India is generally considered as feminine, even among its citizens as Mother India. But considering the current scenarios where its territorial integrity is being questioned from various sides, no matter how small, it seriously needs to consider a sex change operation.
We had an instance of google maps depicting Arunachal Pradesh as a part of China, again it repeated the blunder by depicting POK as a part of Pakistan. Then we had iPhone 4 doing the same with Arunachal Pradesh again and now the most recent being FAO, a UN body, showing Arunachal and POK as independent entities.
Why hasn't anybody ever shown some chinese territory in India by mistake, why is it that while drawing borders on maps, the line invariably goes inside India rather than China or Pakistan. Well its more to do with our impotent government and self centered politicians than actual errors on part of Map makers. To be frank this should not matter if we are sure about our abilities of protecting our borders. No offense to our Armed forces, but in case China tries something audacious on the eastern border, our Government would hesitate to give a response and tie up our Armed force's hands, seriously affecting their ability to counter. Our soft spoken, spineless and immensely learned PM would look towards 10 Janpath for directions, where the Queen bee would probably be packing bags for the next Alitalia flight with the born to be PM prince in tow.
Our country, as it stands currently, is without a leader.
Even Kargil became a huge task for our Army as government chose to ignore credible intelligence and lingered on taking action thereby eventually increasing the causalities among our brave soldiers who had to pay for our politicians incompetence as Pakistan consolidated its positions.
If China can force Apple to show Arunachal as a part of it in lieu of letting it sell iPhone4, why can't India force similar conditions on it to make it show what is the truth. Why can't we impose restrictions on any company questioning our territory. It's time we did something concrete about such instances, it's time we barred chinese embassy from issuing stapled VISAs to Indian nationals from J&K and Arunachal via restrictions on its operation. For once think of country's pride rather than a possible backlash from Dragon. Show an iron resolve and some guts to let them know we won't take such things lying down. And most of all..
Be a MAN!!
Friday, October 8, 2010
Sunday, August 22, 2010
Foreigner's Guide to India
Planning to come to India in near future, may be for Common Wealth Games, well here's a ready reckoner to find your way around.
1. Try to have a mobile which has at least Google Maps with location finder feature. That might help you get an idea of where you are and where you are heading while commuting.
2. Try consuming Mineral Water to as much extent. Because unlike the developed world, in India... Tap water is not same as bottled water!!
3. Be careful about your luggage and belongings when outdoors.
4. Try wearing casual floaters or slippers as they would be the most comfortable in case it rains or even otherwise.
5. When you reach airport, rather than coming out and taking an Auto Rickshaw, for the feel of it, just book a cab from the terminal itself as the Auto Driver would surely overcharge you to the tune of a A/C taxi fare. You can find info about various radio cab services on Google for eg: Meru, easy-cabs etc.
6. Keep an Indian acquaintances number handy to help in case of an emergency or even just to ask directions. Don't hesitate to ask any passerby in English, if they know the language, they'll surely respond.
7. A lot of governments like Australia, have issued a long list of diseases prevalent in India, as if we are ogres living in swamps. Its not that bad at all. Just eat at proper places and drink clean water and you would be fine.
8. Our government suggested that you carry your own toilet paper or tissues as our public toilets are not clean enough. Well this is a problem even in western world, I rarely found a clean public toilet even in Amsterdam shopping malls during Christmas.
9. Don't worry about the health care in case its required. You would find world class health care facilities in India.
10. For any flight or Hotel bookings. try the travel sites rather than going through travel agents as they will surely try to rip you off.. There are a lot of good websites which may help.. For example: yatra.com, cleartrip.com(Train Booking Also), makemytrip.com etc. You'd find that in terms of Online services/bookings/shopping, India is far ahead then what you might think.
Let me know through comments in case you need any specific info... Enjoy your stay! :)
1. Try to have a mobile which has at least Google Maps with location finder feature. That might help you get an idea of where you are and where you are heading while commuting.
2. Try consuming Mineral Water to as much extent. Because unlike the developed world, in India... Tap water is not same as bottled water!!
3. Be careful about your luggage and belongings when outdoors.
4. Try wearing casual floaters or slippers as they would be the most comfortable in case it rains or even otherwise.
5. When you reach airport, rather than coming out and taking an Auto Rickshaw, for the feel of it, just book a cab from the terminal itself as the Auto Driver would surely overcharge you to the tune of a A/C taxi fare. You can find info about various radio cab services on Google for eg: Meru, easy-cabs etc.
6. Keep an Indian acquaintances number handy to help in case of an emergency or even just to ask directions. Don't hesitate to ask any passerby in English, if they know the language, they'll surely respond.
7. A lot of governments like Australia, have issued a long list of diseases prevalent in India, as if we are ogres living in swamps. Its not that bad at all. Just eat at proper places and drink clean water and you would be fine.
8. Our government suggested that you carry your own toilet paper or tissues as our public toilets are not clean enough. Well this is a problem even in western world, I rarely found a clean public toilet even in Amsterdam shopping malls during Christmas.
9. Don't worry about the health care in case its required. You would find world class health care facilities in India.
10. For any flight or Hotel bookings. try the travel sites rather than going through travel agents as they will surely try to rip you off.. There are a lot of good websites which may help.. For example: yatra.com, cleartrip.com(Train Booking Also), makemytrip.com etc. You'd find that in terms of Online services/bookings/shopping, India is far ahead then what you might think.
Let me know through comments in case you need any specific info... Enjoy your stay! :)
Friday, April 9, 2010
My Baby..
Did you see “Baby Geniuses” or “Look who’s talking” or “Baby’s Day Out” all these movies had babies as the lead characters, thus giving us an experience of what a baby think of. Babies have not seen much world, their thoughts and perceptions are not cluttered by the pre-conceived notions or fears. And this fact makes a baby’s perspective as the freshest and least biased.
How wonderful it would be to get such a perspective from a baby itself. I am lucky enough to be living with one such baby. She looks at everything in terms of colors, freshness and her own parameters of good and bad. When she praises a mobile phone she saw somewhere and I ask her which one it was.. she says "A red one". When I ask her if she remembers the route she used last week.. she says " yes yes, there are green green trees on the sides and pink flowers on the road divider". She would anyday choose a pink nano over a white BMW.
All these little things keep me smiling even when I am not with her, there are not enough hours in the day I can spend with her.. :)
How wonderful it would be to get such a perspective from a baby itself. I am lucky enough to be living with one such baby. She looks at everything in terms of colors, freshness and her own parameters of good and bad. When she praises a mobile phone she saw somewhere and I ask her which one it was.. she says "A red one". When I ask her if she remembers the route she used last week.. she says " yes yes, there are green green trees on the sides and pink flowers on the road divider". She would anyday choose a pink nano over a white BMW.
All these little things keep me smiling even when I am not with her, there are not enough hours in the day I can spend with her.. :)
My music is music, Your music is noise!!
What is music.. a sound which is pleasing to the senses.. Although this definition has remained same over the years, but its perception has changed drastically over the years. Especially in terms of Hindi film music.
Gone are the days when you could find meaning in each and every word of a song, when lyrics were as important as the rhythm, when song writers had enough words to put in between bits of music and when melody was enough to attract listeners.
Nowadays, all that a song needs to have is a catchy main tune, a few words related to love or lust and you have a winner at your hands. “Kaho na kaho” or "Bheege honth tere" from movie Murder are a case in point. The songs have only one tune which is repeatedly fit on all the stanzas and still the songs were major hits. Hard beats and Bass has become so prevalent in all sorts of songs that sometimes even rhythm doesn't matter if the song has loud enough beats.
There is another peculiar type of Hindi movie songs, one that seems to be melodious and deep(or atleast having some meaning), but when listened carefully is actually crap lyrics fit over a good tune, for ex. most of the songs of "Kuch kuch hota hai" and for the deep seeming song example, "Ya Rabba" from Salaam-e-Ishq.
There are still great songs being made, just that the frequency has reduced to hardly 10-15 an year. But.. if you want to savor the beauty of words meshing in with the tune along with minimalistic use of instruments, then listen to “Abhi na jao Chhodke” from movie Hum Dono. It’s a classic duet song with least amount of instruments involved and most playfully written lyrics. How I wish we had more writers like these, and less of music directors like we have today (except A.R Rehman).
Gone are the days when you could find meaning in each and every word of a song, when lyrics were as important as the rhythm, when song writers had enough words to put in between bits of music and when melody was enough to attract listeners.
Nowadays, all that a song needs to have is a catchy main tune, a few words related to love or lust and you have a winner at your hands. “Kaho na kaho” or "Bheege honth tere" from movie Murder are a case in point. The songs have only one tune which is repeatedly fit on all the stanzas and still the songs were major hits. Hard beats and Bass has become so prevalent in all sorts of songs that sometimes even rhythm doesn't matter if the song has loud enough beats.
There is another peculiar type of Hindi movie songs, one that seems to be melodious and deep(or atleast having some meaning), but when listened carefully is actually crap lyrics fit over a good tune, for ex. most of the songs of "Kuch kuch hota hai" and for the deep seeming song example, "Ya Rabba" from Salaam-e-Ishq.
There are still great songs being made, just that the frequency has reduced to hardly 10-15 an year. But.. if you want to savor the beauty of words meshing in with the tune along with minimalistic use of instruments, then listen to “Abhi na jao Chhodke” from movie Hum Dono. It’s a classic duet song with least amount of instruments involved and most playfully written lyrics. How I wish we had more writers like these, and less of music directors like we have today (except A.R Rehman).
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