total timepass...

(I was to write this blogpost 4 months ago, but think it has become more relevant now given the recent ‘floods’ in Gurugram:) ) I don’t think this article is going to come as a surprise to anyone. In fact most reactions would be something like - ‘ yeh to hota hi hai ’ or ‘this is how it happens’. But still given that I have been living out of India for quite some time and before that lived a sheltered live in army cantonments, it is still a surprise to me and I don’t think that’s how it should happen! My parents recently moved to a new place in Gurgaon (as it was called then!) and they realised during monsoons one of the side road gets flooded. It has been happening for years with the other residents, but as usual no one bothered to do anything about it. My father went to the local administration office to complain a couple of times. Accordingly the next year they sanctioned couple of crores to build a rain drain next to the road, and elevate the road so that water does not colle...

This is an old article I had read a month back, and its one of those news items which come in the news just once and then are forgotten, and never come to the forefront again. The article talks about the not-so-well-known fact that Indian athletes are banned from playing in any Olympic events under the Indian banner. Indian athletics wanting to take part in international events can do so only as independent athletes. How shameful is that? And this ban has already been there for almost a year!! Yet no one talks about it, and other than this one article, I have never heard about it again. And why is the ban there? Because the IOC has asked for the Indian Olympic Association to change its constitution to not allow 'criminals' to hold posts. And of course, since the head of the Association has charges against him, he will not allow the constitution to bar him from election. So the Indian athletes will continue to participate as independent athletes without either the tri-colour...

This is an old article from last year I think; Karnataka government spending 18 crores to conduct pooja across the state for the rain gods to give rain to the drought hit land . And all I thought after reading this was that either the ministers in the state are stupid or they just needed 15 crores urgently and cooked up this idea! And honestly, both are equally plausible reasons! In this day, who would think that praying in temples across the state would help! I can understand we are a religious country, but this is taking it to a ridiculous level. It doesn't work this way and am sure the ministers of the state know it as well. Anyways, I never read about whether it worked or not, so don't know if the 18 crores worked or not; but am sure 15 crores of it did make some people happy!

A lot of news item that I read in the Indian newspapers make me feel sad and want to write about them. Not all of them are about our major problems: illiteracy, poverty, population, female exploitation, corruption and so on..; but about other facets of our society and nation which though not critical are still important for us as a country. And this falls under the same: 35 protected monuments in India are not traceable anymore!  I know that we have bigger problems to focus on than historical monuments but still how can such things happen? There is an ASI formed for just this purpose, can they not keep track of our historical heritage so that it doesn't get lost? I wonder how tough would it be. As of today, this does not harm us at all. But in the future, we will miss these remnants of our past. Plus, a lot of times when I compare historical monuments in Europe with India, I find that Europeans preserve their heritage so well and earn so much off tourism even though ...

In recent couple of years, I have begun to be more and more disillusioned with India as a country. Am not sure for the reason for it; Is it because I reside out of the country now? Or because the current government has sunk to new lows in corruption and apathy for the public? Or that more and more news comes to light which earlier did not? I don't know but every few days, there are events which make you feel even worse about the current state of affairs. And its about everything about the country, whether social or moral or political , there seems to be decay everywhere. The brutal gangrape in Delhi was the most recent such event which shocked us so more that I still feel unable to even express my emotions and anger and helplessness at the happenings even now. This article is not about any such happening though. Its just about a smaller event, but which just makes me go 'wow! really?'. Italian guards who were released in good faith by Indian jails on the guarantee of t...

The issue of 'Reservation' in India has been debated endlessly for years now: in online forums, in social gatherings, in educational institutes.. everywhere. It's pitfalls have been debated, the advantages have been discussed, changes have been advocated to the system and so on. But it has still not been sorted out, it is still a highly inefficient and misused system which is not serving the purpose it was originally introduced for. There are endless stories coming out regularly on how the system doesn't work properly. The latest I read was this article  which shocks you with the fact that you can get an entrance into an engineering or a medical college by scoring a 0 in the exam!! Does this not make you feel frustrated? And shocked? And angry? Is this correct, is this what we want in our future? Don't countries achieve greatness based on merit alone? And we are creating a generation seeing merit give way to other considerations. The reason given for such a sys...

Some days back, a Delhi Court passed a judgement saying as per Muslim law, a Muslim girl could be married at 15 if she had attained puberty (as against 18 which is the law for 'other' girls in India).  As expected, there was a lot of hue and cry about this judgement and articles being written about whether this is right or not? I was also expectedly shocked by this judgement. It does not make sense at all. When there is a law in India for the legal age for any girl to get married, how can there be another age for a certain Indian girl? Is she different, is she special or not-so-special? It seemed completely outrageous. My first thought was of the court being incorrect in its judgement. But then as I researched this a little more, I realized that the courts are not to be blamed, they are simply following the law. And the law is the one which is currently faulty. And then I remembered all the articles I had read earlier about the demand for a Uniform Civil Code in India. It...

This post is posted in the category of 'News'. Well, it should be, it has become a matter of such national importance, that it hogs enough limelight in the news regularly anyways. "Why is Aishwarya so fat still ?!!" The first time I saw such a headline, I was almost outraged. How and why would anyone even think about somebody else's weight? But I chose to forget about it, assuming it was just one person's random views.  But soon enough I figured out I was wrong, but so wrong?? I had just not expected that. Aishwarya's weight has become a national obsession. And I just cannot understand it! To be honest, I am not an Aishwarya fan. I think she is beautiful but she is quite a terrible actress and given the big movies she gets, its quite a waste to see what she does to those movies. That being said, I still cannot understand why the media writes about her weight. For one, its none of their business. Its her life, she might chose to be fat or slim, its...

The list of how we just ignore our soldiers except during war times goes on and on.. its a never-ending list... Here is another to that list ... Does it not hurt to read this?

A lot of us who were in Mumbai during the 26 November events will never forget what all happened. And the people who actually went through the events of course will be haunted by it all for years to come!! But I did not expect someone to be affected by those events in this way ! This is just ridiculous, for someone to be discriminated against for having been a witness to the Mumbai attacks??!! And that too from a prestigious institution like a school!

There is enough being said and written about all that happened 25 years ago... There is nothing I can write that can express even a percent of the kind of frustration and exasperation we all feel reading about this tragedy! The list of questions are endless.. This was a nice site I read about which was able to put into words what I could only feel... Some excerpts from the article above.. " Why was Warren Anderson, the chief of Union Carbide, given the chief minister's own aircraft to leave India, just four days after the leak and with a charge of 304A against him when he was simply out on bail? On the same day flew out of the country, never to be brought to trial. Also, why did the government accept the Supreme Court settlement with Union Carbide for just 470 million dollars - money not enough to compensate even a fraction of its victims? Why did the Digvijay Singh government allow Carbide to return the land with tonnes of toxic waste sill on it, when the...

According to the rules (as I would understand them), a movie before being released in India needs to be cleared by the Censor Board, and thereafter it can be released in India with the relevant certificate. However, in the last couple of years, parallel rules have surfaced, these movies need to be cleared by Shiv Sena, MNS and now the Congress? All I want to know is who are these people to censor what the people get to see? Who gave them the rights to control this? Biographies are written and biographical movies are made sometimes with and sometimes without the approval of the person depicted. Is that wrong? And frankly, if the person does not support such a writing/movie, it will not be treated as an biography, what is the problem with this? Update: Saw the movie Rajneeti, other than the similar way of dressing and walking between Katrina and Sonia, there was not much common in their stories. Wonder why such a huge noise was made by Congress about her character.

After the recent attack by the Naxals on civilians, I was eagerly waiting for the comments of the Naxal supporters of our country on the incident. Would they condemn it? Or would they in some warbled way, still support it?? And the answer is here . Arundhati Roy blames the security forces for exposing the civilians to the Naxal threat by using the same public transport as the civilians use!! Well said Ms. Roy, the security forces should not do that at all. They should travel in transport filled 100% with security people, to give the Naxalites the most efficient targets to blow up. Yes, that is what they should do...!!

Maya never fails to make it to the news on a regular basis.. and all the reasons are mostly the same; more money to her; more statues of her; or just her telling other politicians and the judiciary (and of course the general public) to go to hell!! Anyways here are some more stats on Maya, on how she has worked so hard over the last few years to uplift the weaker sections of society as she had always promised to do...

Read this article on the Samba spy case sometime back and was shocked! Did not know what to say or think.. Justice is delayed and denied often in our country, but for something as serious as spying? And of course, one person falsely implicating 50 other army officers and for 35 years!! It just does not sound right.. feels very sad... Of course, we don't know the genuineness of this claim and there may be more to the story than what meets the eye. Still, its quite a big shocker.... And if its true, is terrible.. Falsely implicating possibly innocent army officers of being spies; of them having served rigorous sentences; of the ignominy they and their families would have suffered for years; and of the damage to the image of the army... Can we ever set it right?

Our soldiers are nowadays busy fighting not just the external aggressors but also internal enemies; the Naxalites. Its a tougher fight for them, as the enemy is not clearly distinguishable from our co-patriots; and the use of power can get the human rights activists up in arms; 'how can we be so barbaric to use force against our own citizens??!!'. The laughability of the situation is ironic. It does not matter how many innocent policemen and their families die due to Naxalite action; it does not matter how much loss to public propert they cause. But it is barbaric to harm them or their supporters!! I find it tough to even try to argue against such statements , it just seems so stupid... Anyways what prompted this article, was this newspaper piece . Don't really think can say much about it, it just hits you so hard, makes you numb and unable to even think of how our defence personnel are doing what they do!!

Ya yeh kehna chahiye, jidhar dekho UP main, Maya hi Maya hai! Either the news she makes regularly or the even bigger statues she has got made! Given how much she loves herself and her publicity, I would also dedicate posts just to her and her claim-to-fame actions!! Lets start here, with two huge garlands made of only Rs. 1000 notes.. Wow it is.. Shows her transformation from 'Dalit ki beti' to 'Daulat ki beti'.. to quote one of her adversaries... News article Video

Another low in India politics.. "The Congress-led Meghalaya United Alliance coalition government now has four “chief ministers”, with senior legislator and state party chief Friday Lyngdoh’s elevation to the status and rank of chief minister. Soon after the formation of the coalition last May under chief minister D.D. Lapang, J.D. Rymbai and Donkupar Roy were accorded the status and rank ." The last low in this category had been the six-monthly Chief Ministers that UP once had, when BJP and BSP had been unable to come up with a consensus CM. That marriage had not lasted more than six months, but now we have another low in this category: Four 'Chief Ministers' at the same time!! How this will go we can guess anyways, four CMs go to five CMs and then six CMs and then so on...! And to top it all, the terms of the appointment are such, that only one of the Chief Ministers will have admistrative powers and duties, the rest would just enjoy th...

Lets all North Indians in Mumbai get together and do a fast unto death to make Mumbai a part of UP and Bihar. Given how successful hunger strikes have become, am sure we may be able to get past such a ridiculous demand too!! And am sure, can get enough people to do the fasting and the related gundagardi also.... Surely, Congress wont have a problem with this, and any rioting etc that happens during this process will get pardoned too! So, thats an added positive again in garnering support for the fast!! All those in favour, say aye!

Wow, what a slogan!! Isn't it? Brilliant!! It was playing across tv channels all of yesterday.. Yesterday on the one-year anniversary of 26/11, we were in the Colaba area where the attacks had happened. The roads were all blocked due to huge traffic, of people going to Gateway and showing their support to all affected by the tragedy last year. We saw something like a rock concert happening at the Leopold Cafe, to show Mumbai's defiance to the brutal attack. A police rally at Nariman point. Students from many colleges collecting at the Gateway and shouting slogans, on how we will not take such attacks lying down and demanding our politicians to do something, anything. Abhishek Bachchan on TV, in some telecom ads proclaiming that we will not forget. Another telecom company announcing that a percentage of the proceeds from all calls made on XYZ date, between ABC time will go to the families of policemen affected by 26/11. And of course, all newspapers and tv channels re-discov...