What I had been following these days

I have written a similar post earlier! But the things I am follwoing have changed. Here is one more.

1) Fifa World Cup 2006:

It's hard to believe, even for me that i have been watching this thing so ardently but it is true!

I have never been interested in so much of sports before. I have always followed only the finals of the world cup! But this time it was from the beginning! Argentina got out of the tournament today. They were my second favs! Let's see what my Fav england does. It will be so monotonous though if it is a brazil/germany final. It will be interesting no doubt, but this has been predicted since long! I don't like these kinds! Anyway, let's keep our fngers crossed.

2) Airline Tickets:
For going home in december, i have to book tickets now. Have contacted numerous people but later boiled down to "Mitra Travel". It would be wrong to say that I didn't have the mitra-mitra funda in my mind at all, but she gave me no special deal, i think rather a bad deal itself! But what to do. Whatever has happneed has happened.

3) IIFA 2006:
I have been desperately waiting for this, though i have no idea why! Was looking for videos on youtube even before it actually happnened. Till date, no site has come up with complete coverage, but here is i think the best part of the show. Rani-Ayesha-Amitabh in black. The hrithik n salman performances were also decent enough.

4)Google Earth/Wiki Maps: This new site is just awesome. Came to know about it just yesterday.and I have been trying to increase their database for information ever since. You have the option there in which u can put a block around a certain place and decribe it. I have been putting blocks around my kolkata house, nagpur house and my school, my KG school etc etc ever since.

Jo Beet gayi so baat gayi

One of my favourite poems, finally collected from the net!

Jo beet gayee so baat gayee

Jo beet gayee so baat gayee

jeevan meiN ek sitaaraa tha
maana woh behad pyaara tha
woh Duub gayaa to Duub gaya
ambar ke aanan ko dekho
kitne iske taare TuuTe
kitne iske pyaare chhuuTe
jo chhuuT gaye fir kahaN miley
par bolo Tuute taaroN par
kab ambar shok manaata hai?

jo beet gayee so baat gayee

jeevan meiN tha woh ek kusum
the us par nitya nichhaawar tum
woh suukh gaya to suukh gaya
madhuvan ki chhaati ko dekho
suukhi iski kitni kaliyaaN
murjhaayee kitni vallariyaaN
jo murjhaayee fir kahaN khilii
par bolo suukhe fuuloN par
kab madhuvan shor machaata hai?

jo beet gayee so baat gayee

jeevan meiN madhu ka pyaalaa tha
tum ne tan-man de Daala tha
woh TuuT gaya to TuuT gaya
madiraalaya ka aaNgan dekho
kitne pyaale hil jaate haiN
gir miTTi meiN mil jaate haiN
jo girte haiN kab uThte haiN
par bolo TuuTe pyaaloN par
kab madiraalaya pachhtaata hai?

jo beet gayee so baat gayee

mridu miTTi ke haiN bane huye
madhu ghaT phuuTa hi karte haiN
laghu jeevan lekar aaye haiN
pyaale TuuTa hi karte haiN
fir bhi madiraalaya ke andar
madhu ke ghaT haiN, madhu pyaale haiN
jo maadakta ke maare haiN
woh madhu luuTa hi karte haiN
woh kachcha peene waala hai
jiski mamta ghaT pyaaloN par
jo sachchhe madhu se jala huaa
kab rota hai chillaataa hai

jo beet gayee so baat gayee

- Harivanshrai "Bachchan"

Dad had a dream

I was talking to Baba (dad) over phone yesterday and he said he suddenly had a dream. I found it real funny and so i mention it here.
In his words- “I was running here and there frantically regarding your admission, mostly with a bagful of money too. And then finally secured admission in some obscure WB private college he meets the director of the college and that person asks, 'aapke bete ko hum kisliye admit kare?' and I replied 'kuch bhi pooch lijiye, use sab kuch aata hai' "

This was his dream, but I think these points to a lot of things. Firstly there are fathers who are overtly interested in what goes on with the son and try to always guide them. And then there are fathers who are happy with a yes answer to the question "bete , sab padhai wadhai theek chal raha hai naa?". Both are pretty irritating but given a choice, i would have loved the first category!
Baba is a blend of both, though acting like the second one, he keeps a close eye on everything!
Thankfully there was nothing that happened as was in the dream, I didn't have to go running around for colleges neither did i have to pay any huge amount as payment seat admit for my college.
But he did run around for my MS admissions. "Baba, i want a statement of finance", " Baba, i want this document faxed to me by 5 today", "baba, i want a CA statement" and numerous such wishes were immediately done!


Anyway, this was the first part of the sapna, analyzing the second part, earlier i thought it was just my father but now i know all fathers of the world are really proud of their siblings!

And another discussion about paying money in some obscure WB college for an engineering admission. Sometimes i have a doubt that is it really worth it, but now looking at the current scenario, I think it does. Keeping even a decent money in mind, you have to rule out all other professions other than Medical, and then news like TCS and Infosys hiring 25000 each during 06-07, it leaves little doubt that these companies will even go to Baba Gop Gapangam Das institute of technology in Jhumri Tallaiya, East UP. (The name is a hypothetical and I guess it is the worst name n place one can have for a college)

So that's it! That was the dream.


HAPPY FATHER'S DAY

Anti-Reservation, My Take

Better late than never! Not getting much ideas to blog in recent past, there is no way i can let 1 go!
But this doesn't mean I am just writing one for the sake of writing!
Here we go!
I am against reservation but unlike many i am not against minorities or backward classes!
I Do believe that backward classes and minorities are still suppressed in India! Villages are no different! We, the e-saavy, blogging youth generally always come from posh metros or the so called small towns which are not small anymore! But what happens in Kalahandi(Orissa), Salekasa (chattisgarh) and the tiny villages in UP n Bihar, we don't know!
From some recent interactions I have come to know that India is still NOT shining in these places and lot many more! Caste discrimination is still at large and really bad in all these places!
For that matter all of us(Indians) are still. How many of us can do an intercast marriage without any eyebrow raise of any of the relatives. IMPOSSIBLE.

Generally all the anti-reservation protesters have this grudge since their admission days! Numerous examples have been written as how that boy didn't get to this institute and all but in this I want to thank my Mom as she had always told me to compete for that 250 seats that is available for you and never see the 500 seats and 50% reservation and this helped me a lot!

During my time in addition to the usual 50% reservation there was 50% reservation on the remaining 50% for girls! It was a big blow for me and I still remember how I cried after the counseling on being admitted to LIT. But never has the thought of blaming it on women or SC/ST came to my mind. And later, a prof in LIT had told that this rule hurts in the beginning but it's a blessing in disguise for the 4 years to follow! You have a 1-1 ratio and chance for a girlfriend is almost assured!

Whatever, i think reservation can't help improving the backward classes as the classes in India are based on socially backward and not economically backward an the two are no longer similar. So the general caste will hate the backward class even more, now in addition to the general hatred for the lower caste, they will hate them more for the undue advantages. So there is no use of the reservation + as no party is opposing the motion, i don't see how it will benefit one particular party!

Lastly, thanks to RDB, the youth is coming up so nicely for something! This was a phenomenon which was lost since independence i guess!

Arundhati says

Finally i got one statement which I have been tryin to express for a long long time but nobody can put t better than she does.
Thanks to my brother who sent me this as a forward:

"..the secret of the Great Stories is that they have no secrets. The Great Stories are the ones you have heard and want to hear again. The ones you can enter anywhere and inhabit comfortably. They don't deceive you with thrills and trick endings. They don't surprise you with the unforeseen.. They are as familiar as the house you live in. Or the smell of your lover's skin. You know how they end yet you listen as though you don't. In the way that you know that one day you will die, you live as though you won't. In the Great Stories you know who lives, who dies, who finds love, who doesn't. And yet you want to know again.

That is their mystery and their magic.."

~Arundhati Roy

CARS-Movie Review

Well, my first movie review!
CARS is an animation and the general indian youth mindset somehow is not used to the concept of atching animations and that too in theater! But i love it!
Anyway, coming to the movie. Pixar is famous for it's 3-D animations and there was no less of it here! The scenic nevada desert and especially the shadows and the mountains and the roadsigns was neautifully done! And as in all cartoons, the eyes had to be of big consequence!
I liked the concept because it was something i found myself related too! It was about Route 66. To know what i feel about route 66, read this.
The story is about how a race car gets lost on it's way to California on i-40 and lands up in a forgotten town which was on Route 66. What happens there is the movie.
Mater, the friend of our hero Lightning McQueen, and Sally his love are just awesome! Somehow i feel even the dubbed hindi movie will be really good! Because i felt Stuart Little was much funnier in Hindi than in English! And they can make this one also.

But i still can't give it any star rating! Because i am already biased towards the movie! So to ask for a good opinion, ask somebody else.