Last blog for 2008

I am sorry folks, for all who were waiting for the famous “Sandipan Bollywood Awards 2008” (if any) but it has to wait because of Ghajini which I am going to watch only in the New Year.

Here, I will just try to recap the year for me. The year has been a year of Travel. On first Jan 2008, I was in San Diego. During Labor Day, I went to Miami. 4th of July, I was in NC and Atlanta and 22nd of July I was in New Hampshire. Thanksgiving time I was again in California, but the Bay Area this time. Apart from this, I have been thrice to Rhode Island and twice to the wonderful Cape Cod which is hours away but truly they are amazing. And finally and hopefully, I am flying to Kolkata tomorrow.

I was really new to Boston last year but now I know a lot about in and around places and I love it more and more. Yes, mid December to mid February is bad, but after that it is really wonderful spring summer and fall.

Blogically, I have maintained my stats, 26 blogs are more like a one a fortnight which is cool. I have stayed away from Bollywood but I cannot control myself in saying this now: “If reports are true that Bipasha is acting pricey and does not want Juhi Chawla on the sow, then to hell with Bipasha”

Apart form movies and the musings and ‘News that I follow’, my past few blogs have been a bit to sensitive. But I think I am going to continue that and keep nurturing the impossible dream of boundary less world with no war or crimes or criminal punishments.

As for social networking goes, I managed approximately 500 scarps on orkut which is on the lower side. I keep calling chacha chachi, mama, mami, nani, bua, bhabhi, bhatija, bhanja and all possible relations and do keep in touch with my friends too. What’s new this year is the emergence of their fiancés/fiancées. Being the good guy that I am, I have got these new friends now. It was kind of embarrassing early on, but now it looks fine.

2009 looks to be a promising year already which economy booming towards the middle of the year and my fist month beginning with a holiday and a cruise from Miami in the second month. As for movies, ofcourse waiting for Harry Potter the most. Apart from that looking forward to “My Name is Khan” and the ‘Sushmita-Shahrukh’ movie. The annual Disney-Pixar also has been something that I am looking forward to every year now.

Merry Christmas and a Happy new year

Impact of Mumbai blasts on me

In my vain attempts to be a neutral citizen and not form and opinion about the incidents have failed. But what surprises me the most is that I have mixed emotions for both for or against.

Let’s go to the bad part first. Not blaming the terrorists. There can be many shades of positive arguments about this. First which I think is more important is not to give them a death sentence. I am strictly against death sentence. What if they land up in heaven by accident? Then the whole purpose of death sentence will be lost. We can rather give life long imprisonment making their life like hell. I think that’s what should be done to all the criminals who are sentenced to death.

Second is, these are just brainwashed youngsters made to do all this because they have nothing better to do in life. Let us create fair job opportunities on both sides of the border rather the sub-continent as a whole. Killing these people either by encounter or by conviction is not a solution. I specially hate the media hyped and liked by many – the so called encounter specialists. I always get the feeling that by accident, they are may be not killing absolute offenders but also some people just at the wrong place. I always get reminded of some incidents which happened to me and I bet every one of us at some point. Here are 2 examples:

1) Did it ever happen to you that you are with a bunch of “friends” who suddenly get into eve teasing? So they are passing comments at a certain girl on the road. The girl looks back. Is there any reason that she will believe you are not amongst them? Same may happen to a guy killed in an encounter. I agree that you should avoid such company, but you know, it’s not always avoidable.

2) You typecast just because of your geographic origin. For me, though jokingly, people call me Commi, Bangladeshi infiltrator and in one case was a part of a convicted group for just being from “Maharashtra”. I do not say that I should be separated from the rest. After all, yes, I am from the Commi state, my great grand parents did live in Bangladesh way back in 1905 and I am a proud Maharashtrian born. I would not like to be separated from these groups and revered in isolation.

3) You are doing the right thing in the wrong time. Once I took my very dear school friend for a walk. He is physically challenged so we took some time for the walk. And I was beaten by the teacher for being late and my nice deed was entirely unappreciated.

So, might be many of the terrorists fall in one of the above 3 categories and put friendship/loyalty first? Do they deserve to be killed?

Another ting I liked about this entire last few days of event was failure of BJP’s terror campaign. Deep down, I think I still prefer this party over others. But it is high time they learn that national issues do not and should not concern common people who do not have even access to basic amenities like drinking water. How is getting killed by a bullet worse than dying of thirst. It should get into the root cause campaigning mode and not this “India shining” or “Anti terror” campaigns. Terrorists most likely will never target small villages.

Having said so many things against the common people, I don’t know why, deep inside me, a small hatred has started against Pakistan. I would not justify these acts as enough has already been said and done by politicians, media and intelligentsia. But as a consequence of that, I could not make myself buy the 1000 times better Pakistani biryani masala and the Basmati rice and instead chose the inferior Priya and Swad brands. Still not able to fathom why and how to get rid of this emotion.