Make sense yourself

I just saw a movie called ‘Via Darjeeling’. I recommend seeing it but do not compromise any schedule for it, but when you have nothing better to do, typically Sunday 5-7 pm, just go for it. For this blog, I will be inspired by the same movie and write so many things without really making any sense. I will touch my favorite topics: Review, News I am following, musing, women and filmy gossip all at once.

Ok, so I went for this movie the Dark Knight, people said it’s the biggest grosser till date, well I slept for the first half, but I truly give credit to the movie that I atleast woke up for the second half. Next day, I went for the long awaited ‘जाने तू ’ movie alone.Before the movie, I was eating at a local sandwich shop and suddenly a procession went outside. This is very unlikely in US I guess but a group of people, old, young and even some kids were demonstrating for ‘No war on Iran’.

Anyway, afterwards I went for the movie and though the first fifteen minutes were boring and over acting, I don’t know why and at which point I liked the movie. Even when I think now, there is no single or even multiple points which are good about the movie, but it just sailed along. Initially I thought Genelia was boring but slowly she was just unstoppable. She was too good. And her voice is exactly like Urmila. To be precise, the Urmila of ‘ एक हसीना थी ’ questioning Saif always.

After coming back from movie I was chatting with a friend and we started rating which girl u liked in the movie. And here was my order: The girl with the guitar (Sugandha Garg), Genelia and Kitu Gidwani. Yes, the old timer, the Junoon woman and the Swetlana of स्वाभिमान. She was really cool. At least I found her so.

By the way, both these movies had one thing in common. They made me feel old. In Batman, the crowd around me was all high school kids and the freshmen and sophomores. If it were kids, they would have found Batman good, but these people, like typical people of the same age group were actually cheering for joker. I was pretty impassionate and was glad that the movie was over. Similar experience with जाने तू . The movie involved an अदीति and जय

of 20-21. And they were already talking about marriage and they were surrounded by friends and friends were the most important part in their life. Well, at 25, my friends are getting married around me, and I really love my friends, but things are not they way when I was 21. I think I became more mature in these 4 years than any consecutive 4 years except transition from age 1 to age 5. may be.

Talking of old times, Bachi caught my attention (yet again), with this wonderful article on Nagpur. She mentions Nagpur as a city with permanent prefix via. Mumbai to Kolkata, via Nagpur. The Nagpur people may take offense, but if you really read deep, you will appreciate each and every word of her and you are not sure whether she is telling good or bad about Nagpur, but the fact is that she has portrayed Nagpur as clearly as I have ever seen. These are the exact things what a non-Nagpurian thinks of Nagpur and these are also the things which make Nagpur so special to my heart.

By the way, I will be going to Nagpur (most probably) after a long gap of 6 years. Hope I still find the same warmth there.

P.S: The idea of this blog, as mentioned in first paragraph, is as convoluted as ‘Via Darjeeling’ and is also inspiration from the famous Big B blog, and his mixing of daily activities with viewpoints.

Too old!

Is it growing up or is it already seen it all? Or is it that I am turning dumb over time? My yesterdays visit to Museum of Science in Boston left me with all these questions.

Why did I go there at first place? I don’t know. May be it is because this is one of the “to do” things in Boston and secondly it is free for MathWorkers. Ok, so now I land up there and see these “cool stuff”. A straight rod if rotated at an angle and at a radius form a centre doesn’t really form a straight line surface but a hyperboloid. Randomly falling balls in a series of vertical columns will form a Gaussian distribution. Definitely, these are not Kiddo stuff, but still I was not at all excited. Oh and then there was a spark generator and there were birds and the usual conversation of energy demos. Probably all I liked in the theater was the Rattle snake and I attempted speaking in Parseltongue with no real effect whatsoever. This definitely proves that it is not the “growing up” that has bored me.

The second reason can be overexposeure. The excellent “Science City” and “Birla Science Museum” in Kolkata or “Raman Science Center” in Nagpur or Vishveshwaraiyah Science Museum in Bangalore. I think I have overdone it. But if it is just loss of curiosity, then there were many things in here that were not there in the 3 above mentioned places and vice versa.

That really leaves me with the third option. Am I getting dumb or rather detached from these technology and science? Wow, so encouraging for my company whose motto is “Accelerating the pace of Science and Technology”!!

To my defense, this is what I have to say: At the exhibit hall named “Evolution of Computer”, all of us literally ran in the other direction.

What is worse is after coming back home, I logged into bhejafry.net and started watching IIFA 08. Needless to say I was enjoying it. Whether it was over enthusiasm of the Bachchan family in the event because Big B is the ambassador or be it the Gorgeous Urmila taking stage after so long. Loved it lots.

And this scares me even more. Such indifference to technology and such attention to the old timers like Urmila, makes me feel ashamed when I scold Maa and Baba for not learning how to e-mail or sms. Where will I be? I will still be driving my 2008 accord when my kids willl be traveling at light speed in their solar powered mini copters and communicate with people through the chips embedded in shape of earrings and pierced in lips and ears. They will read the video books. For example, now JKR would be able to not only pen or voice record her thoughts on Harry Potter but actually store what she visualized in her mind. She can also do revisions on the “video thoughts” just like one would do to the manuscript. Oh and she could transmit emotions too through these video books.

Well, this is the whackiest I can think of happening in the next 15 years and this is not all that whacky either. On second thoughts, am I being too realistic here? Haha, this is what a true engineer should be. Curtail your imagination and do what is needed. Well, now I am happy. :)

Book review: 3 Mistakes of My Life

You can also read Advay's review here.

When writing about Chetan Bhagat, we should always remember that we are not expecting a 'Da Vinci Code' from him. We expect him to connect with the middle and upper class educated youth (thankfully, there is negligible difference amongst them nowadays). What's the %? Someone told me it's around 20% who are middle or up. Youth will be 50% of that, so let's say 10%. Well, he does write for them. For the people aged 17-30. And yes, he does it well.

Five Point Someone was much more hilarious, but there was nothing new in the story, just over dramatized version of our own life. Midnight at call center had a very poor ending though the buildup was nice. However, The 3 mistakes of my life is a better attempt. The language usage was improved and the story though was nothing out of the box, had a certain sweetness in it.

What I found most commendable is the delicate balance he maintained in the book about cricket, religion and politics. Certainly, these 3 are the most discussed thing in India and he maintained a good balance without tending to go towards cricket much more which would have been an easier path.

What I really liked was the way he portrayed the cause of Gujarat Riots, the father of a dead boy brainwashed by drinks carries on the riots while the biggies watch silently. This was by far the most neutral account of Gujarat Riots i have heard. Reminds me of 2 different versions of the riots I have heard before:
1) The hindus inside the carriages lit themselves, just for an opportunity to create riots. Give me a break.

2) The other and only true ( first person report) I had heard about this entire riots is by one of my gujju friends. His mom had a difficult time going out after the riots as she had to make sure that she wore all possible golden jewels and a big red bindi on her head showing that she is a Hindu. Well, not bad proposition for a woman to be saved from riots. What say?

Anyway, another thing that impresses me about Chetan is his ability to discuss on god. In the last book as well as this, god came very naturally and in a nice way without any particular religious belief. This impresses me so much because I can see a slight dilema even in JKR. generally in magical books where good and bad come up so easily, god and devils come in the same breath, but JKR has avoided it. Is it her mastery or her cowardice? Well, Chetan did manage it well and that I think is most commendable.

Movies I like

One can categorize movie watchers into the following groups:

The one who like the Action/ Sci Fi, in short, fast paced movies with no brainer or something so technically advanced that they can get totally immersed and actually love the so called scientific concepts in the movie.

There is another class which likes the Oscar movies with intense drama and deep thought provoking theme.

There is the widest class which like any movie with a great star cast, lots of style, lots of romance angle even if it is action (Spidey 2) and which are generally hit even before they release.

I fall in class 3. But somehow there is sometimes a thin line between category 1 and category 3. An example will be the recent Iron Man or the National Treasure 2. For the same reasons mentioned above, I chose to go for both of these. But I was disappointed.

Or was I? Actually not. I was motivated. Motivated to watch more of “Tanananananaaa… Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham” kind of movies where Shahrukh stammers, Amitabh gives well punctuated but long dialog deliveries and the heroines do a virtual fashion show with Manish Malhotra clothes. Off late, Kabhi khushi kabhi gham has become a benchmark for me. It lies in the critical region below which any movie can become unwatchable. Example: Veer Zaara, KANK, Tara Rum Pum, Aaja Nachle. Movies which barely cross it on the other side will be No Entry, Laaga Chunari mein daag, Om shanti om and even bhootnaath.

Amongst the English ones, I guess such a movie will be “The Departed”. It lies in the better side of the movies but for English movie, the criteria are totally different. There has to be a good story, because if there is no good story, I will again rather watch des ki movie…tanaanaaanaana….with loads of songs and dances.

You might be wondering why “The Departed”, its because it has all the factors I consider important : An A1 star cast, a wonderful story and not so sci fi-ish. However where it fails is the use of swear words. I can understand, to give the true picture, you do need to be realistic, use the language of the people. But then you also have to keep in mind that movie is a mass medium, and however common in lingo, swear words can never be good and should be consciously avoided. A classic example of such a movie will be “Omkara” which had to have some bad words, but they were kept to the minimum required.

Now the interesting comparison. Movies above and below “The Departed”. The ones that are bad : Iron Man, National Treasure 2, Oceans 12, Pirates 3, Beowulf etc etc. Movies better: All HPs ( the best story in the world), Atonement, Oceans 11 and 13, Spidey 2, Lions for lambs, Charlie Wilson’s war etc.

Hehhe, again a post so full of me comes to an end. I know this will end up with no comments. But I can’t stop myself from copying Bachi Karkaria at this stage. Bachi always quotes a certain Alec Smart ( Interestingly, when wikied, Smart Alc refers to a person who is regarded as obnoxiously self-assertive and an impudent person. Anyway, so here we go:

Alec Smart says “ I started enjoying Rajnikanth movies from the day I saw ‘The Transporter’”

The Scared Blogger

Well I am scared and not just as blogger. The whole freedom of expression definition needs to be changed. This freedom of expression issue started with the M.F. Hussain pictures. Then came Taslima's books. Well, well, we can argue for both sides for hours. Not long before it cooled down, there came the Message by some Gurgaon guy about Sonia Gandhi. Well can you say anything about any person? May be yes, may be not.

For me, it will be this: If the person is not talking directly to me, he/she can say whatever he wants. If saying about me to a person who cares about me, that person should be smart enough to not get angry by some stupid saying something about a person you like. And finally, if the person is saying bad things to me with me, good enough, let's sort it out. No way, you can complain to a court. That too, here the case was scenario 2. I guess, this was just another of those futile attempts to get into the good books of N-G family.
As for me, whenever I tell someone that I am a big fan of Bipasha, they immediately say: " But dude, she is a B****. She had 4 boyfriends in the past". Expecting a angry reply or a defensive statement form me, what they get really shuts them up: " Hey, can you find me a more gorgeous B****?" This really shuts everybody up and then they come up wit meek replies like "Whatever, I don't like her", and I reply "ur wish, I never asked you to. The lesser the better"
I wish the fans of Sonia were as smart as me (eh!!)


The other scary thing happening is Aamir and Amitabh writing. Amitabh is just defending himself from the many many things that have been written about him. His latest style (as of day 34) is scan the newspaper and critique everyline. Do read his defense to Shobhaa Dey for Aishwarya's creased dress in first day at Cannes 08. It goes like this:

" Oh ! About the creases on Aishwarya’s dress, I never noticed any and it is hardly expected of a team of 15 stylists, dress makers and make up professionals from Armani to L’Oreal working on her for hours since the morning of the event, to have overlooked such obvious detail. The protocol at the venue is strict and disciplined. Celebrities are seated in respective special Festival cars to ride in a motorcade almost 50 meters long to a destination just 100 meters away; the crowds, and traffic and paparazzi making this innocuous little journey an hour long ! Sitting on any dress this long would crease.

I am disappointed though that your customary wit failed to notice the creases that needed repair on the faces of many of the other celebrated stars from Hollywood. Whither patriotism ??"

Well well, Amitabhji, you are surely a role model. every bahu will be proud of you. You have redefined Sasur Bahu relationship. Is Ekta listening?

The other thing was Amitabh defending rather denying Aish/Abhi's premarriage temple tours being anything to do with Aish being Mangalik. Well Sir ( as most people call him), you need not defend, infact, it shows rays of hopes to the hundreds of lovers whose stories are not going further because of this issue. Now they really dont care of they have to marry trees et al to get to their loved ones.

Aamir aamir. poor guy, innocent humor turned so costly. I know your fan base is mostly concentrated on a web based so called educated young generation making yours the highest membered community on Orkut and making your movies like RDB and TZP rise to levels it should not. But you know and I know, even a KKKirrran or a "taaanannanana, kabhi khhushie..kabhie gham" kind of hamming can shake u off the chair.

Extending what one of my colleagues commented today on Bush (apparently Bush has a cat called India), what if aamir's dog pees on him? It will be " Shahrukh peed of Aamir."

Lolz...

Justifying being Bips fan

Haha. Since this seems to be an argumentative topic, the first question that you might ask will be why justify if you truly like her? Well, I don't have the answer except that there will be somme sense of self praise tat will go on in the following paragraphs.

Nobody can deny that you ought to have a favorite movie actress though orkut has not introduced it yet(preferably one in hollywood and one in bollywood). You can definitely like all the heroines but like favorites in anything (sports, politics, travel) you do have favorites in movies too.

My choosing favorite heroines had started long back when I used to say 'fyavrit' for favorite. The first one was hema and then it was Juhi for a long long time and she is still my favorite only that she is doing roles of sisters and middle aged women nowadays. That was followed by Urmila after her famous dances in Rangeela and chamma chamma. I liked her in all the movies but somehow she turned into a similar role witha bhoot types looks with specialization in scenes in which she has to act scared.

After Urmila age which ended in around early 2000's, there was a time when the favorites kept changing and then it settled on Bipasha.

Well, I have to say I am alone in this new choice. My friends not only have other favorites but they really hate her. Many of them tend to go towards the homely looking "Amrita Rao" who simply reminds me of Mallika Sherawat's comment "If you want to see a girl next door, go next door". My friends are predominantly marathis and they like Sonali Bendre a lot, I guess because she has a typical marathi face. The majority though still crave for Aishwarya. Well my point is: It is a fact that she is the most beautiful woman on earth. I think ash can't be somebody's favorite the same way sachin can be nobody's favorite. These two people are beyond comparison.

Well, and that is the starting point of liking Bipasha. You tend to like someone who is hatke. Bipasha is sexy but she is not the usual league of Neha Dhupiya, Amrita Arora and Mallika Sherawats. Bipasha can never be the typical Yash Raj/Karan Johar women like Rani or Preity. She is also not as rare as Chitrangada and nor is she as artistic as Konkona who tends to act more when more money is paid. Well that leaves me with 2 choices: Kareena and Bipasha, and naturally I choose Bipasha.

There is something about her that is so enchanting and inspite of me being a "fairness ka pujari", I just can't take my eyes of her. I also like the way she portrays herself. She takes acting as a profession and does things similar to what we do to improve our resumes. She acts in different kinds of movies to have a hold on all of them. Her voice is the other thing that charms me. It's so different from the rest of the people.

Ok enuf, I just realized that this is the crappiest post am ever writing and the justifications above won't even change the views of a single person. Signing off on a lazy sunday....

Current Reality Shows on Indian Television

Well, to my defense (or should I), I do follow a few American reality shows like American Idol, So you think you can dance and Hell’s Kitchen, but it is the Indian shows that I like the most. In the past, I have compared the reality based Indian Idol 3 and the most unrealistic show Koffee with Karan.

Today I followed 3 reality shows almost back to back.

Let’s start with “Kya aap paanchvi paas se tez hai”. Copied from “Are you smarter than a fifth grader”, though some liked it YET, I can’t guarantee that I won’t like it later. First thing was the concept was not new to me. Secondly, I expected that Shahrukh will give a totally new dimension to the show, but he was almost enacting his KBC only not sitting in a chair this time. Te children gave it away. Though all of them were selected to be nice smart and cute, it was very apparent that they were trained to act so. I bet even their dialogs were scripted. But the funniest part of the entire show was the first contestant. The lady from Jharsuguda. She looked like she is just out of the “Saas Bahu” serial sets. Her all actions reminded me of Tulsi of KSBKBT (the only show I saw some 10 episodes of). She wore bangles till elbows in both hands and the saari also looked like one from the sets. The way she put hands in the ears and kissed the kids, all looked like copied from the ‘Saas Bahu’ serial. But I guess we cannot blame her. I have seen a few samples before my eyes and this one from TV who have made me believe that the new Indian Housewife, or new indan wife who watces this saas bahu serials try to enact them consciously r subconsciously. So its not the Bipashas, Kareenas and Aishwaryas who are defining styles of modern women but the Kkusums, Gangas and Tulsis.

Moving on to reality show II: MTV roadies 5.0. Well, this is the reason for the YET in capitals in the previous paragraph. Just a few blogs back I had thrashed this show simply because I had seen an unedited version of behind the scenes in the MTV website where they did not censor the swearing. Apparently, they are censored in the main show. The game is all about politics and the ladies bitch a lot. That does add lot of spice to the show. The tasks are not very easy and cover all sorts. It’s the true DARE tasks one may think of in Truth and Dare. They ask them to strip, dance with shaved legs, eat snakes and roaches, sleep with moving saw below, jump form high spots etc. What makes t more exciting that though people do all these tasks, it doesn’t ensure them a chance in next round. That is entirely dependent on the contestants. And I guess the Saas bahu effect has reached me. I can’t leave the show midway.

The third one is the most passionate one. People won’t call it reality show, but I do. The Indian Premiere League or IPL. Since day 1 it has been dramas and they never seem to end. The day the bidding started with Shahrukh, Juhi and Preity falling into cricket business, it got the required entertainment factor. Just when things were beginning to get sporty, Shahrukh came up with Korbo Lorbo Jeetbo re and soon Preity, Akshay, Katrina, Hrithik started singing and dancing for their own teams. Next came the cheer leaders’ episode. I don’t have any views on whether it’s good for the Indian society or not but I have one comment. Either let them as they are, or eliminate them with Bhangra, Koknaki and Lawni dances but please don’t make them wear long clothes and continue the same.

But this is not the end of the drama. To add the sent plot to it, bhajji slaps sreesanth and worse: he starts crying in front of TV. If this was not setup beforehand like all reality shows do, surely the 10 match ban was a setup. Even if that is not, the Ganguly- Warne one has to be one. And the usual spice is there too. Rediff didn’t delay a bit in coming up with stories with the Katrina and Akshay pictures. If that is not enough there is all the hoopla with Priety hugging only the star players. Surely, it is the baap of all reality shows.

Unaccustomed Earth; A review from a Jhumpa Fan;

There are few people whose opinion I value and I change my adamant stance about my thoughts and views only based on these selected people. One of them told me that Jhumpa writes too much about Bengalis immigrated to US and their lifestyle. I believed and the next day, Jhumpa was out of my orkut community which I have diligently kept to a small number of 13 which identifies my past and my passions.

But still I could not resist the weekend “Unaccustomed Earth” was released. It was released on Friday the 4^th April and I bought the book on the 6^th from Barnes and Nobles, the counter lady telling me that the book is becoming very popular. Well I didn’t care because something told me, I have to read this. I have this knack of following authors and reading all of their work; so far have finished Jane Austen and Mario Puzo. From the goddess (JKR) and the queen (Jhumpa), I expect many more but I guarantee I will follow all of their works.

Anyway, with an opened mind, I read through the stories. As always, the language so simple yet so elegant made me fly though the stories. Here each story was quite different from the other, all dealing with some form of complicated relationships. The base was still the same though (Immigrant Bengalis) but now it was all about the GENNEXT: The first generation immigrants. Some of the views really opened new windows of thoughts. Once she mentions how the Indian parents always tell about the hardships they faced before coming to the US but never do the children tell about the humiliation they have to go through in the schools for their strange habits of greasy lunch boxes and unfamiliar rituals. The parents do not like when the children fall for a non-Indian partner leaving their parents speechless and heart-broken but did the parents realize that they have done far worse to their parents leaving them 10’s of thousands of miles away?

Another nice part I liked and this has to be personal is the location. All the stories are primarily based in and outskirts of Boston. Cambridge, Wayland, Marlborough, Peabody and even my present place Natick. To all the readers of this blog who know me, please read this book just for the sake of the description of New England, the weather, the people etc. Just yesterday for the first time, I went to one of my family friends place on their anniversary. It was full of Bengali people and pages from Jhumpa’s book just flashed before my eyes. The kids speaking with rolling r’s and not eating the elaborate 7 course meal and instead savoring the cheese pizza. The parents discussing the school they have put the children into, the grading etc. It was just like they were acting on Jhumpa's directions.

But the masterpiece of the book is surely the 3^rd part, consisting of three short stories jointly called “Kaushik and Hema”. It can surely be made into another of those movies like The Namesake. And this should be an eye opener for all the people who criticize of her choice of topic. Though the story is still about immigrant Bengalis, it is not about their lifestyle. It’s a story; I feel is ageless and location less too. Infact, still leaving the characters to be Bengali Immigrants, she just proves her literary superiority. The flow of the story so elegant and so different from the other Bookers I read where I spend almost 50% of the book before I get glued to it.

Again, for the readers, who know me personally; if you decide to read this book, let me know. I will be truly happy to gift one copy. (Well, a few don’t have a choice : ) )

Of birthdays and birthday gifts

Today (In India)/ Tomorrow(here) (i.e. 7^th April) is Umesh Bude’s birthday. Happy Birthday Doobs. When I called him, his phone was busy and instead he called me in sometime. This is one of the firsts oh this kind. Generally people (me included) generally don’t give calls to others on their own on the birthday. But it does sound like a good idea. What he explained to me was that there was a brief gap between his calls and he thought of maximizing his efficiency by himself calling up other people. Good Idea Doobs, will surely implement it from next time.

Somehow I have always enjoyed friends birthdays more than my own. Over the top of my head, I remember these few:

1) Mana’s birthdays: They were always fun with me going a bit early to help in the decorations. And Mana always got an amazing number of Sketch Pens as birthday gifts.

2) Sumit’s Birthday: Sumit’s birthday in 2000, the last one before I left home was a fun. It was one of those last get togethers we school people had. We both wore Kurtas instead of usual clothes just to be different and did soil it thoroughly.

3) Doob’s birthdays in college: It was rare that we brought cakes for friends birthdays. I bought one this time. But what I remember that for is that was one of the worst cakes ever. The icing was too sweet and non-soft. The cake was dry too. But we were all so hungry that we finished all.

4) Vikram’s birthday in 2^nd year: Vikram likes his birthdays low key. But somehow that day was some function at college open theater and when everybody knew he was thrown his birthyear times in the air and every time it was around 20 feet into the air.

If I try remembering now, I would rate my 2005 birthday as the best because what happened was totally unexpected. And I was actually cribbing that how my past birthdays were and how I am stuck up in such a faraway land this year when suddenly 20+ people come in with a huge cake. And it ended with me in almost zero degree water(that time zero degree as still cold, now its warm). It was certainly the most pleasantly surprised birthdays.

Now coming to gifts. Even though the most popular gifts evolved over the ages, since for some reason I never celebrated my birthdays, I never got any. Till I was 6-7, the traditional gifts were always vessels (tumblers, plates or bowls) wrapped in Magenta color papers and with to and fro names etched on it. Most of the tumblers at my home still have “Tua ke.. xyz”. Still don’t know why there was no “Tublu ke..”

Then times changed and plastic took over steel. The gifts: Pencil Boxes, tiffin boxes (especially the one with spoons with it) and of course The Sketch Pen set. People would get 6-7 sketchpen sets on birthdays but by default, still a month later, you will make your dad go to the store and get another set. Sketchpens are meant for losing.

And then came the time of show-pieces. These were the most nonsense gifts one could think of and added no value but were considered very up class. It was mostly black metal photo frames or Natraj or Ganesh.

Then things changed to perfumes and deos (and this was not so long ago) when somebody told me that these gifts are just meant for girlfriends and boyfriends. So since I have none, that was also out of question.

And at this time, I realized that books are the safest gifts. I have received a “Blandings Castle” every year during my undergrad from dada. When I started gifting people, my favorite was Pride and Prejudice. I have gifted it to atleast 10+ people. Books are still my favorite gift items to be given because its easily available and offers such a variety, that it can often be considered “oh so thoughtful”

The most selfish gift I ever bought was a headphone to enable a friend for voice chatting so that telephone minutes could be saved.

Anyway, can anyone suggest more ideas? To a girl you can give flowers, plants if not books. What do you buy for guys?

Control system and the present state of nation

Certainly this is something big. Same day in Times of India, there are four columns by Bachi Karkaria, Jug Suraiya, Shashi Tharoor and Taurn Vijay. All lashing out against oust of Taslima Nasreen from India. Apart from the slight Hindu angle by Tarun Vijay (which is expected) all others speak of freedom of expression at different levels.

The root problem is that we are succumbing to a very small group of people. And the reason is obvious. Because this small group of people always vote. (or are they made to vote?) I still remember my mom voted only once and that too because a local party worker provided her and her friends a ride to the polling booth. Well, we so called educated people feel lazy to vote. We need some stimuli which will make us vote. Certainly the poorer classes of the people get those stimuli. They are targeted by the politicians during the run up to elections that their needs will be met. They are the people who attend the mass rallies. We conveniently sit in our couches and listen to the Sagarikas and the Barkhas. Whatever they present to us, we discuss all about it but on the crucial day we chicken out. I have heard during elections, politicians do come door to door to ask for vote. But I have never seen anybody at my door asking my parents to come and vote. Only once did the local municipal leader come and that was the only time Maa voted. Is it the way the politicians treat us or the way we treat the politicians that has made the middle middle class and upper middle class disconnected from politics. Worse still is with India Shining, this middle middle class and upper middle class is increasing. And so we are seeing a growing political disinterest amongst people. And sure enough, politicians are all out to woo the lower middle class and the poor and not in a proper way but the cheap tactics. The result: 60000 Cr loans, Oust of Taslima and many many more. By the way, the tax slabs are such that the lower middle class and lower class doesn’t pay taxes.

What’s the end result? The taxpayers’ money goes towards cheap appeasement and creating vote bank of the non tax payers. It doesn’t need a control system engineer to say that this is an unstable system. It needs a feedback loop (well the control engineer in me says that open loops can be stable too and closed loops can still be unstable).

Well how did this happen? Let’s say that the open loop system was stable and the transient responses (independence, emergency) being over, it was the steady state responses that were taking effect. This system can now go unstable because of some external disturbances. I don’t know the creator of disturbances, but I can see the kind of disturbances. It’s religion. I have been taught all along that all religions are equal and I believed it without even questioning it. And so did everybody. We all thought Sanskrit as an ancient language which defines India. Was it so Hindu? We all learnt shlokas as a part of pur curriculum. So did we learn the stories of Jesus and all the Muslim soofis. We learnt ramayan and mahabharat as stories. I enjoyed the complex characters, the wars and every bit of it. I bet all of my Christian and Muslim friends did too. After all it was a nice story, and the way it was presented was a story and we didn’t sit with flowers and agarbattis in our hands to read these books. So were the stories from old testaments and Akbar and Mughals. It all came to us as a natural course. We never thought of it as religion. But then one day (thankfully after I passed out of school) some moron politician started rethinking the curriculum. They thought Mughal portion is more and it should be otherwise. Well it started with that. The other party came to power and not only vetoed this decision but also made sure that vande Mataram is not sung in schools. Saraswati is a hindu goddess and not the goddess of knowledge. I think soon the Ramayan and mahabharat will be banned from school and our morning prayers, though still will have

“Vatan ke waaste hi jeena, watan ke waaste hi marna”, it won’t have “Sarve bhavantu sukhinah, sarve santu niramayah, sarve bhadrani pashyantu, Ma kashchid dukhbhagbhavet, om shant shanty shantihi”.

Everything we were taught had been dissected. We were not told that Hinduism is a way of living. We just accepted it not as Hinduism but as Indianness. We always liked Christianity not because God is great, but we associated it with God loves children (the pictures showed so) and Christians make cakes which are good to eat. We even had a faint hope of getting fairer. But all that went on in a subconscious level. It is the new age politics which is putting finger in eye and and saying this act is Hindu, this act is muslim and so on. The disturbance made the loop unstable.

The solution? There can be 2 ways: the engineer may want to introduce a feedback loop which will make it stable even against disturbances. But then I guess this loop will be that educationàpolpulation circular loop. Unless we tackle polulation, we can’t educate people, we can’t stop population unless we educate people.

The other solution is cut off the disturbance. After all, its there in Gita:

“Yada yada hi dharmasya ( countrysya) glanirbhavatu bharatah”

“Abhyutthanam adharmasya (bad people) sambhavami yugey yugey” Only this time, it won’t be Kalki, it has to be all of us.