The (NOT-SO) great act!!

What the hell is happening to our politicians. They are bloody loosing their touch. Earlier around elections, they used to put up acts for public, but made it subtle or less obvious. But with this Varun Gandhi drama, the act has gone as bad as any RGV movie can go.

Even Varun is not sure about his making the alleged speech!! First he profusely said that he did not make the comments.. it went on like this for two days... slowly support started pouring from entities like Shiv Sena and SRS.. so now with prospects of gaining political mileage out of the issue, BJP has projected Varun as a hero of hindutva! But a few things aren't clear, why the hell is he courting arrest for his principals or faith when he is still maintaining that he didn't make that speech. Does his ideals tell him to go to jail for a crime he hasn't committed?? He says the CD is doctored, and then goes out to say that he can die for his faith!! Mr. Gandhi, pls explain how the two things are connected?

Anyways.... with this drama being made the big issue for this elections, i really don't see the point of BJP indulging in such an elaborate and obvious pretense. For i myself prefer BJP over congress, but with this useless indulgence i don't see BJP's popularity getting a push in the right direction among youngsters.


I just hope whatever government is formed, is formed with an absolute majority for a single party (Either BJP or Congress, NOT THE THIRD FRONT), so that politics of appeasement is given rest for atleast next five years!!

Shri Ram Sena k side effect!

One of the best works of Jophy Joy, an accomplished cartoonist at Infosys,Pune.

The Last Rites (or wrongs)

Recently a very dear aunt of mine passed away due to cancer. The death though imminent was a bit sudden. The various rituals performed and yet to be performed tasks made me think about the business of death which various priests run in the name of religion.

Death, in india or to be more specific in Hindus is as elaborate as wedding. As soon as the news spreads about the sad demise of an individual relatives, friends and neighbours start streaming in for mourning, to share the grief, often causing more grief by crying in front of immediate relatives who've already cried their hearts out. Even after the day of cremation, people will keep on visiting the family as per their own sweet convenience.

The family is required to perform various prayers for long period of time and provide an year's worth of food to the priest conducting prayers. The meeting(kriya) organised after 12 days of death is visited by most of known people and is an elaborate occassion requiring setting up a caterer for food. The family which has already lost a member is lighter by a few thousands before all the rituals are over.

Relatives or visiting people are the least of botheration that a family goes through, the botheration comes from the various rituals that are deemed mandatory by our religious scriptures, without which the deceased will not attain moksha or mukti!

So a recently widowed/orphaned person has to perform numerous tasks and chant umpteen verses before the pyre is lit with holy fire.

Death is the point where all scientific logic and reasoning becomes irrelevant. Almost every religion has some beliefs related to life after death, or the concept of heaven(swarg) and hell(nark). It is these beliefs from which these rituals are born.

The family of deceased may not be totally convinced by these beliefs but still most people prefer not to take chances in case some small effort from them might improve the afterlife of their loved one.

It is this fear of unknown or concern of ours which some godmen may take advantage of.

So at the cremation, after every little ritual, relatives are asked to pray and put some money at the feet of deceased. Money which the priest promptly picks up before next ritual.

At the time of flowing of ashes in the holy river ganges, the local priests will list out the denominations of prayers that they'l undertake for the deceased's well being in the afterlife. They'l unashamedly say that the costlier the prayer the more is the degree of moksha attained. I can't believe that our scriptures link attainment of moksha with amount of money spent by family on rituals, wasn't it all about Karma.


Death of a loved one is an emotional moment for us but for them its their livelyhood. Every ritual ends with some money going into a godmans pocket, so being the more scientific n logical generation, if indeed we want to do something for the peace of our minds and our loved one's souls then rather than maximizing godman's profits and earnings, its better to feed a few poor people whose true blessings might indeed help the deceased..

$ Slumdog Millionare $

One of the best movies i've seen in a long time.. Slumdog millionare deserves every accolade its been receiving worldwide.. The director has made mumbai slums look artistic.. Although the movie could've been more researched but still the few holes in the plot are filled by exceptional performances, especially by the child artist playing jamal.. He was as convincing as any senior actor without resorting to overacting, something which every kid in indian movies does.

Its a story of slum dweller jamal.. Who catches nation frenzy as from a chaiwala in a call center.. He goes on to win a million rupees on game show..

He is suspected of cheating and picked up by police.. Then begins the movie where the boy explains how each question he answered had somehow been answered in his life..

The only noticeable flaw for dumb critics would be.. Jamal talking in hindi as a kid and in accented english when adult.. Anyways.. The movie is too gud for these minor niggles to stop u from enjoying it..

By all means.. Go for it.. :)

Somebody save me..

M on my way to home and accompanied by the most irritating family i've ever met.. The lady keeps chatting up anyone and everyone about anything and everything. The gentleman keeps playing with the camera clicking pics of his wife or just lighting up the flash.. But the most annoying is their cute little 2.5 foot tall daughter who keeps on shouting from the depths of her lungs and bumbling here n there all the time. This is really scaring me about my future n having kids.. There should be some school where the children could be sent once they reached this annoying age n brought back once they are again of sensible age..

Lets hope i'm not annoyed to the extent that i start pulling my hair (or little girl's)

May god give the kid some sense and calm.. Or atleast a volume control knob..!!

I'm posting this via mobile from a train.. So this is my live ordeal.. :(

Letter to Our PM

Got this as a forward:

Dear Mr. Prime minister

I am a typical mouse from Mumbai. In the local train compartment which has capacity of 100 persons, I travel with 500 more mouse. Mouse at least squeak but we don't even do that.
Today I heard your speech. In which you said 'NO BODY WOULD BE SPARED'. I would like to remind you that fourteen years has passed since serial bomb blast in Mumbai took place. Dawood was the main conspirator. Till today he is not caught. All our bolywood actors, our builders, our Gutka king meets him but your Government can not catch him. Reason is simple; all your ministers are hand in glove with him. If any attempt is made to catch him everybody will be exposed. Your statement 'NOBODY WOULD BE SPARED' is nothing but a cruel joke on this unfortunate people of India.

Enough is enough. As such after seeing terrorist attack carried out by about a dozen young boys I realize that if same thing continues days are not away when terrorist will attack by air, destroy our nuclear reactor and there will be one more Hiroshima.
We the people are left with only one mantra. Womb to Bomb to Tomb. You promised Mumbaikar Shanghai what you have given us is Jalianwala Baug.
Today only your home minister resigned. What took you so long to kick out this joker? Only reason was that he was loyal to Gandhi family. Loyalty to Gandhi family is more important than blood of innocent people, isn't it?

I am born and bought up in Mumbai for last fifty eight years. Believe me corruption in Maharashtra is worse than that in Bihar. Look at all the politician, Sharad Pawar, Chagan Bhujbal, Narayan Rane, Bal Thackray , Gopinath Munde, Raj Thackray, Vilasrao Deshmukh all are rolling in money. Vilasrao Deshmukh is one of the worst Chief minister I have seen. His only business is to increase the FSI every other day, make money and send it to Delhi so Congress can fight next election. Now the clown has found new way and will increase FSI for fisherman so they can build concrete house right on sea shore. Next time terrorist can comfortably live in those house , enjoy the beauty of sea and then attack the Mumbai at their will.

Recently I had to purchase house in Mumbai. I met about two dozen builders. Everybody wanted about 30% in black. A common person like me knows this and with all your intelligent agency & CBI you and your finance minister are not aware of it. Where all the black money goes? To the underworld isn't it? Our politicians take help of these goondas to vacate people by force. I myself was victim of it. If you have time please come to me, I will tell you everything.
If this has been land of fools, idiots then I would not have ever cared to write you this letter. Just see the tragedy, on one side we are reaching moon, people are so intelligent and on other side you politician has converted nectar into deadly poison. I am everything Hindu, Muslim, Christian, Schedule caste, OBC, Muslim OBC, Christian Schedule caste, Creamy Schedule caste only what I am not is INDIAN. You politician have raped every part of mother India by your policy of divide and rule.

Take example of former president Abdul Kalam. Such a intelligent person, such a fine human being. You politician didn't even spare him. Your party along with opposition joined the hands, because politician feels they are supreme and there is no place for good person.
Dear Mr Prime minister you are one of the most intelligent person, most learned person. Just wake up, be a real SARDAR. First and foremost expose all selfish politician. Ask Swiss bank to give name of all Indian account holder. Give reins of CBI to independent agency. Let them find wolf among us. There will be political upheaval but that will better than dance of death which we are witnessing every day. Just give us ambient where we can work honestly and without fear. Let there be rule of law. Everything else will be taken care of.
Choice is yours Mr. Prime Minister. Do you want to be lead by one person or you want to lead the nation of 100 Crore people?

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PS: I wanted to write something very badly about the current situation, though this peice is too soft voiced, but still it puts forward my emotions very aptly.

I Miss...........

I miss the familiarity of my home...

I miss my parents who are all alone at home!

I miss being carefree about meals...

I miss those weekends which meant mom made Aaloo k paranthe and Snacks in evening..whereas now its getting up late and having bread-butter with powdered milk tea!

I miss my car..... here its generally on foot or if i'm lucky then a pink Lady Bird cycle :D

I miss my gugu and her idiosyncracies....

I miss being with friends i really liked....Friends with whom i could be what i want to be...friends who would listen to what i'm saying..without compiling the errors in my speech and reporting them there and then!

I miss paying for watching movies!!(:P)

I miss Dilli ki Sardi!

I miss Indian Style Toilet Seats!

I miss living off a pocket money!(not that what company pays me is anything more than just a pocket money!)

I miss Pao bhaaji of kar kar dooma!:(

I miss Mc Donald's Veg Surprise with Lemon Ice Tea!

I miss nizaam's Egg Role with aloo masala.

I miss Delhi's traffic, Pollution and Metro!

I miss having the freedom to go wherever whenever i wanted!

I miss hanging around with frns doing nothing.

I miss the time when Friday, Saturday Sunday were just another days of the week!

I miss those mass bunks which i loved to initiate in college!

I miss my pathetically slow PC which has been with me since past 7 years!

I miss the noisy family get togethers!

I miss all the friends whom i don't know when i'l be able to meet!

I miss having so many places to go out to eat!

I miss drinking clean unsalty soft water.

I miss watching season by season of FRIENDS non stop and laughing my heart out!

I miss my daily dialogue with god when i used to switch off the light of the mandir at home at night!

And MOST OF ALL I MISS.....

:) :P :D :/ ('_') (::'_'::) (':') o(:-) ('@') ('*') :( :@

All the Monkey Business!

Australians players have stooped to new lows in their pursuit of creating world records.. The way the 2nd test was played just shows that alongwith being the best playing team they are also best at cheating n manipulating. As for the racism row, i think that ponting should be banned for beinga racist as this monkey business is simply a figment of his imagination, and symonds i guess is in team not only for his batting prowses but also for being from colored origin, which gives australia the opportunity to blame others for being a racist.. Even in indiawhen people impersonated monkeys in a match i'm sure they were not aware of symonds being black, we just thought that he was simply a case of overtanning. People targeted him as he was the most aggressive of players and as indians don't know how to give it back onfield, the spectators were doing their bit to unsettle the aussie! His race must not have been on their minds at all. But alas, our authorities prefer to please the foreigners even if it means troublingthe local people.

All the events that took place during the last test have raised a lot of emotions among indians world over, one interesting mail i came across was about new rules of cricket prescribed by ICC, someone has put a lot of thought into it.. heres the mail:

(1) Ricky Ponting – (THE TRULY GENUINE CRICKETER OF THE CRICKET ERA AND WHOSE INTEGRITY SHOULD NOT BE DOUBTED) should be considered as the FOURTH UMPIRE. As per the new rules, FOURTH UMPIRE decision is final and will over ride any decisions taken by any other umpires. ON-FIELD umpires can seek the assistance of RICKY PONTING even if he is not on the field. This rule is to be made, so that every team should understand the importance of the FOURTH UMPIRE.

(2) While AUSTRALIAN TEAM is bowling, If the ball flies anywhere close to the AUSTRALIAN FIELDER(WITHIN 5 metre distance), the batsman is to be considered OUT irrelevant of whether the catch was taken cleanly or grassed. Any decision for further clarification should be seeked from the FOURTH UMPIRE. This is made to ensure that the cricket is played with SPORTIVE SPIRIT by all the teams.

(3) While BATTING, AUSTRALIAN players will wait for the ON-FIELD UMPIRE decisions only (even if the catch goes to the FIFTH SLIP as the ball might not have touched the bat). Each AUSTRALIAN batsman has to be out FOUR TIMES (minimum) before he can return to the pavilion. In case of THE CRICKETER WITH INTEGRITY, this can be higher.

(4) UMPIRES should consider a huge bonus if an AUSTRALIAN player scores a century. Any wrong decisions can be ignored as they will be paid huge bonus and will receive the backing of the AUSTRALIAN team and board.

(5) All AUSTRALIAN players are eligible to keep commenting about all players on the field and the OPPONENT TEAM should never comment as they will be spoiling the spirit of the AUSTRALIAN team. Any comments made in any other language are to be considered as RACIALISM only.

(6) MATCH REFREE decisions will be taken purely on the AUSTRALIAN TEAM advices only. Player views from the other teams decisions will not be considered for hearing. MATCH REFREES are to be given huge bonus if this rule is implemented.

(7) NO VISITING TEAM should plan to win in AUSTRALIA. This is to ensure that the sportive spirit of CRICKET is maintained.

(8) THE MOST IMPORTANT RULE: If any bowler gets RICKY PONTING - “THE UNDISPUTED CRICKETER WITH INTEGRITY IN THE GAME OF CRICKET” more than twice in a series, he will be banned for the REST OF THE SERIES. This is to ensure that the best batsman/Captain will be played to break records and create history in the game of CRICKET.

Well whatever Ponting might say, the truth was for all to see, lets hope that the rest of series is remembered just for good competitive cricket!