Inspiration!

So after all the sessions and advertisements for voting, only 46 percent people voted from Pune. Mumbai also paints a similar voter turn-out picture. Seems people liked the ‘Jaago Re’ (wake up) campaign but decided to sleep over the polls. Initially I went to the wrong polling booth after reading half part of the address and mumbling “Ah! I know it”. Later I walked to the correct one as the parking lot was full and it would have been stupid to vacate my space and later finding no space at the new location. If there were so many vehicles, how come only 46% turn-out?? I noticed that last time there were far many (seemingly) educated people out there standing in queues to cast their votes. This time it was more of the lower class out there. Or at least that is what I felt. The most bizarre thing was when I showed my index finger to the lady who was applying ink, she demanded the middle one. Middle one? I wondered about the advertisement which urged youngsters to be proud to show the inked index finger rather than showing the middle one to the administration. I met a colleague on the way out and she said that photographs were being taken at her booth with the middle finger up showing the ink. Ha ha ha! A few days back the Mumbai election photographs showed many celebrities showing off their middle fingers. And some were laughing too. Anyways, 16^th May will decide the winners and I hope that competent contestants do win.

A good leader inspires people to have confidence in the leader; a great leader inspires people to have confidence in themselves.

Are you interested in cricket? Yes. Are you watching IPL? Yes. In case you have the answers as no then you are missing it big time. The point table is getting topsy-turvy with every match. It is really getting very difficult to predict the winner. I am rooting for Mumbai Indians like last time and sadly my team is sitting at 7^th spot out of the 8 teams. Sad indeed. Sigh! I am hoping against hope that they bounce back to form and win all the remaining matches to enter the semi finals stage. Sample these conversations in our company:

Guy1: It amazes me that Yusuf Pathan is a match winner in the IPL matches but when he plays for India he hardly scores.

Guy2: Well there is a very important reason behind it. The reason is ‘inspiration’.

Guy1: Hmm.. Shane Warne is a good captain.

Guy2: Nah! Shilpa Shetty is sexy. She makes everyone do her yoga thingie watching the DVD and the match winner gets to do a personal yoga session after the match. Carrots and stick approach, simple.

Guy1: Ha ha! Then why did the team lose the initial matches?

Guy2: Shilpa took her sister along with to South Africa and the guys got scared. But the baboons were not.

Guy1: Have you seen how sloppy is KKR’s fielding?

Guy2: Yeah, lack of inspiration.

Guy1: Hmm.. The captain himself has butterfingers.

Guy2: Nah! The team owner. Look at other teams like Punjab and Rajasthan. They get nice hugs after the matches. Remember how a guy had cried out on the field last year just because he did not get a hug. Incentives matter a lot. Are we working now? No. Why? Lack of incentives. Lack of inspiration. Simple.

Any sort of resemblance of guy2 with the blog owner is a mere co-incidence. Today’s match is between Mumbai Indians (my team) and Delhi Daredevils (wifey’s team). Looking at the current form of players of both teams, her team is going to thrash my team it seems. If her team wins I will have to cook the dinner and if my team wins then I will have to sleep on the couch. A contra-win-win situation eh? Quite an inspirational thought to leave for home.

Bo down!

Dear terrorist friend,

How are you doing? Glad to say that long time no see. But I thought maybe you will be showing up soon somewhere as my country goes into parliamentary election mode. Oh ho ho hello hello this letter is for the external terrorist and not the internal terrorist as Sonia had quoted. God save me from raking up any controversy on this blog. I am not sure how interested you are in the political scenario but sometimes watching the mud-slinging between the political leaders is fun. ‘Sometimes’ by the way means just 20 minutes of your day otherwise you can get hooked up to the television set 24x7. There is a vicious circle of slandering doing rounds, literally. The head of one party targets the prime minister in his speech. Then one family defends the PM and in turn targets the party head. The party head’s supporters then dig in the origins of the political family. Then the other parties go left (pun intended) and right clobbering everyone. Phew!

So what is your plan of action for the next 1 month? Nothing, you say!!! Ahh.. I get it, I get it. We already have our politicians who are on the verge of killing us so we really don’t need your services. We have a Mumbai blast accused person as a national secretary of a political party. We were a bit lucky that the Supreme Court put a stay on his contesting the elections this time. Then we have a candidate who took cue from inflammatory speeches by others and found himself behind the bars when he gave one. By the way this young man had given false education details reports tell us. Tch tch tch! Maybe you should cool your heels and let these people do your job staying within the country. We do have some good contestants this time also but I don’t think they will get elected or hardly a few will reach the doors of the parliament house.

But let me tell you that in case you want global attention then instead of targeting the elections go for IPL. The T20 cricket festival has been shifted to South Africa. I won’t go in detail why it was shifted from India because you already know that some of your colleagues had attacked a cricket team in my neighbouring country. Everyone will be glued to the television sets till next month and most probably everyone would be watching the cheerleaders than bickering politicians. Sad maybe, but true.

By the way friend in case you are not married and looking for someone to tie a knot with then you can take part in Rakhi ‘Indian Jade Goody’ Sawant’s search for a husband. I bet it will be fun; not for you but for us.

Till next time... tada!

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EDIT: Urging all the Indian citizens to vote for the right candidate. For Pune, the date is 23rd April so please cast your vote as it is precious. Thanks!

When will enough be really enough?

Dear Terrorist Friend,

I know you would be smiling reading the words dear and friend thinking that you have got one more stupid person to carry out a fidayeen attack. But I want you to think that I am your friend so that we can embrace and then I can rip your stomach off with bagh nakh with me visualizing that I am Shivaji and you are Afzal Khan muahahahahaha! I prefer that you ought to be tortured to death and not killed in an encounter. Yesterday I received a mail which had a presentation attached along with. It had pictures and names of all the soldiers of my nation who laid down their life defending Mumbai. The presentation depicted these brave men as heroes and on the last slide it had a photo of one of the Mumbai attackers. Beside that image it was written that “You might be a hero to someone but you definitely are not human”. I agree with the last part of the line because I read in newspapers that you did not even spare the stray dogs which were barking at the railway terminus. You mercilessly killed every living thing which came in your way. A person capable of doing such a thing would have been brainwashed since a long long time. I have full sympathy for your parents and especially for your mother, who must be cursing herself for giving birth to such a scoundrel. But yes I really think that you deserve some praise for planning this attack. Before this attack you used to target the common man and a few days of mourning later no one ever talked about the killings or bothered to secure the borders. This time you attacked the elite people and the tourists especially the westerners. And everyone can see the outrage of this. The streets are flooded with people carrying banners against you all and the politicians. Well you all would have sufficed because the politicians come under your banner. We have seen heads rolling down on pretext of ‘moral responsibility’ and thankfully the Rajs’, the Uddhavs’ and the other rogues who usually put Mumbai under threat have gone hiding. I heard a few days back somewhere that this time the public outcry will make the politicians aware that they can be held responsible for such attacks and the masses will rise to protect the nation. Let me tell you that I was an optimistic guy but somewhere down the last few years I have given up the optimism and embraced reality. I don’t think that the politicians of India will think good for the people. I don’t think that security will be beefed up to prevent such attacks. The common man and the elite person will go back to do his/her normal routine. All news channels will gear up for the coming elections. Everyone’s focus will be back to the upcoming cricket series against England. The politicians will be back to their mudslinging game blaming the rival parties. Basically everyone will be back doing his own business and you will be back to plotting another attack at some another place. But let me remind you that such attacks won’t cut India into pieces. No matter how much we fight amongst ourselves we are a nation. Ours is the country having the largest democracy in the world and sooner or later when the endurance limit exceeds people like me will take up arms if need be and barge into your country. Then it wouldn’t matter to us whether your country is in the neighbourhood or is a far flung country. We would not sneak in and I promise you that we will take care to wipe away the entire spoilt race of yours. The innocent will be spared and respected and the guilty would be punished. After that the world will live in peace. I have that much of optimism left in me.

Yours truly

A friend turning into a fiend

For a change little Johnny will be behind the Barracks

Never had an election aroused such an interest all over the world. Might be the global recession and the impact of the new elected person on the economy was a main factor that most of my colleagues were following the Presidential race. I was about to leave for work on Wednesday morning when my cousin tuned into a news channel and then the stage was set for Obama to give his victory speech. I waited and waited but finally left as I had a meeting to attend. Later in the night while having dinner I caught up with his victory speech. I loved his oratory skills. I loved the way he kept the huge crowd nodding their heads to his lines and then erupt in 'Yes we can' cry. I loved the way the crowd behaved. It was such a nice thing to see a leader speak in a style which I am not sure can be matched by Indian politicians and it was even nicer to see that the entire crowd was standing all the time and still it was not looking/behaving like a mob.


In the last few months whenever I saw Obama's picture I would think about 24 Season 1. The image of Dennis Haysbert comes up though later Elisha Cuthbert overshadows that image :D. Keeping Elisha aside for a while… I always wonder why over all these years I have always seen a 'coloured' person in my imagination when anyone said the words 'US President'. Bill Clinton didn't come up, nor did George Bush, Senior or Junior. Most of the times it was Denzel Washington… might be the surname has influenced my imagination. Then sometimes it was Dennis Haysbert and a very few times it was even Lawrence Fishburne. But since Obama has been in the news, Haysbert has been looming large on my mind. Maybe watching Obama a few more times on TV will clear my thought bubble.


One of my colleagues said that the Americans love the letter C coz they have had Bill the Casanova, George the Comedian and now Obama the Coloured. Might be the Coloured term will be replaced by Change, gradually. But Sonia Gandhi must be very happy and dreaming of becoming the Indian President. Well everyone has a right to an American Dream, right? :-)


For a change Elisha rules my thought bubble ;-)

Happy Diwali!!

Wish you all a very happy Diwali. A bit late in wishing all of you but most of you will pardon me for that. Some of my maternal cousins were here with us this time. It was fun supervising the kids bursting crackers and taking them to the roof to show the brightly lit city and the wonderful display of fireworks over the city horizon. Scrumptious Diwali goodies to gorge into and 2 days of holiday… bliss! Not all was good this Diwali though… some parts of India had terrorist attacks while some didn’t need terrorists as the people have started fighting amongst themselves. With some persons aiming for political supremacy the common man has been made to suffer. My heartfelt condolences to the family of the boy, who was gunned down by the Mumbai police. Instead of lighting lamps during Diwali we are more desperate to snuff out the light out of someone’s lives. I hope God gives all of us sensibility as well this time along with the wealth which comes with the festival of Diwali. Have a nice weekend everyone.

CATastrophe

Who will bell the CAT you ask eh? I don’t know who will but what I know is that I definitely won’t be among that lot… this year at least. Yes, this year means I am going to attempt it next year as well. My friends have been attempting to crack the supposedly toughest and trickiest exam for the last 3 years and that too after studying a lot. Did I study? Oh yes I did but only for 13 days before the exam. But I did study seriously for those many days except for the fact that the paper setter knew what I was studying and decided to ask questions from the topics I had left for option :(. Seriously I was skimming through the paper trying to find questions on geometry and number system. Luckily that was the case with Mathematics only and the other 2 sections went fine. Now if they didn’t have sectional cut offs I would have hoped to bell the CAT but alas… now I know what to study (or not to study) for the next year so I will be prepared. I just hope that the paper setter doesn’t read my blog.

This image is related to the post somehow. Those who are aware of world politics might get the joke (no personal issues with any of these personalities).

I also attempted the IIFT, Delhi exam a fortnight back (the last post was from that). Those guys don’t have Pune as their test centre so had to go to Mumbai (Vaibhav’s city for Sean’s reference) with a colleague. His cousin studies dentistry in a college there so she managed to get us a room to share with her friends… in boys’ hostel and I had thought she had arranged in girls’ hostel! Kidding, I knew it was a boys’ hostel and though I had been to my college hostel rooms with my friends living there I had never stayed there overnight so the ‘hostel experience’ was new for me. I tried hard not to think of being bound to the dentist chair and getting my tooth pulled out under the pretext of ragging. But the ‘seniors’ there were so timid that later my colleague and I felt ashamed for pulling their legs... seriously those guys were very sweet, probably they are taught to be so to become a good doctor. The room where we stayed was quite clean; might be I had expected it to be in a huge mess and it was not that much so it looked clean. The walls were replete with posters of all the femme fantasies in bare minimum. When I slept my legs were touching Maria Sharapova’s long legs and Bipasha Basu’s bare torso touched mine on the right. Sometime past midnight the guy with whom we were sharing the room barged in and woke us up to announce that a bomb had been found in the nearby railway station. So he advised us not to go for sight-seeing. I was like dude we are here for an exam not sight-seeing. My colleague had a restless sleep after that but I slept peacefully. I don’t know whether the reason was being tired after the travel or Maria and Bips giving me company. The exam was on Sunday and we were told that the traffic on road would not be heavy but we hadn’t thought that it would be so less that even a taxi was not in sight. Somehow we got hold of a taxi after walking a bit. The much fancied fast-pace life of Mumbai was evident from the hustling crowd at the railway stations. For a person like me who has been brought up and acclimatized to the laid-back life of Pune, it was no less than a horror. Trying to alight from the local trains was itself a Herculean task. Somehow we passed away the weekend in Mumbai among the bomb-scares (hoax or not we don’t know), exam terror (real, I can vouch for that) and I really didn’t have the energy to meet anyone in Mumbai so called up all those whom I had promised to catch up with and said “Hey, maybe next year I will be attempting this exam again, so please not today.”

How horrible is it that the exam for the colleges for which you are not eligible is much better than the earlier ones! I was not aware that to appear for JMET one has to have 60+ aggregate percentage in engineering (damn! 60+??) and the form didn’t mention it so I had filled it up. After one of my friends told me about the eligibility for a call from the colleges I decided to attempt the exam for practice (I have other exams lined up as well) and to my surprise and dismay it went off extremely well. That’s life eh?

By the way, blogspot is giving me troubles (not blogger though) and I am not able to comment on blogs so please bear with me for a while to comment on yours’ and reply on mine.

Google shld sue them!

I will bring both those Russian n American kids to India n tell them look how awfully we are being censored (as if they aren’t in their countries but still). I hate this censorship coz then I have to surf thro proxies which makes surfing very slow.

On a serious note, this censorship issue is just to divert attention frm wht measures are being taken to curb terrorism. A blanket ban on sites is no way to deal with terrorism. In fact wht u will get is a rebellion within ur own ranks. Thnx to Aditi, got the mail id of President of India. It is presidentofindia@rb.nic.in in case u want to drop a mail to protest against the block. First I had thought of sending an invite of orkut to him so tht we could have settled this matter over a couple of scraps but then as it is I had to reply to my back-frm-vacn-happy-happy client so wrote a mail to the Prez as well. Here goes wht I wrote..

Respected Sir,

Hello! I severely condemn the terrorist attacks in Mumbai and J&K. Though we all, as common people, can’t do much against terrorism directly, we are quite sure that the government agencies are working round the clock to ensure that such acts don’t recur. Probably one of the measures taken by some government agency is blocking some sites which are said to be anti-India or pro-terrorists. Sorry that I haven’t gone through the whole list but one of the sites which has been blocked is blogspot.com on which many Indians have their personal blogs (blog = web + log). This is one of the best contemporary mediums of expressing our thoughts to the whole world. The nature of blogs ranges from personal to political and entertaining to educative. Being a blogger for the past one and a half year I have gathered tremendous knowledge and a group of great friends all over the world which I wouldn’t have if I were not blogging. There are some blogs which are helping the people affected by the recent bomb blasts. There have been blogs which have helped Tsunami victims too earlier. If all this is curtailed then there is really no meaning to our lives by just paying homage to the victims by maintaining silence for 2 minutes.

I do not disagree to the fact that some blogs might be intentionally created to threaten our nation’s security, but does that mean all blogs will be termed as anti-India and a blanket ban be imposed on them? Certainly NOT! As a citizen of India, I feel that I have the rights to express my views on my personal space and also the right to freedom of speech too. If my personal space is labeled as pro-terrorist then it indirectly means that the government is labeling me as a terrorist. If such is the case will I ever trust our own government? This is an earnest appeal to you to step into this matter and not let some agencies sweep off the issues under carpet. As the President of India, we all look up to you with great respect and a man who respects peoples’ rights. I am not sure you personally will be reading this mail, but whoever reads this and brings it to your notice will be helping all sane bloggers get back their blogs.
Thank you!

I know he won’t be reading this but lets hope he gets bombarded by such mails n then the freedom of speech n all stuff is restored back. I know ways to log in to blogspot since we are playing with proxies after the company blocked sites, but it is shameful tht for expressing my own views on my space I have to use a server in some country abroad. I think Google must sue the govt for the decline in their revenue. Wht say google? How much ‘cut’ do I get for this wonderful suggestion?

Also have joined a Blue Ribbon campaign. U can also display the image on ur page n check the sidebar for the Bloggers against censorship icon.

Meanwhile if u r stressed reading on the same topic on each n every blog then visit this link. Viewers are free to use their discretion to watch a few scenes. I hope this video is not the real scenario coz then I was thinking of calling blogspot customer care. Also let me know if the link is working coz it is .swf link n not .html link.