Oye! INDIA Oye!

The Wanted Veer's London Dreams

2010-02-06T21:40:00.008+05:30

Omnipresent! A word that can easily be linked with the so-called brat of Bollywood and the original machoman of India, Salman Khan. From ads to national songs, North India to South India, with chiks to saree-clad woman, Salman seems to be rediscovering himself for the new decade. Watching his recent films leaves one sympathetic to one of India's most admired(erstwhile) stars. None wanted him to be 'Wanted' and aam-junta had a sigh of relief after wives of theatre-owners saw to it that their husbands divorced 'Mr n Mrs Khanna' to sustain their livelihood. And what happens when Chatur Ramalingam turns creative? Yeah,rightly said, 'Shit happens'. Confident that there was no much audience left for him in the North, chatur Sallu dubbed his iconic disaster 'Veer' into Telugu and vowed that it would be another Magadheera(the Telugu movie that threatened to topple Ghajini as the top-grossing Indian movie ever before 3 Idiots broke everything available). What happened is best not spoken of and being from Andhra, I am too embarrassed to even say the word 'Veer' after watching it(yeah...I am part of the disaster-chasing fanatics).

Having lost ground to other stars of his age and even much younger ones over the years, Sallu now has other issues in his agenda apart from what he once was popularly known for and capable of, being mainstream cinema(Hopefully sporting the 420 black-n-white stripped shirt again doesn't figure in it). Having been thrashed up by guards while trying to gatecrash into the Kingfisher calender's release he made sure he appeared at something similar and took great pride in releasing Kalamandir's(a chain of saree-shopping malls in South) "Kalasutra" calender.Our sources claim he misread Kalasutra for something else and rushed to volunteer himself for the event[:P]. Allegations that Kalamandir group has one of their founders amongst the censor-board of India and Sallu bhai obliged to this offer to see a smooth flow at the board for his Veer(the board must have rated it U/F aka Un-Fit which pushed him to take up this 'mutual-benefit' offer).

Image Courtesy

Giving life to his long-lost off-ground battle with SRK, Sallu is now eying to fight on-ground with the Badshaah by bidding for an IPL team. He right now is trying to convince his sponsors to sport their logos on the player's trousers, as the playing 11 would be bare chested(tattoos would be a lot cool). He has named his team 'BareChester United' and currently shooting for the team's promo song, 'Dare the Bares'[:P]

Mile Sur Mera Tumhara v2.0

2010-01-28T01:09:00.021+05:30

3 months!! That's the time from my last post. Thanks to some traveling, cycling, new-year party, workplace and ofcourse to the supremo, laziness. Here I go live again, sneaking out from my blanket on the day after the day India became a 60-year old Republic(whoa..I got that right), waking up to an SOS call for some disaster management. A decade after I watched those children of my age running across in tricolor costumes to depict the Indian flag at the climax of one of Indian history's best shows of national integration or in other words, the 'Mile Sur Mera Tumhara', the modern makers of India seemed to have come up with MSMT v2.0 called PMSMT- Phir MSMT. And modern India was more than ever liberal in spreading PMSMT in the form of SOS-tweets and desi-'911'-scraps.

The PMSMT asked for trouble from the word GO. The song being most synonymous with Indian integration was wrongly chosen to showcase what ultimately was merely a show of synthetic glamour. Though I watched it as a kid I could recollect most of the video even today. Here's a taste of that memory

The mahout gleefully singing in Malayalam sitting on the elephant back
The aerial view of the Taj and Yamuna
Balamuralikrishna on the beach
People exiting from Calcutta's metro rail
Lata Mangeshkar in a tricolor bordered saree
Children running in to form the national flag etc

Mile Sur Mera- 1988 release

Viewing it again today, I was humming it in no matter of time and knew who/what came next in the video. It left a remarkably deep foot-print on the Indian society, connecting people of different regions, religions, cultures, age-groups and most importantly it potrayed the common man and had him as the lead player throughout the video. The v2.0 had an equal share of common men too, in the form of makeup men, spot boys and background artists. At one point during the long video, I seriously thought there was a trailer of 'My Name is Khan' being played. I mistook SRK with arms wide open on what looked like a cliff with the Brooklyn bridge in the background!! Wait a minute, that's a sea and and there's only one triangular truss structure visible....Goodness God, I get it now....it's still v2.0.

The interesting aspect the makers missed out is there can possibly, in no sense, be integration amongst the very artists they chose to potray the same. Bringing all the 'Sur-matchers' into one ship would have Ash and Sallu in the couple's lounge, SRK having a drink with Amir, Ranbir sharing ice-cream with Deepika(integration of differentiated lovers) and Jr.Bachchan sharing bed-time stories with Sallu. Now that's an aaaawsome kinda ship that wouldn't require an iceberg to sink it.

The producers seemed to have remembered all of a sudden this ain't the IIFA promo video and saved the dying minute to sports personalities and a couple of seconds to the armed forces. Gopichand and Saina seemed lightning-struck, Baichang quits football to represent India in marathon at the CWG,the Olympians could again be identified(as they appeared together). Sources say the hockey('the' NATIONAL game) players were busy battling for their fees, Sachin couldn't wake up as his alarm-clock failed, Ganguly was reciting a lullaby to his kid and Vishy Anand was teaching maths at NIIT :P

Let's have a look at the 'most-probable' shooting procedure followed:
Take 1: Shot 1-Jesudas and son sing-Shot 2- Mamooty comes out of the hiding-Shot 3- Jesu and son sing again-Shot 4- Mamooty sings-Shot 5- Jesu and son sing last line-Cut It.

Take 2: Shot 1-Deepika in almost-bottom revealing dress stands in a ramp-walk pose-Shot 2- Moving her lips to the tune-Shot 3- Wake up Sid!-Shot 4- I am still in night-pants, that's ok...I look cool-Shot 5-Spreading my arms wide open-Cut It.

The video starts off well with Amitabh setting the tempo appearing before the iconic Taj Mumbai and Rehman composing beside a solar-water heater(has that supposed to say something?Go Green?). A peek deeper saves no grace. The kids could have taught Sallu how to put on a shirt and news is in that boys now prefer to stay away after his not-so-straight intentions in trying to love-bite a boy in the video. In a serious note, the idea of involving differently-abled children and senior citizens(with Mahesh Babu) was novel. Adding to the pile of creative garbage was KJo's entry. Seriously, even dogs fear from his creations and we have him ahead of Manirathnam, Shyam Benegal etc.

It was just another cake-walk for Surya,Vikram,SRK(all opening their arms) and finishing off in one take. Amir repeated a TZP and did a 'Chatur Ramalingam' by blindly following the makers. I find it hard even to credit it as a good 'Philmi MSMT' as there exist too many glitches. The recording was not the best with Mahesh's mouth twisting before his vocals could respond. And there was this unshaven,filthy-alike looking, road-side-rogue-alike with gory hair amidst people around who were waiting to thrash him on the road. Sonu yaa Monu...who cares...He sucked bigtime!! And the 'suferb fart' of the show was India's Kaminey(no wonder, he's named so aptly). Ironmaiden have allegedly signed him up impressed with his act of ROCKing a melodious national song.

The saving grace should have been the musicians but with irrepairable damage done and with amazing creative directors at work they sure had the least say. Anoushka's fingers were no where near the sitar's strings and Zakir's multi-tabla-ing pushes us to say 'Wah...Taj'(as my friend Deepak rightly said). Shiamak's fusion with Shobana's Bharatanatyam was novel but very poorly choreographed and it looked to be done in a haste due to lack of time. No coordination or sync between the two forms. There are too many loopholes to make the PMSMT leave its footprint and the 16-minute video is too long,boring,unrelated, sometimes pathetic with only pockets of positive points and in no sense replaces the original one. The production home should not have claimed it to be a remake of MSMT showcasing modern India atleast....India least knew that they would end up watching something else, something gloriously crappy.

Go Green!!

2009-10-27T20:05:00.002+05:30

Image Courtesy: outdia.com

It takes me half an hour to reach the nearest shopping mall from my home on a weekend evening. But a couple of weeks back I was surprised to have reached the place in 10 minutes. Something was abnormal, the bus driver was no Schumacher and looked like he was driving it reluctantly with a frowned face as though he was late for a date. The roads looked empty too, wait a moment.....I don't hear the familiar "trrrrrrr...tot tot tot tot trrrrrr" sound at all. There is not a single auto plying across the busy highway and yes, now I get the reason for my astronomical speed in reaching the mall. Today is the city-wide auto strike. The strike stands from 6AM - 6PM. On my way back in the night I got into a waiting auto and as expected the autowallah demanded much more than what it would take. He seemed friendly though and spoke English too(Bangalore hain saab!!)

On my way, he told me why he was charging me more. He claimed he generally doesn't charge more, but today being a strike, he hardly earned his daily share. Being alone I struck a conversation with him and asked him the exact reason for their strike and henceforth what went on for 20 minutes was both sympathetic and a bit hilarious too. The Government wanted all the autos to be painted Green instead of their original Black and Yellow trademark. Their reasons primarily being, it was the first step in their process to convert autos to run on LPG. Secondly, Bangalore is the green city and green autos would make it look greener!!!(ROFL:D). Further they wanted digital meters to be installed, which seemed to be the only genuine demand as digital meters implies less scope for tampering. Re-painting the autos itself would cost them around 10-12k and the Government was offering them 1k as an aid.

Keeping aside my hatred to autowallahs for being taken for a ride many times, I think it's absolutely baseless for asking the owners to change the paint. Most of the autowallahs cannot afford such a huge sum. Instead those autos which already run on LPG be identified with a Government attested symbol. And further autos that would be rolled out from now, can be painted green. Painting his auto green, doesn't inspire the driver to change to LPG. Having realized the loopholes and facing the media and the auto unions' unanimous shout, the Government was quick in changing its stance, stating that they only wanted the 4-stroke autos that ran on LPG to change into green color so that people can identify these autos and travel in environment friendly autos and this would in turn open the eyes of other autowallahs in opting for LPG due to lack of customers. Sounds like a fairy tale, ain't it?? I pity the poor guys who happened to be wise in buying the 4-stroke LPG autos. They seem to have got a penalty to educate their auto-mates. C'mon CM, no one's gonna care if he gets into a green or black or for that matter even gay pink. No one wants to be late for his date and get bitch-slapped by the partner. Probably this is a cover up to still let your eyes feel green inspite of the quickly disappearing tree cover in the city :P

Irony of Life

2009-10-21T19:49:00.002+05:30

Image Courtesy : NDTV India

Ufff....finally I am posting something after nearly 50 days. After lots of travel over the last few weeks I sat down to post this last week only to find my broadband cable split and dangling. (Muck Fe!!:P). Thanks to my manager who surprisingly has got little work for me this week and also for not reading my posts(:P), I now have time to blog from my office. A lot of travel over the month showed me few things that we won't generally know in our daily lives. These few things that I would be mentioning, unfortunately have nothing to cheer. The first one being the pathetic plight of a few flood-victims and the second being the unanimous cry by the autowallahs of Bangalore for justice (which I would mention in my coming post.)

Of the worst-affected areas hit by flash floods was Kurnool. We have seen the horrific videos and images 24*7 over the media and I am sure all have been generous in lending a helping hand in whatever manner we could. A close family friend of mine happened to be one of the victims of this disaster. A couple of incidents he recited about the situation shook me violently and left me in an even more helpless situation than I was at the moment. The first being when his home was surrounded by 10 feet deep water in a couple of hours. Having taken refuge on the terrace the inmates of the home and a few others were desperately waiting for help which luckily arrived only after 4 hours and when the water almost touched their feet on the terrace. A boat with a couple of guys driving it was looking for survivors. The boat could take 10 at a time. But one could enter only if he was worth it. Yes, you read it right. Only if he/she was worthy enough was he rescued. The boatmen were generous in lending a helping hand but as always man's greed for money never ceases even at the time of death. It was a barter system. My friend had to give away his wedding ring and his wife gave away her mangalsutra for their lives. He recollects how he even hand to surrender his chain to save another man who unfortunately did not have enough to satisfy the boatmen's greed. He recollects this was the case in many places. He saw people left behind over roof-tops, trees, electric poles though help was at their door-step. The only thing they could trade with the boatmen was their lives, which they ultimately did. Neither was he nor I able to decide whether to thank such men or detest them. Does such men require a round of applause for their generosity or a thorough beating for their greed?

The flood waters receded leaving behind further woes. The tons of silt deposited was enough to swallow even the tallest man around. The Government had setup help-centers. He recollects that Rs.1000 being lent for house renovation. Though it was a meager amount people didn't miss it. The classical mantra 'Something is better than nothing' was the norm. Most of them must have lost the house documents in the flood waters. The only document the Government trusted to help people was the good-will of the people. By the time my friend reached not only was his amount taken by another man, the entire colony's amount was given to a single man. How was an amount more than Rs.1000 given to a single man by the issuing Government servant is no mystery. It's another classical rule, you give me more than I deserve, I give you a share in mine. It comes back to the first classical rule 'Something is better than nothing'. The entire colony was at a loss and the clever man expectedly was no where to be seen. I don't blatantly say this was the case everywhere, but the very civic sense of man has been destroyed by man himself at times by his own creation, being wealth. God created man, man created wealth, wealth created greed and greed destroys man. I know a couple of you guys are eying my ATM card and bank account after reading this. Please stay away, I am not greedy, I am just cautious at times :P

Differently Original

2009-08-27T16:57:00.000+05:30

You must have watched law-defying moves by Indian actors(especially guys from the South) that led to Newton and Einstein pleading the Almighty to give them one more chance to prove their theories right in the heavens.Out-of-box thinking has always been the part and parcel of Indian cinema, be it fights or songs or dialogue delivery. This video shows another instance of why our own Bollywood beats its western big brother hands down. Ask yourself when did Superman hook up with Spiderwoman? Bollywood had done it decades ago :P

Superman and Spidey shake a leg together

For all those MJ fans who haven't yet got out of their mourning, here's a southern "Thriller" that's campaigning hard to be part of Janet's tribute to MJ show. This one would surely rest MJ in peace for ever and ever.

Desi Thriller

No wonder why this one could not break the records unlike MJ's Thriller. So the next time your manager asks you to think out-of-box, follow a few tricks the Indian cinema has taught you---you need not be original, just be different!!

Swayam-War

2009-08-18T13:35:00.001+05:30

Firstly a warning!! You may feel disgusted reading this post and could lose your temper too[:P]. Secondly a clarification, most of us,including me have a strong sense of disgust towards this queen of controversies that I would be mentioning. Yet I just couldn't brake my mind from following her show with utmost enthu!! You must have by now found out(and probably cursing yourself to have been on this blog-page) who she is, ladies and gentlemen, it's none other than (everyone's) Rakhi!!(how many mouths rolled out with "shit"??). For about 4 weeks I ardently followed the show inspite of my busy schedule. All I long for is something to relax along with a glass of juice after my office hours. This is the case with thousands of professionals across the nation. What we want is a reason to laugh, criticize and get entertained, without bothering about what that reason actually is. And this show had that "it" factor immensely present inside it.

If I had the chance, I would present the viewers with the "Shakuni" award. Shakuni, the prince of Gandhar and brother of Gandhari potrayed himself to be the supportive uncle of Duryodhana though he wished to ruin his empire. What he happened to be in the exterior was not actually himself. In a much similar way(rather vice-versa), though I had lots of disgust towards her, and though with every minute of the show, my room resounded with thunderous vulgar words against her from my friends(and me ofcourse), still everyone were glued to the show and loving it. I don't think anyone else in the nation could have come close to the way that she pulled the show. We all needed someone with a glorious past to tackle the TRP ratings, and bingo!! NDTV Imagine's imagination of topping the charts turned into reality. This should win the "Kya Idea Hain Sirjee" contest.

From walking on fire to bending iron rods over their necks, the grooms were literally on war with eachother. Rakhi "enacted" her role of bride perfectly. I(and majority of the nation) pities the taklu NRI with lots of money for his victory. Victory could never have been more bitter. No one really cared about who would win, though they wanted someone to win. No one really cared about Rakhi, though they wanted to see her wooden face turning away from the camera with shyness(ROFL) and no one cared about whether she would marry the winner or not. It was a superb entertainment-filled bag of crap or more simply "it glorified shit". This post is not to be mistaken to be against the show or the main protagonist of the show. We support you Rakhi, thanks for keeping us entertained and we don't care whether you marry anyone or everyone.

Jai Hind!!

2009-08-16T01:35:00.000+05:30

Which is your favorite song? Before reading further make sure you have your choice crystal clear. Now ask yourself why do you happen to like it? Having answered that ask yourself when was the last time you heard it? And finally, how many times roughly did you listen to it? Have these answers with yourself. Now lemme ask you a simple question, what if someone made you listen to it everyday(yes my friend,i meant "everyday") and probably if you had to sing it aloud too? Your favorite would soon be the most detested. How many times can a Northie listen or hum "Jai Ho", a Tamilian hum "Unnale Unnale", or an Andhrite hum "Cheliya Cheliya" and how many times can you hum your chosen favorite song? May be a few hundred of times. Now just have a look at this video before reading further :)

How many times have you sung it and listened to it? I am pretty sure everyday of your schooling atleast. A sense of pride grips one's body irrespective of your origin, be it Punjabi or a Tamilian, a Gujju or a Manipuri. That's the beauty of this song you just listened to. I am sure I can listen to it daily and can sing it with my heart all through out my life. And I am sure so can you. Just wanted to share this thought that incidentally occurred today. Happy birthday independent INDIA. Wishing everyone a Happy Independence Day!!

Need of the Hour

2009-08-12T00:48:00.001+05:30

It's here, it's in the air around us and you could be the next victim! The scare seems to have spread faster than the virus itself. After SARS, Anthrax, Chikungunya, Bird Flu etc of yesteryear, its now the turn of Swine Flu to challenge mankind. With such an alarming rate, more and more hospitals should bear the onus to screen people. The deadly disease is spreading its wings rapidly and it's a herculean task that the Health Ministry now faces, to curtail it. This can be taken as a classic example of "preparation at the n-th hour". The Ministry has overlooked 5 simple words - 'Prevention is better than cure', which ironically stands 'out of the crowd' in every advertisement the Ministry has put up all the years henceforth. The disease has been in the news over the past couple of months, mostly in the Western world. I think, this is the first time that the Eastern world stood up to screen people coming from the West, another classic piece of reversal of the practice where the West many a times have screened people from the East for reasons beyond medical too.

Though few countries have set up good monitoring services in their respective airports which are the most significant entry points, there seems to be no sense of urgency or emergency in the Indian airports. A friend of mine had to travel last week and she had a very bad cough( luckily regular). She had all the reports stating it to be regular cough ready to be produced in the airport but didn't get a chance to show tem! I was shocked to know that there was no sign of screening anywhere in the airport. Another friend of mine was asked by mouth if he had swine flu!! Having said no, he was allowed to board the plane. If you consider this could be the case with domestic terminals you would just be fooling yourself. Another of my friend's sister had arrived from Europe last week and all she was given was a form to fill, which asked her whether she had any of the following symptoms. So the equation is simple, fill the form and proceed. On one hand, the Ministry itself has been broadcasting that though there may be lack of symptoms, a thorough test would only provide with the actual status, on the other hand we have people getting cleared blindly if they show no symptoms.

I would agree that it's practically a big task to screen all the people, but that would ensure to atleast curtail the disease. Though a big task, its worth the time, for the individuals as well as the society. If not a total checkup I would suggest something better than form-filling should be in place by now after the nation's death toll has reached 2digit-figures. Hard screening at airports could have contained the disease (if not totally) and the situation could have been less alarming. With such measures not taken, its a sincere request on behalf of the society to enhance the facilities in airport foremost along with those being done in cities and towns. It's worth the waiting time in airports.

False Standards

2009-08-07T00:09:00.001+05:30

Everything International!! That's what has become the norm of the day. Be it clothing, consumer products, automobiles etc....only one thing seems to be paying off, namely "Brand International". I see no offence though, with people owning such things though it may leave a bigger hole in one's pocket than desi goods. What's surprising and sad is to see people, especially the urbanized, totally blindfolded being in pursuit of "International". I had the chance to look at one of the International schools last month that has seen a meteoric rise in its admissions every year. The entrance looked truly international with fountains leading the way to the building. A single building, probably the size of a 4-storied apartment stood amidst a garden that seemed to encircle it. Nothing much to describe from now on, as it was a very normal building that had classes from pre-kg to 10th with classrooms distributed within the 4 floors. Roughly around 16 rooms were present, each accomodating at the maximum, 10 students!!

Nothing seemed international in there. The building was centrally air-conditioned and everyone were greeted with a welcome drink and breakfast. For a moment I thought myself to be in a resort on a holiday. Going around the school shook me further. Everystep I took around the school was not more than 10 steps away from the compound. Forget ground, I couldn't see a sand grain all around I guess. For a school that has "Allround Leadership" as its vision, this fortress within the compound promised nothing. Having tagged itself to be international, these schools should be far ahead of the remaining lot. They seem to unreachable only in the fee structure. This is not the only "International" school which lacks the basic facilities inspite of mammoth fees demanded. A handful of such schools seem to be present in every city. High donation in established schools is diverting the parents to such schools where the admission is easy.

Before shelling out huge sums of money anually one needs to think whether these institutions justify their worthiness for the fee they are demanding and the facilities provided. Donation, though improper, would be cheaper than what one pays as fees in the international schools. There are a few International schools that have good facilities, but nothing close to established Indian schools. I pity those children who spend their childhood in such closed compounds inspite of paying almost a 6-figured fee annually. If one wishes to see an all-round personality development in their ward, one needs to think before shelling out huge sums carelessly. Wake up parent!! Choose your child's future wisely.

Class is Forever

2009-07-14T23:31:00.004+05:30

I came, I saw and I conquered. This is what the cricket's new favorite version T20 has stated blatantly to its other long established predecessor, the ODI. It just took one tournament in South Africa to turn the tide and the tournament couldn't ask for anything as a boost to the abridged version apart from a win by the cricketing stalwart, India back in 2007. Popularity sky-rocketed and India cashed upon the chance and gave birth to club-rivalry in cricket for the first time in the form of IPL and thus comes to an end the story of the conquest and rise of power of the new emperor, the T20. Money, glamour and most importantly fresh talent from all parts of the nation had one common platform to perform. All of a sudden cricket has been reduced to power hitting and ball-bashing. The biggest player of the day was to be the golden LUCK from now. Classical Dravid cover drives, Elegant Ganguly sixes and Godly Sachin straight drives now paved way to Deadly Yuvraj pulls and Mighty Yusuf out-of-the-park hits.

It has been almost a year that the prime team members of the Indian team has been involved in T20 format and the sudden ODI series of West Indies seemed to be a little out of place Who would sit for 7 hours to know the result? Why should the 20-40 overs be bowled when its mostly run-a-ball? Though these queries repeatedly forced me to turn the TV off, the love of the game kept me glued to it for the entire match. Though T20 has dethroned ODI of it's popularity, it still has its own importance and style. Nevertheless this comparison seems similar to the one made between tests and ODIs when the 50/60-over format was initially introduced. Mere physical strength was not enough. ODIs are not all about deadly and mighty pulls. Most of the Indian players don't have the ODI experience. No footwork, no patience, no technique. All these were evident from the recently concluded series. Though India won the series, I think T20 has taken a huge toll on the talent regarding ODIs.

Ever since India has won the 2007 T20 World Cup, it has been under pressure much before the 2011 ODI World Cup. Keeping in view the ODI World Cup, the team needs more practice in this format rather than the slam-bang version. T20 cannot be the learning platform to perform in an ODI. Can we have another Dravid or Sachin? Class has it's say in any sport and it was evident by the inclusion of the Wall, Dravid for the Champions Trophy. Footwork and technique develops over a period and Indians need many more ODIs to be prepared for the World Cup. Bowlers need to cope up with the fatigue level of ODIs too. Does Ishanth know what's it to bowl 10 overs each, over a period of nearly a month every alternate day under pressure? I can hear him say NO. We all know what happens in this nation if Indians perish early in the WC. If the Indians need to avoid the calamity and to regain lost glory in ODIs it's high time that Rohit Sharmas, Suresh Rainas and Isanth Sharmas be developed into ODI specialists rather than mere T20 biggies.

Nation's Shame

2009-07-09T00:05:00.001+05:30

It was not Aarushi's murder nor was it the Mumbai girls racket that would tempt the nation. It was only a slap that a middle-class bank manager got by a middle-aged man, namely a Memebr of Parliament from A.P. Even as the countless number of news channels repeatedly kept showing the video of the M.P slapping the bank employee, the M.P when approached by the media expressed his dissatisfaction on the issue being blown out of proportion. His claims that he went to the bank only after that employee bluntly ignored his call and even verbally abused him at the premises has already found it's place in "Best Bed-Time Stories" book available across your street. Who in this country would ignore any politician's call who already has 10 murder,5 rape,3 money-lobbying,2 public assault and 1 fake-ID cases pending against him/her? And when it comes to speaking, even the three commander-in-chiefs take a bow before such goons in white kurta/dhoti.

Sensing his bed-time story hadn't yet shut the wailing sounds, the M.P retorted to a stance that even the Gods fear to speak about, being his caste. He claimed that the bank employee's lack of respect towards him was because he was a Dalit!!! (I still can't help myself from LOLing ever since I heard him say that) How helpless is the law inspite of having a live proof? None have raised a voice against him once he made that statement. And the other day, he was seated happily in the Lok Sabha thumping the desk when the Budget was being presented. The poor bank employee had so much to say, but none of the TV channels covered his views exclusively as they have done this good-for-nothing powerful man's followup. Nor has any finger been pointed at the cock-n-bull stories of the politician in the media.

Further the M.P has claimed that he was only trying to hold the bank employee's shoulder to explain him things when the employee moved backwards and this made him to move towards the employee thereby his benevolent hand tangentially grazing the cheek of the employee. Zzzzz, I am already asleep! He is the same M.P who voted against the NDA during the trust-vote in Vajpayee-Government inspite of being a member of NDA then, the reason being he was bought by a happy sum. He immediately has been made a minister in the state by Congress (for back-stabbing NDA) a few days after he gained membership in Congress. When would the media speak only the facts rather than simply betting on sensation and mindlessly following such similar shitty-politicians.

Watch the video and be the judge - MP assaults Bank Employee

'Poor' Sachin

2009-07-02T20:19:00.000+05:30

Which team should Sachin play for in the next IPL season? All you guys are wrong, not anymore for Mumbai Indians because he belongs to Nellore!(Did I hear someone say wtf?) Not one,but two ration cards bearing his name and photograph(!!) have been issued by the Government of AP. Not surprisingly are two bogus residences Sachin owns in Nellore.

Andhra has got one of the highest number of white ration card holders in the country, thanks to the Government's strategy of satisfying larger section of the junta during the last elections. With the Congress coming to power for a second term it now has issued to cut down the issued ration cards to half the numbers. It was a mere election campaign strategy that has fooled the innocent common man. It was not too far that a ration card bearing the names of Sonia,Priyanka and Rahul was found in posession of a politician but went under the sack due to mere political and money power. And not long before even Sania Mirza was issued one. So the norm could be "if Sania Mirza herself was issued why shouldn't the nation's foremost sportsman?"

Very cleverly the Government has declared to cut the number of ration cards to half under the pretext of slashing the thousands of bogus cards. It was the same Governent that issued these cards just to attract the people. Fake named cards, 2-3 cards per home, etc were issued with full knowledge of the officials issuing them and though there were reports in the media previously they were simply ignored by political power. Having sworn into power for a full 2nd term inspite of marginally won the state elections and with the cricketing God's Andhra-link revealed the Government of AP now has been forced by the strong opposition the state now has to make this check rather than a corruption check as claimed by them.

The Fallen Maharaja

2009-06-25T20:39:00.001+05:30

Save the crashing plane! Air India's plead to save it from the clutches of a mega crash landing has got the Government of India stepping up to show it the light at the end of a mammoth tunnel. The Government's stand to help the airliner only if it restructures its policies needs to be appreciated. I would say it has been a self-made crisis by the airliner. It's been more than a decade that the carrier has been bruising itself repeatedly. The foray of private carriers and the steady increase in the services by foreign carriers added salt to its wound. Country-men take pride while travelling in their own airliners. I haven't seen many feeling totally comfortable having got a ticket of Air India.

Air India fails in many aspects and doesn't impress a passenger. Foremost being the outward appeal. Airways has been the pet vehicle of the rich and the semi-rich mostly. An 80's graphic art on its exterior with a yellowish background that was actually white when built a decade back doesn't impress an air passenger. Next being the interiors, extremely dull for a 21st century craft. All these ofcourse come under the aesthetic appeal and even if you aren't particular about these there still are cons. AI needs to improve what's on its menu. Mere veggie stuff and a few foreign items on its menu would leave many hungry. Another neglected but important aspect being the air-hostesses. Yes people care for their looks and every passenger wants to be greeted and served by good looking females. There's no doubt about that! AI needs a thoughful and a modern brain that answers how to attract people. Frankly speaking, most of AI's girls simply "don't deserve" to be on board(AI could take lessons from Vijay Mallya who personally chose the first set of Kingfisher's gals).

Most importantly, AI has to increase its fleet. It has to drastically shoot up its numbers to be under any of the strategically important joint alliances, such as the Star Alliance which is premier collaboration of airliners. Even the possible merger of Indian(formerly Indian Airlines) and AI would leave us with around 80 carriers. This simply is not enough to come under Star Alliance and saddest part is AI misses it not by a whisker by hundreds of miles. Singapore Airlines, for example has a fleet of around 150 which I am sure can't fit into its tiny country space if brought together and British Airways has similar numbers. We can learn from how small nations have succeeded in promoting their nation carriers like Sri Lankan Airlines(hats-off to its sexy sleek symbol), Egyptian airlines etc. It's a long way for AI before it can get traffic. Its almost a death call being made by the Maharaja and hopefully he gets his crown back.

Public Sector IT Industry

2009-06-23T14:04:00.001+05:30

The worst hit by recession have been the thousands of engineers that the nation has produced over the years working in private companies. Back in 2001-02, it was primarily the IT industry that had to bite the dust, but the current monster has gobbled up many industries. Being the world's largest outsourced market, India had to face the heat too. And Obama's "Bangalore to Buffalo" stance did little to soothe the Indian worries. The collapse of investment banks shut the doors of hundreds of Indian start-ups which mainly were linked to the IT market. It's good to see however Indian giants like TCS and Wipro continue with their business with minimum lay-offs. Adding oil to the fire was the Satyam controversy that has rocked the very foundation of the Indian IT industry and has now over 10k employees holding their breathe to hear the worst news of their lay-off sooner or later.

Though a few foreign Governments have started to bail-off many companies including stalwarts, India luckily hasn't come to such a stage yet. With over a lakh engineers out on the streets looking for jobs and thousands to follow, it could be a good move by the Government to start off with its own IT industry. The public sector already has well established industries in electrical engineering(BHEL), defence(DRDO), thermal sector(NTPC), electronics(BEL), aviation(HAL), telecom(BSNL) etc. The so called 'Navratna' companies have been the faces of technology of the nation for early 5 decades. However there is yet to be a public sector undertaken IT company. With such a huge IT-sector population it would be wise enough for the Government to develop it's own expertise. A possible start could be the taking up of closed start-up companies under its own domain and build upon it. Many Government IT projects are now being outsourced which can be taken up by its own company if present.

However most of the Government projects that are being outsourced have Indian private companies as the service providers. A clear trade-off should be developed by the nation to distribute its projects equally amongst its own IT company and the private sector as the Indian private IT industry cannot be hurted. I feel in a year or so, when the tides of recession start to recede, is the apt time for the Government to start its own IT industry which would prove beneficial to the Government as well as the comman man.

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Both the Same

2009-06-21T01:29:00.001+05:30

A week ago, a popular national daily carried a centerfold half-page entry which focused on women's role and position in today's world. It was a very pleasing article that talked about woman's slow but powerful entry into the world of business,sport,media etc. 6 pages away from that centerfold print,deep at the bottom of the page was a victory. Above this victory rested a defeat. The Indian Men's cricket team couldn't defend the T20 WC and had to bow off without much sparkle a couple of days back. And as every newspaper had been carrying out their own survey on what went wrong with the team, this daily also had a half-page article investigating in vain the roots of the defeat. And below this, probably as a reminder to the readers was the Indian Women's cricket team's hard-earned victory that put them in the semi-finals of their World Cup.

A total shift of gears within 6 pages! Women's cricket may not be popular in the country but why should a defeat grab more attention than a victory? It was just not our men's day out in the park this time and it's as simple as that. There's no much logic in having a post-mortem after the loss. Instead why not support our other team that's doing well. A big thanks to ICC and Star Network for telecasting the semifinals and the finals of the Women's campaign. I kept following both our teams throughout and frankly there is nothing inferior in the women's performance meter. I was really surprised to see a handful of people crowded outside an electronic goods store that was telecasting the Women's semifinal and within no matter of time I was one amongst them. The quality of sport almost equaled the men's cricket. There were close finishes,big hits,dives and everything that we have seen in men's cricket.

Success is sweet, sweet enough to heal the pain of defeat. It's the media that needs to relook at this double standards they themselves have set before speaking on equal gender rights atleast in sport. After all it's the same sport, Cricket. I am sure there are takers for any kind of cricket in this country. The media is the most powerful tool that can catapult the future of women's cricket and I wish that all the matches are televised the next time and hoping to see more of Billy Bowden's dance amongst the ladies.

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Race for the Top Spot

2009-06-19T11:55:00.001+05:30

There could be many good things but the best can be only one. With most of the Engineering entrance results out and a few more to follow, it's busy time for the future Engineers and more importantly to the parents. The present decade has seen a very rapid growth in the total number of engineering colleges as well as the quality of education in the country. The growing number of colleges has increased the competition between various colleges and all are trying to put up a very healthy show in terms of infrastructure development, personality development, an increase in the type of courses, etc. A number of private colleges now have better facilities than many good government colleges. Though many private firms have started colleges with a pure business mindset, whatsoever have succeeded both in creating good leaders as well as helping themselves monetarily.

But off-late we have seen some of the well established private colleges making use of various forms of media to claim themselves to be the best amongst the lot. It's been almost half a decade that VIT, Vellore has claimed itself to be the best private engineering college in India. And I have seen it ranked sometimes even above a couple of IITs. Not that it can't be better than an IIT at any point of time, but having personally seen IIT and VIT and with friends in either of the colleges and being from a college that's in the same league as VIT, I can say it definitely is not upto the mark of any IIT in any aspect. Be it the education imparted, research programmes, faculty, infrastructure etc. Its no matter of surprise that students studying in this college itself wonder how could it be given such a high ranking. From the past couple of months another good college, SRM University has claimed itself to be the best private college in the country, thanks to another survey report. And I have seen advertisements which showed Amity University to be the best private college too!

I feel that the nation needs a standard survey. We can follow the standard set by 'USNews Survey Report' which very aptly ranks the best US colleges every year for various streams taking into account numerous factors like infrastructure, faculty, placements etc. There are many survey reports even in the US, but there's only one that most of the people have been refering for nearly 2 decades now as it's results have been nearly perfect and have even been supported by the Government. As a simple fact, one need not advertise if he/she knows they are the best. The country's best private colleges like BITS, PSG Tech never claim themselves to be the best. It's the students who come out of the college that decide its position and we know where these colleges stand overall. False claims have unnecessarily confused many students and parents to choose which one's the best. It's better the colleges stop this race and focus on building leaders. On a final account, VIT is good, but not good enough to beat IITs, SRM can be ranked high, but not high enough to take the top spot and I have no clue about Amity. Have a look at the weird ranking system at these links,

http://www.squamble.com/2009/04/23/top-35-private-engineering-colleges-in-india/
http://www.srmuniv.ac.in/srm_ranked.php?page=congratulation_messages

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Mera Number Kab Aayega?

2009-06-17T15:47:00.001+05:30

4 years prior to graduating from an engineering college, at the time of admission, all parents give the same thought, would this college fetch my beta/beti a decent job offer? Well all daddys and mummys out there, you have one more question to answer now...Would there be a recession 4 years down the line from now? Being from the elite 2008 freshers' batch, I along with many have had the privelage to bear the brunt of ongoing ominous-recession period.People have got so used to lay-offs and firing, that no one is really surprised not to find his/her system at the desk the next morning.

Inspite of really tough times, Indian MNCs like TCS and Wipro have succeeded in training all the recruited students and even assigning projects for many. Yes, there have been lay-offs even in these companies, but they were more inclined to performance basis rather than mere head-count slashing. But it's really pathetic to see a company like CTS, which is known to have the best HR policy amongst Indian MNCs not caring about the woes of a fresher. It's been more than a year since the 2008 batch has graduated, and many have not received their call-letters yet. I have seen so many of my friends and batchmates trying in vain with the CTS HR to know when possibly could they receive the letters. The automated reply service that the company has implemented has always given the same reply for over a year now. The expected date of receiving the call letters has been unconditionally postponed from Nov 2008 to Jan 2009 to Apr 2009 to Jun 2009 and in some cases to Dec 2009.

I remember a bigshot of CTS answering at the pre-placement talk in my college when asked by a student about "How good the future is for CTS" as, "I assure you we are stable atleast till 2010." Agreed that many didn't see the recession coming, but having said that by a bigshot of the company, it's so sad that none have come forward to help the students for the past 1 year. There are communities in social-networking sites named, "Victims of CTS", "CTS-CheaTerS" etc. It's not one or two, there are thousands of young hearts in the country who have faced this mental torture of being recruited and yet being pushed back. And even the few who have got the letters say they detest to be part of the company which has just ignored their concerns but are helpless as this is the only option they have in this period of recession.

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Wicked Pleasure

2009-06-16T00:04:00.001+05:30

It was heart-breaking to see Indians bow out without much fight in the ongoing T20 World Cup. No matter what ever were the miscalculations made by the shrewd dude, Dhoni, we no more are the World Champs. Now that's a very bitter pill to swallow to a team that went in as the tournament favourites and I am pretty sure Indians will bounce back. They are not a weak team, it just was not any Indian's day out in England. I still have not fully recovered being a big-time follower of Indian cricket , but at the same time I want a wicked pleasure that I would just love to experience.

I am not that kinda person, who at the end of the game says, "Today, on the whole Cricket has won." It has to be India, and if not India, then any other nation except Pakistan! Being an Indian fan automatically distances one from arch-rival Pakistan. With India out I have been praying day and night that Pakistan shouldn't go far off. I often wonder if this is the case with every Indian except Ravi Shastri (for whom cricket wins everyday). And does the vice-versa happen amongst Pakistanis?

I dont know how Indian fans felt when Pakistan won the World Cup in 1992 and I thank myself for being a kid then. Ever since I have grown up, cricket has given me immense pleasure and entertainment with India winning quite a few world titles and Pakistan having none. The shock after India's loss to Bangladesh in 2007 World Cup was quickly healed by Pakistan's loss to Ireland in the same tournament. Bangladesh is a test-playing nation, but what about Ireland? That's a bigger insult in the eyes of an Indian cricket-fan and I am very eagerly looking forward for that wicked pleasure again now with India out. Hoping to see Pakistanis in the neighbourhood at the earliest. What about you?

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Youngistan

2009-06-15T00:56:00.001+05:30

What did India see after the fall of the British Raj? The Gandhi Raj! The difference definitely being, people have themselves elected the new Raj time and again over nearly 6 decades. The Congress looked pretty weak a decade back which was the heyday for BJP which had very able leaders and saw itself begng welcomed by the people of India inspite of always holding the tag of Hindutva in the eyes of many. But that was past and we all know what has happened a couple of months ago. BJP and its allies lost another chance to see the brave old man Advani at the supreme post.

I have never ardently followed politics. And the sometimes that I did, I had an unknown inclination towards BJP, not that I was a stauch Hindu but I always saw good leadership in Vajpayee, Mahajan, Jaswant, Yashwant, etc. But it's pretty much clear now that this once erstwhile 'stable counter-attacking' party to Congress is more or less in a huge dilemma currently with party's pivotal men unimpressed by the party's agenda. Keeping it aside and looking at the other front led by Congress, doesn't it give immence pleasure finding such a good percentage of youth in the cabinet. And what's more important for Congress has been the meteoric rise of another Gandhi. While BJP had all the troubles in the world for it's own Gandhi, Rahul for Congress surely is the future of the party and possibly India.

Congress definitely has caught the eyes of the youth as well as the rural man and that's the license to 'favoritism' in India. Rahul along with leaders like Scindia, Pilot can now definitely be looked upon with much hope and trust. And all are more than mere showmen, they know their destiny and they know how to live up to this hope. It's time BJP also plans for another 5 years in the opposition apart from the current 5 as I am pretty sure Congress would have Rahul as the forerunner for the hot job and I am again sure Indians would be more than happy to pin their hopes on him. The Youngistan is here and Yes, the Gandhi is back!

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Best Chance

2009-06-13T14:37:00.001+05:30

Can we ever have a South American or an European nation ruling our beloved sport a.k.a Cricket? Ever since I started passionately following the King of all sports, as every Indian thinks I have only seen the elite 9 ICC member nations playing it. It's so sad to digest the fact that cricket has the 2nd largest audience after football which I am sure is the prime sport in more than 100 nations. The FIFA policies are no where in comparison to what the ICC has. It has encouraged and funded soccer super-powers like Brazil, England etc to open training centers in countries like India and Sri Lanka. You would be surprised to know that Liverpool recently started their talent-tapping center in Pune and ManU is too planning to follow it.

The best bet for ICC to expand the game is the mega-popular slam-bang version, Twenty20 cricket. Traditional European and American crowds have been betting on climaxes that ended after a 3-4 hour show, not more than that. And an ODI takes double the duration. There's no point in ICC waiting for nations like Ireland, Scotland, Holland to prove their mettle in ODIs before they become member nations. What's required is more and more chance for such countries in the world stage like the current T20 world cup. An increase in number of participating teams to say, around 15 would have 6 new nations. And such tournaments need to be held at a regular basis.

Series that would involve one superpower in cricket and around 2-3 upcoming nations has to be held at a regular basis. I think it's time the ICC and all the Cricket Boards seriously think about expanding the game. The richest sporting club in the world, the BCCI could very well open a cricket camp in China or Myanmar or USA that have a large immigrant population from cricketing nations. The writing is on the wall....."T20 Cricket". Cricket needs expansion at this hour and it would be sad for you and me and more importantly for the game if ignored now.

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Unity in Agony

2009-06-10T23:23:00.001+05:30

Not one, not two. With the constantly increasing number of attacks on the Indians in Oz which have been largely accredited as racially motivated, it was apt for the large Indian population to carry out a peaceful protest against the Oz authorities. While the entire focus was on seeking justice, my eyes caught a very pleasing fact. How often does one see a Hindu, Muslim, Sikh or Christian hand in hand and fight for a common cause in our own land? I can only remember them to be pre-independence days as I read in history while I was in school.

The front page photograph of the aggressive but peaceful protesters in almost all the national dailies carried people of all religions hand in hand. At a time when there have been recent attacks on churches in parts of Orissa and Karnataka, religious unrest in Punjab, unnecesary suspicions against every Muslim in the country, these attacks have disolved the evil notion of religious differenciation. My focus here is not the gruesome attacks Indians have faced which is very condemnable. It's on one factor that has always been believed for ages to be the divinity of humanity but has never been practised off-late in any one's own country, and that being Unity. An Indian Muslim in Oz still practices namaz five-times a day, and a Hindu still puts holy-ash on his forehead. Both have more Indianess over there than when they were in India and that's natural.

I am not tagging these students in Oz or any other country to be extraordinary. It's just that they all are sensible. They love every Indian irrespective of his/her roots. These people would definitely have the same sense even if they were to be in India much like most of we Indians do. Unfortunately we hardly see many of our self-proclaimed leaders who at times have coined themselves to be moral-police or messengers of God, lacking in this ever-simple common sense. Let's hope atleast a few of these currently good-for-nothing humans learn something from this show of solidarity of the youth in Oz and start behaving humanly and do something good.

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Thumbs Down

2009-06-07T23:53:00.001+05:30

We have seen him donning the hat of an ambitious but tough coach of the Indian woman's national hockey team. The never-say-die spirit that has been instigated by this great man in the team sees them to lift the World Champions trophy. Their horrible loss in the first match they play least bothered the King coach as he had faith in his girls. He motivated them, joked with them, danced with them, and saw them lift the trophy and heard the stadium echo with the uproar, Chak De!India!

Alas, this was to be reel story only. The real story and the agony faced could be seen in all the faces of the Kolkatta Knight Riders in the second edition of IPL. The same reel-coach now owned the franchise. I still remember him hugging and pouncing on Shoaib Akhtar at the Man of the Match presentation ceremony last IPL after KKR won a match. But his team hardly gave him such a chance this time. Even if they did in the couple of games they won, the Big Boss was no where to be seen. KKR has been in the news for all the wrong reasons and I know none of us have missed all the pre-IPL drama nor the fake-IPL saga. But where was the King? The same man who almost inspired even the asli woman's hockey team to rethink of their strategies from his quotes in the movie was no where to be seen in KKR's camp.

Agreed that it sucks to be in the losing side, but would someone tell him this is sport first and business next. For all the fans of Khan, I am not insulting even his toe nail's dust particle. I have been impressed by many of his movies and enjoy them thoroughly. But don't you think it's his responsibilty to stay back with the team. His presence itself would have been a huge motivational factor to the entire squad and I am sure the boys would have fared better than what they finally were. It doesn't take a batallion long time to lose a battle without their commander. Let Khan understand that he may be the King in reel-life but to potray the same kind of effect in real sport, he has to be sportive and supportive first. Hope he learns it if he wishes to see his KKR not at the bottom of the table in IPL-3

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