Me an Enigma..................

Salman Khan - "couldn't pass the buck "

2006-04-12T11:00:00.000-07:00

The verdict is out and Salman Khan has been sentenced for five years of rigorous imprisonment for killing a black buck late last decade in Jodhpur ....... AND the judgment according to me seems absolutely fair.

Has the sentence been a bit too harsh ????? NOT AT ALL ... The fact that he was proven guilty of poaching an endangered species would mean that he is given some punishment .... And considering that he did it twice would mean that he punishment should be a severe one that would mean he doesn't do it again the rest of his life.

We have a number of high profile "Hunters " in our country who expect to get away with their crime thanks to their celebrity status. We have had a big hue and cry from the film fraternity claiming that Salman was paying a price for being famous... Surely he has to. The fact that you are a public figure makes it all the more important that you do the right things and set examples. These members of the film fraternity don't have a problem when they get laurels for their actions.... But when they they have brickbats thrown at them for being wrong, they are grieved. Epitome of hypocrisy!!!!

The court took 7 years to give a judgement ..... Thats the pace at which any case would move for any common man ..... So where is the so-called "discrimination".

The fact is famous and popular people have to conduct themselves in a much more responsible manner in public because their actions will be monitored and scrutinised. That’s the price you pay for being a celebrity.

One of them commented that punishment for killing an animal is 5 years and that for a killing a human being ( Jessica lall) was going Scot free ... but that idiot did not realise that it was one among them ( Shayan Munshi) who turned hostile in court ... and you have no one from the film fraternity condemning him.

Having said all this its only a matter of time when we will see Salman Khan get a bail and will be free again ..... The fact is that our legal system today sucks big time ... and is all screwed up . Circumstantial evidence is still not given as much importance as it should. The conviction rate in India is as low as 7% . Appalling!!!!!

Unfortunately only the high profile cases are discussed....we have millions of cases involving the common man which go into oblivion .... We may seem to be a very strong country ... but inherently we are very very weak and fragile.

P.S: Having said this its really heartening to see the poor Bishnoi community fight for something that they believe in ..... Thats what gives our country some hope.

Mittal V/s Arcelor - Is It " RACISTance "

2006-02-20T10:41:00.000-08:00

The issue is big .... The companies involved bigger and the resultant company will be the biggest !!!!

Then why is there so much resistance to the concerned merger even before the shareholders have had a say ??? Is the issue a truly racist one?

According to me there might be a certain section which still considers this to be a purely racist issue.... But I think We need to look at this issue in perspective through the eyes of the concerned parties namely the French and the Luxembourg governments who also happen to be shareholers of Arcelor.

The facts that we need to take into consideration.
1) Arcelor Is the second largest steel company in the whole world and is probably the fastest growing Steel Company in the world too .

2) About 30% of the population of Luxembourg work with Arcelor and a lot more who work in companies which depend on Arcelor, which means Arcelor means much more to the country than just another company. Its probably the largest institution in the country of any kind and people tend to look at it as their institution.

3) In France its a huge setup and also has a sizable population working for them.

Under these circumstances it is pretty natural to see the kind of reaction that we are seeing in those respective countries. More than being a Racist issue its also perceived as an attempt by an outsider trying to take over a part of the country's wealth.

How would we Indians feel if tomorrow a Posco or a Nippon steel would bid for Tata steel or If a European company would want to take over Infosys or Wipro.

I am sure we would have pictures of Jamshedji Tata standing with Mahatma Gandhi and laying the stone for the building of Tisco or Narayana Murthy trying to build an Infosys in his one room flat in Bangalore flash on all our TV screens and a huge uproar among the citizens here trying to reason why is it important for Tata steel to remain an Indian company or for that matter an Infosys or a Wipro to stay Indian.

This will not be restricted to the Shareholders of those companies alone.

The same may not be the case if An XYZ company was taken over. Similarly I think the reaction there is also a testimony of how much more Arcelor means to them although its just a company.

The racist undertone is probably there but surely it is not as much as it is made out to be ... and who are we to talk about racism??? We need to remember we also have people in this country who think Sonia Gandhi cannot be the prime minister of this country as she is a "Foreigner".

If we measure if with the same yardstick I am sure Its more a Resistance than Racistance . :)

PS: I Admire Mittal to make such a bid though .... You require loads of money and some Balls of steel oops Mittal Steel i guess to do so :).

Sania Vs Maria .........

2005-09-06T10:11:00.000-07:00

The came .... They played .... and they conquered...

Well.... The men folk couldnt have asked for better ....... We had a treat on our hands ...... and a treat it was ...... the colourful apparels to the dangling earings ..... to the powerful groundstrokes all were rightly pitted against each other ........ But the scoreline was a bit of a dampner .

Well we always knew it was going to be tough for Sania trying to beat Maria Sharapova and it was .

But yah it definately was refreshing to see an Indian there crushing forehands and backhands .... and doing well in the ATP tour.She surely has the potential ....... and with a better second serve and a bit more consistency am sure she will be a big force to reckon with .

lastly... Kudos to Andre Agassi ....... He truly has a lion's heart .... the man just goes on and on ........ A true true champion ..... he has reached the fourth round ...... am sure still has the heart to go the whole distance ...... A true Legend .

The other disappointment apart from the scoreline was the half screen advertisement by Tata tea ...... It surely was the last thing that people wanted to see .

And the next morning ..... thanks to the hangover of last night ...had a cup of tata tea and then had a bad day at the office ..... :(:(.It surely was a dampner ;).

I love tennis ... Rather have started loving it now ;)

Spare our Defence forces ..............

2005-08-11T11:12:00.000-07:00

The highest pride and honour of any country is its territorial integrity ....... and it will always remain so. Thanks to our defence forces today inspite of two hostile neighbours, we are living ..... and are living a fairly comfortable life.

I have always ...... looked up to the defence forces and have respected the integrity of our soldiers and will always continue to do so ............ well you will surely have bad apples in a basket of apples ... and the armed forces are not too different ....and you get to hear these ghastly stories of black sheeps in the military as well ...... but I think by and large most people who are in the defence are proud of what they are.

It was however shocking to see and hear the petroleum scandal that came out where instead of petrol and diesel , they were supplied water .... Its a shame that people in charge of this even thought of doing something like this !!!!!!

Didnt they realise that it was people's life at stake and the country's prestige that they were playing with ?????

Well We all know that corruption is the second most rampant thing in our country ..(next to filth) but to see this spineless act where you start making money on the basic fuel for the army is a bit too much to digest. Where have the concience of people gone ????? Sell Ur country's prestige for some money ?????? and we talk about being proud Indians !!!!!!

Well after petrol there is substandard wood too ... and you still dont know what more to follow ...... I would like to believe that the above incident is an aberration but looking at the frequency of scandals coming out ..... Its getting a bit difficult.

On one end when we have a war like Kargil ... we see a lot of public outcry and sympathy .... but then after everything is over ....... things are back to the same old state.

We can feel proud taking names like A.P.J Abdul Kalam , Swami Vivekananda ... Vikram Sarabhai, Sachin Tendulkar ,L.N Mittal etc ...... but if our country still fails to instill that feeling of selfpride amongst some of us then we are no way even close to being great country that we think we are . Yes it is our fault ... when i say the country ..... It s all of us ...... Surely Things have seriously gotten wrong somewhere.

Our government surely can help by increasing the pay scales in the defence forces .... They surely can....... The families of the soldiers need money as much as anyone of us civilians ........ we eed to remember that they are also doing a job in the end ..... and yah if U need resources to do that ...TAX US ....... I am sure nobody will cringe if you put forth the right argument ..... We all want a happy and proud soldier.

And for our Defence forces ....... A lot of us still look up to you all as heroes ........ Its the best honour one can have to be associated with guarding the nation's territorial integrity...... A soldier has his identity .... Thanks to his uniform ........ And am sure you guys realise this ............. Bcoz there are a lot of people in this country who wanted to wear that uniform but were not as fortunate and priviledged to wear them.

2005-08-03T13:00:00.000-07:00

Smouldering thoughts of the past ......

A warped mind ......

A burning desire deep within ......

Smoked emotions finding a way out ....

Obscure vision ....

Fearing the Unknown.......

and A ray of hope ......

Thats a sphinx .... an enigma ......

2005-08-02T11:24:00.000-07:00

My Mind ........

Vast ...Complex , ... and impatient ....

abstract ... and weird ....

Spilling with ideas ......

exploring in all directions....

Mad that it is .....

Difficult to comprehend ...... changing all the time.

As they say .... The sky is the limit.

Catastrophe all the way .........

2005-07-29T08:47:00.000-07:00

The rain god, the earth and the fire god made their point ...... so did our chief minister and prime minister ........ Our chief minister quoted " We can do something only if the rain co-operates with us !!! ". ( I always felt his biggest plus point was that he never speaks ..... but then he did this time )

Our prime minister on his visit to Mumbai said ..... "Our planning to deal with natural disasters needs a drastic change ".

Well!! How many times have we heard this before ???? According to what I can recollect we have had at least 6-7 natural disasters in all forms across the country and every time we hear the same thing ...... its kinda gotten predictable.

It might be true that we cannot do much about it ..... When nature vents its fury on us .. and also compounded from the fact that We dont seem to learn from our mistakes ..............But then why make these statements ?????

These statements emanate when you speak for the sake of speaking ..... and to see someone like Dr Manmohan Singh do the same thing is really sad ...... maybe in politics it really doesn't matter how good u are ... looks like it makes everyone the same .

And our media .... rather sticking to reporting the facts are getting into the habit of creating more hysteria and melodrama about the whole thing.

How many times after a rail accident or any other mishap have we seen these TV reporters stick their microphone out in front of the face of those injured and semiconscious souls ... and ask the most idiotic and dumbest of questions.

The reporting of the BHN Rescue operation was no different ....... One Insane and dumb ( Yes insane and dumb ) reporter asks one survivor .... How did u feel when the platform was on fire and when you were told to jump out ????? Whom all did you remember ????

How would it feel when one is 80- 100 metres above sea level and the only chance of survival is jump into the sea with the float jacket on!!! I am sure U don't need to be a Sigmond Freud to guess what would be going through a human brain during such times!!!

I think the reporters under the guise of reporting news do some absolutely crazy stuff!!! And this surely was not reporting news .....I think the reporters should use more discretion and act a bit responsibly before doing these outrageous "reporting". We see the news because we want news ..... minus the melodrama please !!!!!!!!!

But yah among all the pandemonium and panic ...It really is heartening to see the people of Mumbai who came out to help the unknown fellow mumbaikar and saw to it that the true spirit of the city lives on ...

The city is known as the city that never sleeps ...... and on that ghastly tuesday and wednesday ..... it surely didn't .....

On a lighter note : I think we shud have had the Stanchart Marathon a week from today ...We would have lots of winners and the kenyan who won the marathon this year would have come the last ......

The Male bashing syndrome ...........

2005-07-24T06:55:00.000-07:00

Well one thing that I happen to notice nowadays in the Media (all forms) is the increase in the amount of Male bashing thats happening . Be it the electronic media or the print media the trend seems to be the same ...... and no signs of it changing.

Well the amount of adjectives used and the intensity of the language used just seems to increase and it is very unlikely that you wont notice it .

Well.... the fact is that We men are ourselves responsible for all the flak that we recieve ...... and some of them just dont have any remorse over it .

However ........ the fact that is highlighted in all those Male bashing arguments is that the "distinctively male" spineless attitude is attributed to the fact that " THEY ARE MEN " .

The fact is.... We are men ....... i am not justifying our attitude ... true that its a dirty man's world out there ..... and the fact is a lot of us want it to change .

What I have to say is a lot has been spoken about men and their attitude and we have all the talk of women's lib coming in every now and then ..... and what we see is all the Women Lib organisations and their representatives come on and do the same old male bashing in every possible way....... at every given oppurtunity ..... and this is what has been happening for quite some time now..

The fact remains that the things are gradually changing and we would all agree that things today are much better than what it was 10 years ago and the reason for the change is the fact that we have seen women take initiatives and coming out on tops in such a man dominated society ........ the contribution af all the so called male bashing according to me is Nil towards this change and if anybody who deserves this credit is that part of Women fraternity who proved things by acting and not talking ......

Its kinda gotten monotonous to see the same old argument everytime you put on the television set ..... and listen to the same content ......... in different versions ...Its time we realise that the way to go surely not ranting and raving about how the world is treating you ....... rather what do we do to bring about the desired change .

The fact remains that the Women fraternity is a very dominant force in todays world ........ and everyone knows it .

The better way to win a race is to run faster rather than to shoot down your opponents ......

I hope the Women's Lib movement understands this ..... better late than never .....

The bleary syllogism

2005-07-23T12:29:00.000-07:00

Every year We have the Government of India felicitating the highest tax payers in the country ……… We have the Shahrukh Khans and the Sachin Tendulkars line up and receive awards …… What did they do ????? ….They paid tax proportionate to their income. … Don’t I do the same thing??????

Well I always thought that It was a duty of any person residing and earning in that country to pay taxes as prescribed by the law of that land …… and Since when on earth have we started felicitating people who do things that they are supposed to do ??? SOMETHING THAT IS THEIR DUTY!!!!!! OR ISN’T IT???

In our country rather than punishing those who don’t pay tax … and take stringent action against them.. You felicitate tax payers who are anyways supposed to do it??? This is absurd !!!!!!

I am not some tax expert … in fact I don’t understand any taxes …. But you don’t need to be one to find out such dumb discrepancies in our system.

Maybe the words 'duties' and 'rights' are only limited to our social science text books …..

The deadly duo --Mallika and the Media

2005-07-18T02:35:00.000-07:00

The most ridiculous thing that has ever happened is our media reporting what Miss Mallika Sherawat has to say about herself ….. Our country definitely has much bigger issues to report on Rather than what one "Self proclaimed sexiest Indian" has to say …. On how good she would be in bed or what her bra size is ?? And she goes on rattling outrageous " BOLD" statements one after the other as if its a crime to keep quite anytime .

I don’t understand why would men need to bother to know her Bra size after listening to her …....

To add to this they also report what she wore at the Cannes festival …...(Is anybody bothered??? ) ..Pretty dumb and disgusting .

Statement 1 : “Men talk to my boobs ….” ( can it get dumber????)

I am sure they would prefer talking to your boobs because … they know that would not give a reply …..With you I am sure … you will talk back …. Its safer to talk to your boobs I guess ….

Statement 2 : “ Rekha taught me how to seduce men ….. "

Well …… not with words for sure..…….. because the minute you start talking, men would rather get reduced and disappear ……

Statement 3 : “ I am the kissing queen of my country”

Oh My My……… What is that ???? When was the cornation done ???? But surely I would agree Men would rather kiss you than talk to you … atleast while kissing your mouth wouldnt be doing the talking .......

Statement 4 : “ I am taking roles which are of substance”

Well I guess you got your English wrong Miss MS…. The roles that you take reduce you to a mere substance …… I am sure that’s what U meant …..

And the grand Finale ....( A shocker)

I am a very simple .... and straight forward like any other Haryanvi girl.....

Forgive the state please ............. Is Mr Chautala and Mr Hooda listening ????

And yah surely more to come ….. Watch this space ...

A la foot in mouth disease ............ No cure in this world .

Well.... if her job is to gain coverage ..she is playing her cards absolutely perfectly ...... but then the flip side is that the same media will hit back when you have morphed MMS' doing the rounds with your look alikes ..... Well just as the Media makes money trying to print the outrageous statements of yours ... they surely wont let go the moolah when its there to be made .... No matter at what cost ......

Well ...... you cant have the cake and eat it too ...... .

I hope she occupies more Blog spaces rather than newspaper headlines …… Seriously !!!!!!!! *wink*

Can Men Cry ????????????

2005-07-09T11:06:00.000-07:00

This is probably one of the most insane topics that have ever been Debated upon ?????

Can Men Cry ?????

Ofcourse they can !!!!!!!! At the end of day its is an emotion which is not restricted to a particular sex .... and he too has been given the ability to emote!!!!! So why not ????

"Hey cmmon dont cry !! Be a MAN " How many times have we heard people come up with such a stupid statement ????? Its Outrageously Stupid and baseless .... Where on earth is it written that Crying is a feminine emotion or rather Not crying is extremely Masculine ?????

Men can laugh with their mouth wide open making the most weirdest of noises ... but cant cry !! Why ???? It is a sign of weakness !!!!! Men are to be Stronger than women , so they shudnt cry !!!!!

An equally stupid and debauchinly moronic statement because it hase some of the most baseless assumptions in history. Who says crying is a sign of weakness???? Nobody knows ....

and MEN ARE STRONGER THAN WOMEN ....... who said ?? A screwed up inference this is ..... Surely cant get worse.

Well we have been given the power to emote ... to express ourselves ... not to compete and prove points to people ...... As long as we are comfortable with what we are doing I think its is fine .... and yah what makes life wonderful is the going through the whole basket of emotions ..... and not make vague assumptions and come to preposterous conclusions ....

let the world emote ..... for a man's sake .

To plan or not to plan ..........????????

2005-06-28T10:28:00.000-07:00

"Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans" This is what one wise man had to say ........ But yah the whole world seems to ignore him .... and goes on planning to make further plans .........leaving a handful of nonentities like me .

Never understood the Funda of planning........ Bcoz at the end of the day its not for nothing that you have words like ' Destiny" and "fate" in the dictionary .:D:D. We all use them don't we ???? * Evil Grin*

Yah ....... the idea is probably ...... Always plan something that you dont want to happen........ But then why spend sooo much money on it ????? Be busy making plans and let life happen the way it is .......

Everyone right from our Intelligent corporate world ..... to our politicians ...... to our Indian cricket team ... to George W bush ... all plan .( yah George W Bush Also plans :D:D:D) and strangely so they all spend a sizable amout of money doing this ...... with a higher budget for some back up plan . Well if things happened as per plans then why do you need a backup plan ???

Some huge corporates happen to have a Planning and Implementation team :D:D:D ........... yah ... some people are paid to be a part of it ... and one of my friends happens to be in one of those teams :D:D. He was planning to become a doctor but ended up becoming an engineer and even after seeing his track record continues to plan...... Luckily for him not for himself .

He planned a Bachelors party for us three weeks in advance ........... and we ended up realising on reaching the bar that it was a DRY DAY . * sigh*

What is Planning and Implementation ????? Well its making a plan ... and acting according to it so as to produce the desired results.... But then thats what i do too .......... plan and act just that the time difference between the two actions is a fraction of a second and.........then what happens ...... I am called Impulsive ????? *unhappy*

One wise man quotes ......... "You can never plan the future by the past." .........

and another one quotes "If anything is certain, it is that change is certain. The world we are planning for today will not exist in this form tomorrow." ????

Then what is the bloddy basis on which you start planning ?????? Bolo bolo???

Our cricket team planned to win cricket matches .................... still planning ...The last time they didnt plan they won the world cup .

Dhirubhai Ambani planned to make Reliance one among the world's top 10 companies ..... and what happened???? His son's fought and are now planning to make their own group the largest ?????

George W Bush planned to catch Osama bin laden and smoke him out of the holes ..................... and is now planning to dig holes for himself to sit and smoke.

Planning would mean ... ..... trying to make things happen ..... expecting things to happen in a certain way ...... But when things are going to happen the way they are and we are going to talk about fate and destiny over Beer ...... Why plan ?????

Anyways ... if somebody thinks this is a sad blogpost ... Its because I planned to write it ........ I told you it just doesnt work. * Smile*

Disclosure: I am absolutely drunk , high and totally TUNN while writing this blog post...... So take this blogpost with a bit of chakna.* Wink *

Love.........

2005-06-25T14:38:00.000-07:00

How often does it happen that when we realise we love someone ,He or she is somebody elses……. We feel so miserable …. But have to live with the truth ….

There would come a time when we have to stop loving someone not because that person started hating us but because we found out that they'd be happier if we let them go...
This would be the most difficult decision in life ……… but will be the best decision …….

It's so funny and ironical how we set qualifications for the right person to love, while we know at the back of our minds that the person we truly love will always be an exception…….. We try to convince ourselves about something that we don’t believe in ……

If someone comes into your life and becomes a part of you but for some reasons he/she couldn't stay, don't cry too much... just be glad that your paths crossed and somehow he/she made you happy even for a while..…..There are some things that we never want to let go of….. people we never want to leave behind.., but we need to keep in mind that letting go is not the end of the world, but rather it is the beginning of a new life.…….

Very important ................Just because someone doesn't love you the way you want him or her to, doesn't mean they don't love you…………….

The essence of a relationship is when your love for each other is greater than your need for each other.….. When the need for each other is greater its emotional dependence/attachment and not love.

And lastly What would you do if the only person who could make you stop crying is the person who makes you cry...?

Its kinda Strange and weird ……. But yah When we think of it the moment You are willing to make your life miserable to make someone elses life happy then you know you are getting there ……

Lastly............ To tell yourself to forget someone whom you have loved is like telling yourself to love some one whom you have never met .

Disclaimer: Contents posted need not be inspired by any event in the past ..... :)

A stroll down memory lane ... :)

2005-06-14T07:37:00.000-07:00

It happened with me. Very recently …… in a third country when I decided I should enjoy a Beer looking at the river flowing in front of me … little did I realise that I would re-live me life all over again …..

With a can of beer in my hand and watching the mighty river flow in front of me ……. It just happened that I was in one of those moods when ur last 25 years started flashing right in front of your eyes ……. It was absolutely nostalgic and it actually makes u think ….. It really does…

Remembered those days when U in your nursery went and opened the teachers refrigerator to see whats there to eat …. To the embarrassment of Ur parents .. trying to explain to the teacher ….. that they don’t starve me at home ….. Well I remembered my walk back home where I was justifying my action to mom … saying I wanted to see what was kept there and I did not want to eat anything .

After that was a stage when I was in my K.G class where I used to come home with the finest collection of ribbons,hair clips and rubber bands that all the pretty girls in my class wore and as a connoisseur would select only the best to embarrass my mom all over again when those parents would keep pointing that out at the end of every day ….. :)). That was one amazing stage in ur life …..

Then you came to a stage when U had to study ……. That was a pain ….. and u tried anything and everything that would help you get away from Ur books ……. Ur friends meant the world to you and they could never be wrong …… U fought with your parents when the disagreed with your friend’s views …..

Also all those times in school when the results of the examinations were declared ….. Was always an average- below average student all my life and would be standing in the last bench and clapping everytime the awards were given out for the outstanding students ….. But yah I must confess … a lot of times I used to dream about me going and receiving such an award and the whole school applauding ….. Unfortunately that never happened…. :).

Also all those elocution competitions where I was the last minute replacement because the Mr someone did not want to take part in the last minute …. No matter what I blabbered in all of them after I forgot what I had to say mid way through the elocution ….. and all those essay competitions where I looked around seeing what others were doing rather than write the essay myself ……. Obviously never won any of those competitions … but yah participated in lots of them ……… Again would end up applauding the winners all the time with a hope somewhere inside that one day I would be up at the dias receiving something ….. I just wanted to know how it felt being there …… Didn’t happen again …

Clearly remembered my 10th standard results when I was sure I would fail and was looking at the various options that i had of breaking out the news to my parents …… ( My marathi prof just had reaffirmed that fact that I could never pass my Marathi exam and he wasn’t to blame as I was really bad ). But then as they say Miracles do happen and I passed with distinction …….. My parents didnt know how their son got so intelligent suddenly ... asked me if i got hit somewhere in my head when the exams got close :p ….. they were absolutely elated ….. So was I .....more to see them happy rather than my marks ….. It was mysterious but I didn’t want to unearth the mystery … rather wanted to ride my luck ….. I remember how I tried to Shine marofy with my marks ….. :p.

Also that stage in school when u did everything to impress the prettiest girl in school and she never even looked at you ….. Every time she glanced at you by mistake u felt she was in love with you only to realise that she glanced at the whole class :(…. I clearly remembered the time once when she held my hands and I was on the top of the world ….. :).

Then in college it was when you were in love with the concept of being in love ….You are so much in awe of that person that you tend to not see the weak points at all …. She was the Miss perfect …… I remember how there was this girl whom you thought was the princess of your dreams .. and everytime you spoke with her she just got that much more perfect …… only to realise later that she was with someone else. Was heartbroken for a couple of days and then back to normal ……looking for another babe ……. And then she was better than the earlier one for sure ...

Also my engineering college days when We used to have a ball …… all those days when we pooled money to go out for movies and daaru parties ….. and all those nights when we were awake trying to complete assignments and studying for the exams …… Still remember those days when my results were declared …. Of all my semesters … just that the story was the same …….. I used to fail while most my friends passed …. It felt very very bad ….. felt like dirt ….Now I had to shell out money for my KT exams and study all over again …I used to cry during those nights with my head dug deep inside my pillow so that nobody could hear me .... . Those feelings can never be described .... :) But yah still hoped that I would some day boast of a first class……

And yah it happened Hurrah …… in my 7th semester I passed with a first class :)) ….. the whole class was stunned …… so was I …… I had done it !!! …… I could see that lost smile on my parent’s face again ……I swelled in pride ........ It was truly a feeling that I cherish even now ….. but yah that was a flash of brilliance :p:p …… it didn’t happen too often …. ( but this incident still inspires me to dream big )

Then the stage When you passed out it was the time when you didn’t know what future had in store for you ….. people said life was a bitch outside …… With my academic record ( a pass class) life would be a bitch suffering with piles..... ( couldnt think of anything els :p ) Some of my friends got placed in campus placements…. Some got jobs outside ….. I attended interviews and gave tests .. but in all cases got rejected at the last stage when it came to my academic record …… I never knew that it was sooo much of a disadvantage . There was this stage in life when you felt soooo frustrated with yourself …. But knew deep inside that the only way out was to keep pushing …… hoping that something would happen ….. realised that having come all the way and giving up was a bad idea … might as well keep trying ….

It was that stage where you felt ashamed asking your parents for money ….. so never went out with friends and came out with some lame excuse for not attending get-togethers …. Never felt hungry at get togethers if u did attend them. Kept praying everynite before sleeping that some Miracle happens ….. there was a stage when u begin to start doubting urself ….. But always knew if that ever happened than even god wouldn’t save you .

It was then I realised how all those events changed the way you happened to look at life ….. and also how it helped you get stronger ….. It made you realise the worth of all the wonderful people that you met along the way …… and how each one of them impacted ur life in their own way ….. Also all those friends that you made along the way ….. and every meeting was such a worthwhile experience. Some people did walk away but yah at the end of the day ..... they did make an impact somewhere .

I realised what a wonderful family i had and thanked god for giving me such wonderful people as mine .... My mom is the best but i cant say the same about myself as a son .... :)

Also remembered those times when you thought life is soo Hunky dory and so very perfect only to find life hand you one tight slap on your face and bring you back to reality .... :) .But that doesnt stop me from dreaming as dreams are nobody's monopoly. :).

I realised what I was today was a culmination af all those events and the effects each of them had on me. Even if one of those numerous things hadn’t happened I would have been somewhat different…. Also wondered how you change.... as life goes along …

Also wondered if I had a chance to change anything thats happened in my life.... would I ???
AND my answer was a resounding NO!!!!! ….

That EVENING was actually one of the best evenings of my life where memories just kept flowing and they just flashed in front of ur eyes …… some brought about a smile on your face while some made your eyes moist ….. Those memories were something that I knew I will never forget till the day I die …..

At this time just happened to have a glance at the watch and it was almost 2 hrs and the can of beer was empty long ago …… I realised that I HAD TO MOVE ON ……

Whats in a name.............

2005-05-30T05:59:00.000-07:00

" A Rose by any other name would smell as sweet " ........... and yah " A Southie in the north without any surname would be as confused "

How often has it happened that Your name becomes a problem ???????? .................. Yah it does ....... especially if you happen to be a south Indian ....... who thinks it isnt necessary to put your surname ..............

I happen to be one ... without a surname .......... becoz my parents thought i neednt have one like numerous other South Indians ........... But yah that doesnt mean we bring down the size of our names ........ We still have big long names which will give you not only our history but also our geography .... * Proud Beaming smile* .

World over we have ppl following the First name Middle name last name format ......... Till the Intelligent South Indian man read the proverb ... " Winners dont do different things .... But they do things differently " and happened to experiment it with his name .......

What happened was the proverb in that regard changes to " Whiners dont do different things they do things differently" ..... yah ... whiners is what we become trying to make the world understand that not all people in the world have the same nomenclature Format. I wish we were some chemical compounds ....... naming would be that much easy.

After having negotiated school wthout too much problem....... the fight started when i was in college ........ Right from filling the admission form to getting the examination forms ... the debate over my surname or rather the absence of it would be a matter of Dispute..... thanks to the numerous guys whom i met in college and the university .......... Most of them from some Satara or elsewhere ...... But yah all of them did have a surname like Pothdhuke ...... Pile....... Wagmare ......Nakthode etc. The conversation between Mr Potdhuke and me would go on as follows ...

MP: Aap ka naam kya hai??????
EC: V. S***** K*********
MP : Poora naam .....
EC: Wohi pora naam hai sir .
MP : Aisa kaisa naam hai ????? Surname kya hai ???????

Here I drink a bottle of water ..... bcoz i know i'll need it ........ * a frustrated sigh *

EC : Surname nahi hai sir ......
MP : Surname kaisa nahi hai ........ K******* surname hai kya ??????

EC: Nahi sir ..... Woh mera naam hai ... * Perplexed Look*
MP: Aur S*****?????
EC: Woh bhi mera naam hai ....
MP: Kya ?????? Tho daddy ka naam kya hai ??????
EC: V**************

MP: Woh aapke naam me nahi hai ????
EC: Hai na sir " V" ... Woh mera initials hai ...* A broad smile * ( Hoping that would cut some ice and solve his queries) .

MP: Initials kya hota hai ?????
EC: Sir .. woh mera daddy ka naam ka Short Form hai .....

Mr Potdhuke is now as confused as me ......... he has no clue what I am talking about ........ nor do I have any idea how to make him understand !!!!! Time for a deep Breath !!!!!!!!!

EC: Sir Hum log south ke hain...... Wahhan Hum logon ka Surname nahi rakhthe hain ... Koi koi log .
MP: Kyon nahi rakhte???? ( Actually a very valid question ....... To which i have no answer )

EC: Hum logon ka naam bada bada rehta hai na iske liye ........ Aap Logon ka form me itna jagah nahi rehta hai na iske liye ..... * A tired smile*
Jaise APJ Abdul kalaam ......... Hamara president .......... VVS laxman ..... Apna cricket player ...

Mr Potdhuke is now sort of convinced ............ he says theek hai form Bharo ...... and there I am tired but happy the way the conversation ended ...... Success...!!!!!!! *GLEE*

Also wondered why do our Bollywood film heroes have ...... Malhotras and Kapoors and Chopras and Jindals as surnames in their films ........... and all Villians happen to have names like Reddy and Anna and swami . * Frown on the face * * Not so happy *

In one movie .... they even gave Prabhudeva , the surname Malhotra ...... Dont remember the movie......... I nearly fell off the chair ......... he would have been the darkest Malhotra in the entire Milky way galaxy .......... But yah thats how unfair the world is.

The only guy who had a south indian name in a bollywood movie was Kamal Hassan in Ek duje ke liye ......... " Vasu " ( Not as in the smelly guy ) That was his name .....
* a broad smile * but yah in the end he died .......... * sobbing * .

SO yah ..... Learnt some lesssons ....... If you wanna live in the north without too many problems ...... manage urself a surname ...... And yah if you wanna try being a hero in movies then ..... have names like Ramachandran Malhotra ...... or Chandrababu Kapoor ... Might help .......

Moral of the story :

A rose by any other name would smell as sweet ....... but a Southie with a surname would live life much easier .... * WINK* .

My Opinion.................

2005-05-25T10:22:00.000-07:00

How often... when there is a discussion on issues happening around us ...have we come across the cliched words " Social Norms " or "Socially Acceptable Norms" .

Tried to understand what that ever meant for quite sometime and still haven't been able to figure out ?????????

Whats is a Society????

Its You, me and various other people across the spectrum that form the society and

What are Socially acceptable Norms?????

Ideally anything that is acceptable to all of us .

But when we all have different tastes right from food to our choice of colour to every other thing .... Is it possible to have something very singular and objective which can be defined as socially acceptable.!!!!

Practically Impossible as there can never be a consensus on all issues that concern us as people will have an opinion of their own which they consider important. So what socially acceptable norms are we talking about ?????

Eating Paan and Gutkha and spitting in public places are socially so very acceptable …. that we need Stringent laws to curb something like this …Where as on most finicky issues … like putting ur arm around your girlfriend's shoulder or holding hands with them would be socially not acceptable.

Also do wonder what do people mean by “ This is against our culture”.

This is against what culture?????? This word “culture” is often misused by people more than it has been used . The so-called Indian cultural code that people talk about is most often drafted by themselves, according to their convenience.

Let us acknowledge people wont do something that they are not comfortable doing.. and something that they consider wrong.

Lets not question people's intelligence. Please !!!!!

Also happened to read some articles in various forums on the Internet ... and the print media about the horrendous rape incident that happened at Marine drive in Mumbai ...... and was shocked to read certain peoples views on the same .

Some of them believe that rapes happen because of the "manner in which women dress i.e. " Provocatively dressed " and " dressed suggestively " .

Hey ppl ..... Cmmon ...... How do you justify 65-70 year olds and 4- 5 year olds getting raped in various parts of the country who surely don't dress up in the so called "provocative" or "suggestive" manner . Also Who decides how much clothes is adequately clothed??????

Going by that argument ........ MEN should be raped at every nook and corner in the city......... At any point at any corner in the city of Mumbai you will always find at least a couple of men topless on the road.

I sometimes wish MEN GET RAPED ..... I really wish they do .Just to break the different myths and illogical conclusions people come too.

And whats disgusting but not surprising is that all the people who share this school of thought .....( It should rather be this nursery of thought .. am sure the nursery kids could draw better logic) happen to be men.

Some people blamed the fact that parents allowed their daughters to go out with their boyfriends....... as the reason for Rapes !!!!!

I don't want to even comment on that ........................... * crying*

With respect to this particular incident some people blamed the overstressed and underpaid jobs of the cops for the reason for the rape .?????

And it for getting these very jobs that people pay bribes and a lot of people wouldn't want promotion thanks to the perks that they enjoy with the job ??????? This is an excuse according to me ...

Does the court of Law ever think ...... what made a serial killer or a Gangster get in to his profession before giving him a death sentence ????

Lets agree that whatever the circumstances the people who commit these horrendous and brutal acts are mentally sick people ..... Cant justify their actions whatever their reasons or excuses rather ....They are MENTALLY SICK PEOPLE . Please don't try to get in absurd arguments ..... to analyse what would have contributed to them commit the crime.

And please ......... Don't blame the victims for gods sake .......... Put yourself in their place before you make such statements .

For all those who think Men don't get raped because they are physically more stronger than Women ...........

On a lighter note .........

I have just one thing to say ....... During Sex Women can have Multiple Orgasms ..... Men cant ...... Surely there is some message in there .... End of the argument .PERIOD. :)

The Middle Class NRI ...............

2005-05-21T05:50:00.000-07:00

How often have we seen NRI’s purchasing Everything from India … before going back … and stuffing their bags with Indian stuff … Its RIDICULOUS .

On one end they claim to be in much wealthier economies and have better quality of lives ….. but yes what they need to live there INDIAN TOOTH BRUSHES..!!!!!!!

Everything from Underwears to hair dyes to tissue papers are bought from India ……. Get serious guys …….. All the talk and Jazz that they give about being developed economies are for the ears ……. For their Bum they still need INDIAN UNDERWEARS .!!!

They have an inbuilt calculator in their heads which would go on a X 44 mode and that figure would bring a BIG GLEE to their faces …… “Hey India is damn cheap man !!!!!”

Well ….. Not as CHEAP AS YOU … I would wanna retort .

A day before they leave ...don’t dare get into their rooms ……. U would be under a mountain of Undergarments waiting to be stuffed into those big suit cases …AGAIN BOUGHT FROM INDIA

Hey U gonna Open a Store there I ask ??????? Nopes that’s till I return after two years

I say …”You must be Kidding man !!!!” NOPES

He replies …” Undies cost 4 dollors there in the USA … They are expensive .”

Everywhere they go ….. and whatever they wanna buy …. The X 44 Calculator is on… You know the same thing in the US would cost 3 US $.

I wish you could buy some SHAME for those 3 $ ... Some that would last your lifetime…. Else you would want to buy them from India again.

Its absolutely Ironical that … no matter how much they earn … The mentality of converting everything into rupees still remain …… No matter which part of India they come from .

Guys grow up ….. All the talk about purchasing power parity , a stronger currency and everything else dosent make sense …… If people plan to hoard tissue papers at their residences for the next two years.

And the worst thing would be in case they happened to run out of their stock before they return …….

“Hey My friend Ram is going to India ….. Will tell him get me my VIP underwears from there …….”

Next time you don’t get your stock of VIP under wears …. U know whom to blame.

PSST: No offence or Malice Intended at anybody...... Its just an opinion :):)

Getting My passport ...........

2005-05-19T09:52:00.000-07:00

If there is anything in this world that can be difficult to prove to the world is that you are an Indian citizen ...... Thanks to some of our Government servants sitting there at the various passport offices across the country ....... Thanks to their amazing ability to be rude consistantly to one and all irrespective of age ,sex, caste or creed.... they perfectly display the spirit of equality.

I happened to be one of the unfortunately privilidged ones having to go through the religious process of ascertaining my nationality to the world.What greets you when you enter the passport office is a group of equally perplexed faces standing in different queues not knowing which queue would take you where. But yes after some questions here and there( In Marathi ) the watchman agrees to tell you which queue you would need to take .

After about half an hours wait ..... you enter the sanctum sanctorum where there is this female who would ask you to show your application forms ... They call her the SCRUTINY OFFICER but her designation should have been the REJECTIONARY OFFICER as all she does is rejects 8/10 applications and consistantly maintains the ratio.

After having examined you first and after she is convinced she needs to see your application she happens to look at your application and count the number of enclosures along .... If its anything less than 10 then .... she gives you a BIG WIDE GRIN and gives you the good news that You need to come again with atleast ten documents .

Some of the details that they would like is
1) The colour of the underwear that you are wearing when you submit the application and the colour that you would wear when you collect it back and the photograph of the two attested by a gazetted officer.
2) The place of birth of your grand father and his weight when he was born.
3) Documentary evidence to show that your dad is a male and your mom a female .

However there are some lucky few guys called as agents who are welcomed with their arms stretched out .....

And yah the closest that you could enjoy that priviledge is to look like an agent with golden teeth and lotsa gutkha in your mouth and speak some absolutely fluent Marati.

Well these PP office officials have perfected the art of making peoples life easy ....( theirs in this case ).

After having gone through the ordeal of making numerous futile trips to the PP office ... taking photo copies.... signing documents ... asking a 100 questions and submitting all the documents ....... Its eventually over ... The APPLICATION.

Just praying that you get your passport on time .... and Yah WITHOUT ANY MISTAKES .... ELSE HISTORY WOULD REPEAT ITSELF........ Take a break for 10 years now .