Thursday, October 25, 2007

Gujarat riots, Tehelka Expose

I feel so sad, and to a certain extent guilty, about the Gujarat riots. Tehelka has exposed the fact that Mr. Narendra Modi was behind the riots. But didn’t we all know about that? People may have had doubts about the extent of his involvements but rumors never spread out of thin air, and especially rumors this big (not Rani marrying Aditya, for that matter even the initially debunked rumors about aish and abhishek had some base in it). So Narendra Modi is guilty and in this case, less or more doesn’t matter.

People always tend to think the wrong directions or biased opinions in this case. The learned Muslims know the lesser said the better. The illiterate Muslims do what the Qazis tell them to, who in turn are politically inclined. What depresses me is the opinions that the Hindus have. There are fanatic Hindus who went on describing about the barbaric deaths of the people who were burnt in the train. And they tend to justify the riots based on this presumption. There are a bunch of Anti-Hindu hindus (Yes, there are lot of them), who think that the Godhra Train massacre was also self created by the Hindus just as an opportunity to kill the people. In either of these, people are moving from the depth and gravity of the situation to petty finger pointing.

I have simple views. I believe the first reactions of the people are always true. The fast reactions can generally never be painted. So I do believe that something bad happened in the train. But what I DO believe is no matter what happens anywhere, killing people is never a solution. Even though it is in retaliation of something really disgusting. So I condemn the entire Gujarat riots. I know people will agree with me up to this point. Now I will go further and say that though Modi and a few others who may be responsible for the riots, I will, as a human being, consider it as barbaric as the riots if somebody kills these people. Let the justice take its action. (I firmly believe capital punishment should be banished. There are ways to let people live their entire life in repentance and guilt of a terrible crime than just kill them).

I would like to mention the Grahams Staines death. This may be true that the means Graham Staines adopted to spread the word of Christianity were really of the third degree. But that doesn’t qualify somebody to kill him and his children. Again, I tend to believe it’s not Dara Singh who is alone responsible for this. It must be some rich educated hindu fanatic who brainwashed his mind and made hi commit the murder.

The root of all these become very apparent. Lack of good education which should promote clarity of unbiased thoughts. And as my Mom and Dad say, Rabindranath Tagore has written something about every situation, which appears to be true in this case, I end my blog with some lines which I consider very relevant:

Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way

into the dreary desert sand of dead habit;

Where the mind is led forward by thee

into ever-widening thought and action--

Into that heaven of freedom,

My Father, let my country awake.

Sunday, October 14, 2007

A look at Current Affairs

Let's begin with me. I have shifted my base to Natick, a suburb of Boston to be precise. For a living, I work with a software company, but strangely, it's not the typical software company (Oh so Cliché, but it is. ) And I am happy so far and guess that's important.
It's fall and you can see it best here. People go to other states nearby to see the fall colors. This year I am content with whats happening around me . Trees from all shades of green to Red with orange, yellow in the middle stages. Its too good. And what makes it more wonderful is its not same for all trees. So U just see colored trees at random. Its too good.

Next let's go to the Nobel Peace Prize. Well deserved for Al Gore I would say. He did real good work in creating awareness. The movie which I have not seen and the 07-07-07 world wide concert which I have not been to are just a few good moves. It did put the word in everybody's mind, especially in America who just never think of these kind of consequences. In addition, IPCC was the co-winner. IPCC headed by Rajendra K. Pachauri. I don't know to what extent we Indians need to be proud of that fact? Am not very sure! We may congratulate Rajendra K. Pachauri for ths fact, but it can't be a national pride. The worst of this came out in a Hindustan Times disussion panel where Shahrukh was speaking about rising India and what needs to be done for Globalizing Hindi movies. It was quite natural taht he mentions Oscars/Chak De etc. Suddenly this Nalini Singh jumps and asks why didn't you mention Mr. Pachauri. It seems we are ignoring the achievement. Shahrukh Khan was dumbstruck. Apologized and named Pachauri. But I think nalini Singh proved that she is dumb. But I liked her DD shows and thought she wasa good journalist. 1 heartbreak.

Moving on to Harry Potter and Hogwarts Pandal in Salt Lake, Kolkata. Get what happened from the news. I think what happened was good. Indian should know the extent to which copying is OK. I guess JKR would have herself come down and inaugurated the Pandal if she had been asked to. But these people never thought of that. I think lawsuit was an accident, but the court ruling was the best. Go ahead this time, but be cautious from next time. It is very important.
What I didn't like about the whole episode is the reactions of non-potter lover indians. They think JKR is evil. Greatbong is one of them. He has gone way too much with renaming Hogwarts as HagooWarts. I thought he was a good blogger. Another heartbreak.

Lastly, lets discuss the Rizwanur case. As with most of the murders this one too, though a love story murder failed to catch my eyes which generally go to the right side movie section of rediff, first thing in the morning. I read all about it after going through the Jhumur Bose blog on CNN IBN. My views went for one extreme to the other as I first read the blog and then read the comments. What my views stand is this: Whatever happened (murder/suicide) was sad. The guilty should be punished (I am anti capital punishment though). But now let's move on to the Mom-Dad-Daughter and Rizwanur angle. Its perfectly right for the daughter to fall in love with Rizwan and vice versa. They may decide to marry and nobody should stop them. But it's also perfectly valid for Mom and Dad to oppose the marriage. If one can love somebody for no good reason (which is generally true, love looses its meaning if it is with some motive) there is no rule that nobody can hate him. So it's also perfectly alright that they express their displeasure to their daughter. But it should have stopped at that and the parents laying the condition that if you go ahead, we disinherit you. At this point, the girl should decide what to do, to go with heart or brain . In this case because Rizwanur has good earnings as an animation expert, its not a bad idea to go with love and promptly get out of her family. This may be very hard but had to be done. I guess this is what would have happened in the west. But I don't know why we Indians always go for a compromise. The father thought of talking to the police. Who knows if he hired gundas. This is what is going beyond what is needed. On the other hand, the people would have felt bad even if he just disinherited his daughter. This is bullshit because he can do whatever he wants if daughter goes against his wishes and is over 18. he can have cast/money bias. Can't be helped. All in all, the matter should have been left with just the mom,dad daughter and riz.


Anyway enuf of my views. Eid Mubarak. Happy Navaratri and Durga Puja.

Wednesday, October 03, 2007

The Bunty and Babli age

Rightly depicted in the movie "Bunty aur Babli", this is the age of the small town people as rightly depicted in this article. Dhoni, Pathan, Sreesanth, Amit Paul , Prashant Tamang and most of the Indian Cricket team as well as Indian Idol finalists just strengthen this belief. The IITians are coming from small towns . Mallika Sherawat and Priyanka Chopra are the examples in the tinseltown.

And why am I happy? Because I am a small town guy. And like most of the others I feel a great aversion to the Big City people. The Mumbaikars, the Delhites and the Kolkatans. I do not count Chennai as I haven't seen many Chennites who fall into this hated category. I exclude Bangalore because though there are a lot of people in Bangalore who belong to this category for some particular characteristics of theirs, they are not the "Original Bangalorites", they are migrated.

By the way, what are the characteristics that make me or may be many others averse to these people?

  • These people think that that particular City is THE city and life hardly exists beyond that.
  • Fashion and looks are foremost in their minds and being non trendy is considered a big sin.
  • They expect you to know "Ghatkopar ka CCD", "Sector 18 mall" and "Puja@Maddox Square", but won't even CARE to know any facts about any small town.
  • They showoff. They invent their own lingos and expect you to know that.
  • The girls are most confused. The vague notion that they are being modern by changing a few cosmetic things but in essence they never develop the modern outlook of the west as well as they loose the calm composure nature of the natives.
Ok, enough of this big city bashing. I hate them somehow and I can go on and on about it. But I do see many exceptions. It may also be true that the people on whom I based my opinion does not truely represent the local middleclass/poor population which sadly enough accounts for the major population of any Metro. But then they never make a fuss about Big City/ Small City.

Here are the exceptions. There are ofcourse people in the upper middle class also who behave down to earth/normal according to my yardstick. These exceptions are most welcome when it is this way but I just loose my cool when it is the other way. And this is what happens in Bangalore. The nice, good and simple Kannadigas of Bangalore, they have been in Bangalore all their life beautifying it. And in comes about 1-2 lakh people a year, mostly from small towns but suddenly feeling all high class. These people will tend to act pricey, go for the foreign brands, wear unnecessary sunglass, put all kinds of perfume, deos even if they are just going down Sabji Shopping and then hog around the pubs on weekends.

Frankly speaking even I have been through this mode but soon realized that though i may be a part of it, I do not like it. And now I realize, there is absolutely no harm in staying simple.

Though not very relevant, but I have seen this trend here in US. Guys drink only beer rather prefer beer. I don't understand though I sometimes do the same myself just trying not to different, what is so great about a drink which 1) Doesn't taste good. 2) Doesn't get you high easily. 3)Stinks more than any other and 4) Makes you feel so pissy. :D