” turns into a “Godzilla meets my Dishwasher” moment with the sound effect of his Skateboard crushing under the wheel of an oncoming Corolla! Would he at least listen NOW?!!!

Is the Journey really worth the“END”?

Guess, only that Skateboarder with 15 stitches can answer!

Do I Really Need to Know ?!!!

“Anna Nicole goes from 40B to 42C”

“ Whitney Houston slips in stairs! “

“John Kerry has a Botox!”

Do I really need to know these? These are news that I don’t want to know and don’t really care. Nevertheless they are trivial and harmless. What scares me are the supposedly intelligent, revealing, insightful news!

To drive home the point of how “insecure” America is, Stephen Flynn, author of “America The Vulnerable” says there are more than 400 million people, 122 million cars, 11 million trucks, 2.4 million rail freight cars, 8 million maritime containers and 56,596 vessels that entered the U.S. at more than 3,700 terminals and 301 ports of entry in the year 2002 alone! And Terrorists could use ANY one of them ANYTIME! Great! Now I feel very safe! Did I really need to know that?

Why would anyone want to share such information? I am sure the guys itching to make something happen in US soil, must be going “Yippee!”, looking at the vulnerabilities in the US entry system! If he (Stephen Flynn) is really concerned, let him go share this grave issue with the Senators, Intelligence Committee’s, and Law Makers. Not the general public (and the perpetrators!). This kind of book defeats the very purpose it is written for. Is it Service or Disservice? Maybe it brings to light the security flaws to administration. But given a choice between the people fixing the Loophole and people using the Loophole, whom do u think is going to get to us first?
I am not quite sure how in the name of “Freedom of Press/Media”, they list the things that can go wrong, discuss the various ways someone can kill you, as if the Terrorist’s didn’t have enough ideas on their own! There was a reporter in Iraq who gave the location of a unit’s next attack location. Duh???

How does it help a normal citizen to know which strategy or formation is being used to attack in War? I care how many people got wounded, how many innocents got killed. Do I really need to know how an AK-47 is used?

Tom Ridge: We have increased the threat level to Orange!
Public: And what does that mean?
Tom Ridge: It means there could be a terrorist attack in Malls, Highways, prominent places, Wal-Mart’s, Bridges, u name it.
Public: So am I not supposed to be going to those places?
Tom Ridge: Oh no! We cannot change the American way of life! We just raised the alert level so if something happens, you can’t say, “Why didn’t u tell me?” And I can say, “I told you so” (Moreover there has been too much coverage about John Kerry recently!).
Public: Do I really need to know what threat level the country is in when you have no frigging clue about it?

Did we really need to be shown the pictures of Prisoner abuse? How does that help me in any way? All I am thinking is that the entire moderate Muslims are going to be pissed looking at it! There is a difference between telling a story and showing the story. And a wise journalist would have chosen not to show them because it endangers the innocent American enjoying the Pyramid of Giza, who now, might be given a permanent berth there because of the pictures!

Maybe i should make a list of things that I really don’t want to know.
1) Not know the strategies of nation’s intelligence on TV when I know the enemy is also watching!
2) Not see the video of some guy screaming for his life before his head being chopped!
3) Not know how much danger I am in without telling me how to protect myself!
4) Not know the different ways of being attacked under the topic of “How You can be Protected”

Am sure you can add more to the list!

I guess I got enough problems of my own and I expect the media not to scare the s**t out of me!

If I was Vincent Gambini (watching ‘My Cousin Vinny’ too many times), I would be ranting
”I gotta job where I am stuck bcoz of Green Card, my wife is itching for her EAD to get out of home, I lost out on the low percentage on mortgages, my boss is a pain in my ass; I got no money and now u tell me I gotta little problem called Homeland Security where terrorists can chop my head anytime…Not to mention your BIOLOGICAL CLOCK - my career, your life, our Green Card, and let me see, what else can we pile on? Is there any more shit we can pile on top of this? Is it Possible?”

Coffee Break Digressions!

"Saama, bhEdha, DhAna, DhaNdaa”

My grandmother always threatened me with this Sanskrit proverb whenever I ended up in trouble. I finally found the courage to ask her what she meant by this proverb. She explained that to solve any problem, you have to go through four steps. Conciliation (Saama), Winning the enemy over through choice gifts (DhAna), Dividing the enemies (bhEdha) and when all of the above tactics doesn’t work, punishing them by military means (DhaNdaa). In other words, she has tried telling me passively not to pick my nose while eating; she gave me gifts to distract me away from my itching nose; she even tried taping a band-aid around my finger so my large finger can’t fiddle with my tiny nostril. Finally, a good spanking and a thigh pinch every time I moved my finger close to my nose solved the problem in 3days.

I wonder how relevant that proverb is in today’s world. The Iraq war went from Saama to Dhandaa in no time. The British ruled the whole world through bhEdha. In a world where everyone seems to be in a hurry to get some place, I wonder, who has the patience to go through all four steps before using violence as the ultimate choice. Being peaceful and fighting passively is frowned upon. Non-violent demonstrations and peace marches are not as fun as a rally in which policemen are belted with stones and five cars are burnt. In a world full of media, it is surprising that there are so few people to actually report the truth. The media blames it on short attention span of viewers. The viewers blame it on the innumerable choices. We have become such an instant-gratification society that if something takes time, it’s probably not worth it.

One of the strangest side effects of this instant-gratifying, short-attention spanned generation has been that if people die with a Big Bang – 9/11,Tsunami, Train Accidents, Fire accidents- then the entire media rallies up behind these events. If people die a slow death as in malnutrition, starvation, drought, water scarcity, Poverty, thousands displaced due to building of a Dam, who cares? Leave it to PBS and other channels that air these documentaries in afternoon when everyone is at work or late midnight when you are in deep slumber. Instant tragedies? You bet the entire media would be there to fill airtime for hours in apparent service to the dead by showing mass graves and victim’s miseries. Nothing is left to imagination as people are incapable of imagining how worse it could get for someone without food, water, shelter and their loved ones being washed away.

While CNN, Fox and other US channels at least post a sticker saying, “the following images would make you vomit and those who have just had 3 burgers do not watch”, I had the Hobson’s choice of watching Sun TV as it was the only channel in my home that was closest to the scene of tragedy. While the rest of the world mourns, Sun TV has special New Year Celebration programs. So what if thousands died in Tamil Nadu? They are anyway showing footage of a dead boy being pulled from a stream with the saddest music possible in background in between their New Year Celebration programs. Isn’t that enough? How about the burger vomiting warning? Well, that’s your problem. Not theirs.

Although I have digressed very far from nose picking to media obsession with instant tragedies, the fact is that we are becoming more fickle and transient in the things we devote our life to. In our hurry to achieve our ends, we have forgotten to take time for those who can’t fend for themselves. The greatest tragedy of our times is the continual neglect of real issues facing the people. We have 3.5 billion in small mass land in India, China and other SE Asian countries and the remaining 3.5 billion spread throughout the rest of world. We have less than 10 countries that control more than 50% of world economy. We have approximately 20 corporations that control most of the businesses in the world. The possibilities of life-altering changes are immense if these countries and corporations decide to do some good on a regular basis.

Does it always have to be a catastrophic tragedy to remind them about their social obligations and the connectedness of us all in this tiny feeble weak planet called Earth?

Artificial Sperm-the end of "Man" Kind!

2004 A.D. – Artificial sperm tested on animals to produce transgenic creature.
Artifical Sperm Story in Guardian

2020 A.D --World’s first transgenic human baby is born.

2035 A.D -- “Right to Birth” bill is passed in senate that allows women to use artificial sperm to have children.

2047 A.D. – “United Nations World Marriage report” suggests unless Men in developing countries change their attitude towards women, women would continue to use artificial sperm to have kids and avoid marriage.

2055 A.D. – World Health Organization suggests women prefer having girl child to male child due to their importance in evolution process and the importance given to women in society. In a shocking revelation, the birthrate of Male child has reduced by 40% over the past 20years since the advent of “Right to Birth” bill.

2077 A.D.--- With the social demographics changing, “male prostitution” has reached epic proportions and women heads of governments have legalized them due to the diminished social importance of men.

2089 A.D. – Men in India staged a huge demonstration asking for equal opportunity with women. Their demands included reservations in colleges,government jobs, protection in public places from harassing women,improve the living condition of men so they can protect themselves from domestic violence,rape and "dowry" deaths.

2120 A.D. – In an effort to counter the "Female reproductive Power" , Men have started researching on “Artificial Eggs”…but the women governmental heads(144 nations in world) have refused permission for such research…

Hey…you never know...they are a better "useful" species in the process of evolution than us,Men. If our "swimmers" become useless, the only hope is on their gullibility for love,honesty,commitment...etc. We better start demonstrating them in ample, lest suffer from extinction...

Are You a Star Wars Addict ?

You know you are a Star Wars addict

When you call your wife just before she enters the bathroom to say,”May the Force be with you!”

When you throw the tasteless lasagna into trash yelling, “Bantha Fodder”!

When you try to put on your supposed charm by telling your woman,
”Suck you it will the Dark side!”

When you name your new Roomba, “R2D6”!

When you sleep with a mask so when you snore, your wife might think you are Darth Vader!

When you tell your partner,”Anger, fear, aggression; the dark side of the Force are they”, when she is staring at you for having messed up the only job she asked you to do!

When you say “Yousa ask Mesa Dishy Wasa ?” when the lady of your house asks you to do the dishwasher!

When you call your In-law’s house as “Death Star” and your Mother-in-Law as Countess Spook-U!

When you keep repeating at the end of every meeting,” Many Bothans died to bring us this information!”

When you think Ken Jennings is re-incarnation of Master Yoda!

When you firmly believe George Lucas can actually write dialogues!

When you buy four tickets to the first show of Star wars, just in case you lost one set; you would still have the other!

When you hear your wife’s words at Wal-Mart in Alec Guinness’s voice, “Rama....Don’t forget the trash bags or I will use the Force!”

And you know you have finally converted your woman to the saga when she says, “Now…let’s hope for all your Jedi talk, your Light Saber works long-enough ;)”

Am'Bush'ed!

“Hope begins in the dark; the stubborn hope that if you just show up and try to do the right thing, the dawn will come”
Anne Lamott

In the end, Americans have spoken. In the end, a divided nation displays its main character. In the end, passion loses against reason. In the end, common sense becomes too uncommon to find. In the end, it’s not about the candidates but what people are willing to sacrifice for a cause. For Ideology. For Religion. For beliefs. In the end, George Herbert Walker Bush, wins against all odds!

Congratulations Mr. Bush! Congratulations Karl Rove! You won! Your pulse of the nation was better than that of Democrats. Your calculations that prejudice, morality, fear and beliefs will make voters forget their own job scenario, healthcare costs, reasons for war and loss of innocents in Iraq have worked magic in your favour. Who knew that people hate gays more than the fact that they lost their jobs? Who knew that there are so many people who still believe that war in Iraq is right even though the reasons for it have proved false? Who knew that America is essentially a conservative country and not as broadminded as everyone in the world expected it to be?

As the results were coming in last night, it was pathetic to see how scarcely the Democratic Party is spread in the US map. It almost seemed like a monopoly even though the voting percentage difference is only 2%. I was shocked how a simple logic as “You keep what you win, I keep what I win” logic was overthrown in Colorado. I don’t understand how people can accept the fact that their vote means nothing in a blue state or red state when they grant all the electoral votes to one party, simply because they have the majority.

I feel like a fish out of water. Maybe I don’t understand this country’s culture. I will blame it on my limited six years existence here. Guess I haven’t understood their way of thinking. But again, as one of my colleague said, she doesn’t understand it either and she has lived here in Georgia all her life! Can I still have the courage to hope? Still have the courage to be optimistic? Definitely not today. Maybe in a week or month I will be.

Maybe Dubya will change his tactics in Iraq. Make a decision not to drive public policy through his personal religious beliefs. Change his opinion on Abortion. Not overturn Roe Vs Wade. Build better world image. Do something about economy than give 600$ and take my job away. Not wage another war in another country and burn a house down to swat a mosquito. Maybe not scare the country more. Maybe be more humble and accept that he might have made some MISTAKES! I know ! When you are deluded, you conjure up lot of maybe’s to see the world the way you want it to be!

The only definite thing that makes me extremely delighted is the fact that 50% of population made the right choice! This morning ,while coming to work, i saw a car with Kerry-Edwards sticker in its door,pull in my next lane.She saw me,i saw her.I smiled.She smiled.She knew i was looking at the sticker.Seconds before the light turned green, i gave her a thumbs up and her face immediately lit up and she returned the gesture, as we both drove into highway feeling good,knowing that you are not alone in your disappointment,anger,frustration and finally hope!

As the great saying goes,
“You can fool all the people some time, and some people all the time, but you can’t fool all the people all the time”.

Written on:Wednesday, 03 November 2004

After Sunrise!

Meera, 12, sixth grade. Dorm Room. Bunker bed in corner, near the window. 1:45am.
“I love counting the stars through my window. Physics sir said there are thousands no millions of them. Wonder how many zeros are there in a million? He keeps saying it all the time. I am afraid to ask. Maybe tomorrow I will ask him after class. Hope he doesn’t think I am stupid”.

Jesminder, 43, Mud House. Open-sky Bathroom. 3 kids. Alcoholic husband. 3:17am.
“I am going to kill this bastard one day. He stole the hidden money for Ashraff’s school fees to buy liquor! Again! I might have to stop Pintu from going to school this year. What has this world come to, God, where the mother has to choose between her kids to send to school?!”

Muthukumar.27. Third Army Rifle Battalion. Married two weeks ago. 6:52am.
“No Birds. No trees. Not even shrubs. Just plain white ice capped treacherous mountains. Even the air breathes lightly. If someone risks all this to infiltrate and reach here, then he deserves a cup of chai and not bullets. The only thing keeping me warm is the memory of two weeks of togetherness with Malliga!

Abdul Malik.35.One Sister married to comrade. Address: Fighting for one.8:11am.
“The cold searing eyes of the five year old girl with a bullet in-between her eyebrows, still haunts me at night. Casualties of holy war. It’s all about numbers now.30 or 40 dead doesn’t make the cut. Fucking Newsmen! Maybe we should start shooting them first! Then they will write about our struggle!”

At 8:50 Am., the Earth shook under all of them. 7.6 magnitude on the Richter scale.

Meera from Muzzafarabad saw no stars under the rubble. Jesminder from Gujranwala, her three kids, husband, perished along with the hidden 100 rupee note. Muthukumar stationed in Baramula was never found. Abdul Malik from POK finally made news for a different reason!

There are Seventy Eight thousand Nine hundred and Ninety five more buried stories. And counting! When you write the number in words, you realize how tragic it is. When you see the bodies, you feel your helplessness and how they had no chance over it.And when you imagine the stories behind every one of those bodies, your heart doesn’t have the strength to hold them all.

Hindus.Muslims.Christians.Black.White.Fat.Lean.Stronger.Weaker.Terrorist.Armyman. Rich. Poor. Your War. My War. Your land. My Land. In the end, none of it mattered to the biggest terrorist of them all, Nature!

Perhaps that’s the whole point of these great tragedies. They visit upon us to remind us, how feeble and insignificant we are. They warn us, how petty and self-absorbed we have become. They make us recall, how arrogant and cruel we have been to our fellow beings. They make us think, how irresponsible and greedy we are with our environment.

We can’t stop them but they do give us an opportunity to change the way we live.To rise above the rubble and live with gratitude; with contentment; without prejudice; with compassion and above all, with love!

Pic source:http://news.bbc.co.uk/
Written on: Saturday, 22 October 2005

Man from the land of Bletherskate!

Friday, 25 June 2004

Bletherskate ??? Dude..for god sake...speak English…Now I have to disturb old lady Merriam to find the meaning ? I don’t know why people feel compelled to come up with such heavily loaded words and sentences so the other person can split their hair trying to understand. I guess it can be called “Vocabidism”(vocabulary sadism) and the people who do that can be called “Vocabdist”... basically people who derive pleasure in making the reader suffer in trying to understand the crap they have written formed by joining series of words they picked out from Thesaurus.

“This movie is a head-exploding case of cognitive dissonance with narcissistic blandiloquence making you wonder whether there was any cyanotype that finally dealates…”..uffff…here’s one Vocabdist I would like to avoid for rest of my life. Wonder why these verbose experts equate heavy vocabulary to show of intelligence when it does exactly the opposite to readers.

I don’t have a problem with these Vocabni’s(Vocabulary+our Agni missile).. . It’s perfectly all right to use them if there is no other way of expressing a particular emotion or something in a succinct manner. But when u see these missiles one after another in same paragraph…am sure it would drive me to do the unimaginable..(Watching...Hindi soaps in Zee...ohh no..i just made enemies with 500million desi... aunties..) than read the rest of that article. Hope this breed realizes soon that its what’s written that counts and not how complicated its written.

Ofcourse…there are exceptions where the eloquence of words flows with the thought process and enhances the joy of reading. But we are not talking about them…. Are we?

Active Citizenship!

I am a citizen of a great country, India. In fact I realized this fact even more acutely when I reached another great country United States of America. The one debate that you can definitely find in every Indian home here in US is the agonizing topic of “When will my country be like this?” When will the government of my country fight for the real citizens instead of spending their energy on building a temple? When will we stop electing convicted criminals to seats of Chief Minister? When will we have a system that will benefit the people instead of those in power? Above all, “When will the worthiness of a Indian life, especially poor, be realized?”

The state of affairs is sad for lack of a better word. I realized I wouldn’t be so aghast if I was living in Delhi or Madras. The reason is being my “indifferent” attitude towards my surroundings and the basic survival instinct, which has definitely subsided over the past three years. It is really very easy to be judgmental about the nature of our country and our very own people. It takes real courage to do something about it. I realized I might not feel so helpless if I do something in some small way to make a difference. Maybe that’s a donation to CRY or Kargil fund. Yes I am offended and go back to my “judgmental” mode when I hear news about some savages killing 600 people and the police supposedly watching or when Lallu sits through National Anthem or the VHP saying we don’t care about the Supreme Court. But faith and hope are two things that we Indians have always trusted in.

Somebody asked me the other day,’Do you think our country can survive 400 years like US?’. The only thought flashing in my mind was, I hope it survives my lifetime. We have nurtured the Kashmir issue for 50 years. We knew the militants were plotting against us in POK and Afghanistan for more than a decade. Still we decided to show our strength only recently. Is it because only now we realize that 50,000 Kashmiris are Indians too? Or is it because the Big Brothers can’t blame us this time around? Whatever the reason, the fact is our elected representatives have nurtured an issue unresolved for political gains.

Almost everyone agrees that Politicians have ruined our country. Aren’t they in real sense, our elected representatives? And who elects them? We do, which means, their mistakes are our responsibility. Somehow we tend to forget this fact and keep complaining about almost everything they do. Yes, we elected Lalloo and we elected Jayalalitha. Whatever they do we are responsible. To beat that, we re-elected them after all the complaints. Not surprisingly the voting percentage was only 38%. Where did the rest go? As true citizens they tuned to Star News for the results.

My friend said rationally that the parties had truckloads of people to vote in his name. In a billion people, sure, his vote is not going to change anything anyway. The trouble is, most of the educated class reason this way. I have to choose between an Extortionist and a convicted murderer. What do I have to gain by voting for either of them? Justifiably a valid question. But we can’t let our franchise be wasted for lack of better leaders. Maybe its time to rise to the occasion. Are you asking me to enter politics? Why not? If people who are educated cannot take the heat of illiterate politicians, they better not be complaining about them, governing. Unless we get into the pool with our leg’s wet and clean the stinking crap out of the system, there is no real way out. Let all the intelligentsia sitting anywhere in our country and World jump into the gutter, take on the mighty corrupt, gang oriented politicians in real democratic style brandishing media and awareness as major weapons and defeat them.

I can hear you all say ‘Yeah right!’ Certainly it sounds utopian. Maybe impractical but I am all ears for any other way to save our country. To me Active citizenship is the only way. Since we all agree that politicians are the root cause of most of the evil in our country, the logical conclusion is to generate good politicians who can be statesmen. You cannot fight it from outside. The only way for meaningful refinement in our system is by having enough committed true active citizens in politics and making it a decent alternative for anyone to be a part of that. As Swami Vivekanand once said “Give me 10 strong Men and I will change our country “, today, we probably need 10 Swami Vivekanand’s in our political system to save our country. Jaihind.

PS: Anyone who cannot do something for the refinement of our system should stop complaining about it too. It is time for our debate to focus on a new topic, ‘How to make our country as efficient as US in infrastructure?’

Written on Wednesday, 16 June 2004.