Motor Bike Ads

Does it really matter? Does it matter if the Ad shows risky postures? If I am a customer I think it doesnt matter to me. So, let me think from my perspective hence. Why do the motor bike folks dont get it?

The outrageous one is the latest Honda Bike Ad. Gosh!!. The biker there (Hrithik Roshan) literally drives the motorcycle through some Tsunami and cyclonic situation.

Ok!! Do you want to say that you can do this with the bike? Ofcourse not. Hence, there will be a footnote with font size 6 that says these are dramatized actions and do not try to imitate them. Then why the heck are you showing them? Its arrant stupidity in my opinion.

Why dont these guys get that I am rather interested in the clear and concise specifications of the motor bike? Why doesnt the bike manufacture dare to explain the specifications and boast them rather than driving through some tsunamis? It would help everyone in such a huge way wont it? How many times have we not got confused at the showroom where the agent almost succeeds in convincing us that he is selling us the moon?

Finally, I feel, the bike and car ads are ridiculously immature, outrageous and useless (from the information content point of view).

Thats my rambling of the day.

Happy Diwali

दिवाली की रात, आसमान के साथ
बनायी हमने फुलझडियों की रंगोली
जगमगा उठी हर दिशा, खिल उठी हर गली

Boating in the Ulsoor Lake

Today, the sunday was kinda interesting. In the afternoon, after lunch, we felt like we will do a little boating. How romantic :-) So we went to the Ulsoor lake to try the boating in the legacy lake of Bengaluru. Three options were available. The motor boat for 8-12 people was costing Rs. 20 per head while the couple's manual pedal boat was Rs. 80 without rooftop and Rs. 100 per head with rooftop.

From the moment we sat in the boat, all that was in mind was when will I get out. My wife complained that I spoiled the fun with my complaining, but I couldnt help it. :-)

The water was just so dirty that you cannot imagine until you actually go and sit in the boat. Oh my god. At some point, I was almost on the verge on puking. It is so green and viscous that I felt some diesel has gotten mixed with the water.

Once again, it reinforces my belief that we are just so good at screwing up our nice beautiful natural resources.

Another complaint session. Its fun complaining . Its in my nerves and the things around me get on my nerves.

You have to really take a boat ride to have a first hand experience how dirty the water there is.

For All the Egos Hurt

I really liked this article in Times of India

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/news/world/us/Would-Khan-have-fared-better-as-Kennedy/articleshow/4899589.cms

With news Channels airing the Shah Rukh Khan ordeal story 24 hours as if the world has come down, with Ambika Soni making knee-jerk comments (that shows how mature our ministers are. Old Age is on their side but definitely not the maturity), I wonder when will we wake up and shed our VIP disease?

It surprises me to hear even the younger generation talking complete rubbish on how the whole nation has been insulted etc.

Are we just too much egoistic ? Are we failing to get over the fact that everyone is equally likely to be questioned more? It just happened to be SRK this time?

Ahh!!! only pleasant thing in the middle of all this crap happening was a nice gesture by
P. Chidambaram to go and watch the World Badminton Championship sitting in the gallery. But again, if we were not stuck with this VIP culture and believed in equal treatment to everyone, we would not have even raised our eyebrow at this gesture of PC. But the very fact that we said,
"oh this is a nice gesture" shows that we do not expect this. That we expect PC to take special treatment. That is assumed.

And this assumption is the root of several evils.

Kanyakumari Trip

I cannot get over Kanyakumari.
The beautiful ocean view lingers in my mind
The thriving waves echo in my heart
The colors of the ocean paint my vision
A voice from the nature calls my soul

And this post gets delayed forever. My life has become hectic. I am not sure about what to give priority. Naturally, the one that does not pay but gives satisfaction got a backseat. It is around 12:50 in the night of a weekend. I am in front of my computer, staring at windows and suddenly got that urge to write with a delusive imagination that there definitely will be atleast one future reader : myself :-) And I am not sure if I will be able to complete it this time either.

And again a fortnight later, another attempt to add more details.

Introduction
Well. We had been planning for the kanyakumari for a long time. That beautiful image of southernmost tip of India used to linger in our minds. Finally, we decided to jump and go on a travel mission. This, we decided soon after we came back from Pondicherry.

Planning for the Trip
We looked at differen options of going to Kanyakumari. Naturally, two prime ones were by bus and by train. After some thought, we decided to go by train. Next was the search for the trains available. The train that we found was Kanyakumari. We went ahead and booked the tickets.

The Journey
I must say that Kanyakumari express is one of the slowest train and it can be extremely boring. The train left the Bangalore Central station in the night around 9:30 p.m. And it reached Kanyakumari only the evening of the next day. But the scenery of the journey is awesome. All over the journey were scenes of backwaters. What a heavenly sight it is.











At Kanyakumari

• Stay

We reached Kanyakumari around 6:00 p.m We had a booking at Vivekananda Ashram at Vivekananda Puram. We heard that it is a simple and inexpensive place and yet pretty good. So we wanted to try that out rather than a usual hotel. After getting down at railway station, we headed out for Vivekananda Puram in an auto rickshaw. Cost us Rs. 20. The station is around 2 kms from the Vivekananda Puram.

• Vivekananda Puram

We stayed in a small 2 bedroom accomodation. I must say that the room is pretty ordinary and like a hostel. But who cares? I didnt as loong as the environment is good. And we were not disappointed. The campus is awesome. It is quiet, simple and full of greenery. There were museum, temple, canteen etc. Even they have their own beach area.

• Sunrise
  

Vivekananda puram folks have their own beach from where sunrise could be enjoyed. So we woke early in the morning and walked through the nice garden of Vivekanandapuram and waited for the sun rise. I must say the sea was ferocious. The sunrise view was brilliant.

• Vivekananda Rock
  

There are ferries that take people to the rock. It feels like meditating here. The ferries take Rs. 20 per head to go to Vivekananda rock. It started raining as soon as we were about to catch the ferry. But thankfully, the clouds cleared. And we could enjoy the beauty on the rock.

• Other Places of Interest : Kumari Amman Temple, Wax Museum et al
  

Kumari Amman Temple is right on the shore. You have to drop off your cameras outside, open your shirts and then go in. Wax Museum is a place recently opened in Kanyakumari and hosts the wax statues of some celebrities.

• Return Journey
  

After two days of fantastic stay at Vivekanandapuram, it was time to bid adieu. The time was at around 10:00 a.m in the morning. A slow train, moving through the beautiful parts of the country. All along the route were backwaters, mountains and everything that make you dream and think "If I had a house here" :-)



The train finally reached Bangalore early in the morning.

• Epilogue

A great trip, a great place. Makes you feel like go back and enjoy the peace in the beauty of the Vivekanda Rock and the peace of Vivekananda Puram

CAG Flays Delhi Metro's Quality Control

Read this interesting article

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/4790222.cms

Isn't a Deja Vu to read all the comments in the article?
How do we ensure that such things do not happen?
What is the guarantee that Bangalore Metro is not in the same boat?

Yesterday I was in an auto rickshaw. The auto was passing under the pillars on which slab has been placed in the MG Road section. To be honest, the only thought that was coming to my mind was "Is it going to come down on my head. Go auto go fast".

That is how our mind is working rather than creating a sense of pride.

And then we call this progress and anyone who protests the way early on are called enemies of progress and are silenced.

Only for system to wake up after the project is done and to make comments as are given in the article.

The solution is simple : The cost of negligence be made so much on the company that once an accident like this happens, it almost shuts down the company.

We tolerate too much.

High Court Contempt Notice to BMRC and BBMP

I read this in Times of India.

Contempt Plea:Notice to BMRC and BBMP Chiefs

Here lies the credibility of the our so called esteemed organizations like BMRC and BBMP that are supposed to develop India. I feel ashamed and so should every Indian.

I wonder why shouldnt one be punished for contempt. And particularly in these cases where the actions inviting these contempts are irreversible.

A tree cut in contempt cannot be brought back to life.
A pillar raised in contempt cannot come down.

I wonder about the strength of this contempt in the scheme of these things. I wonder as a simple, powerless India citizen.

Pondicherry Trip

Just came back from a weekend trip to Pondicherry. Will post everything here. It may be long. Hence it will come out in installments :-)



Journey to Pondicherry
We took the KSRTC (Karnataka Road Transport Corporation) bus from Bangalore. The bus takes around 6-7 hours to reach Pondicherry. We did the online reservation for the bus at http://ksrtc.in. Fortunately we got the reservation for the onward journey but did not get the reservation for the return. So the journey was kind of open ended. KSRTC bus volvo bus is kind of cluttered with less leg space. The bus left at around 2230 hours and reached Pondy at 5:30 in the morning. On the way the bus stopped at a coffee, restroom place where people could take whatever kind of break they need to. But most passengers prefer to continue sleeping. Right at 5:00 a.m, the bus driver started playing morning hymns at loud noise. And everyone jumped out of sleep. This was to alert the passengers that we are here at Pondy.

From Pondicherry bus stand to Place of stay
This was quite a drama. I am really waiting to see a place where the auto-rickshaw guys are calm, soft-spoken and charge the right amount. Well, you wont find them in Pondicherry. And if you are from bangalore, get ready to autos without meters. And in the absence of meters, get ready to be confused and shell out money. Soon after we landed, the auto guys surrounded us. When we said we want to go to Park Guest house, one of them said, ok it will Rs. 70. And we were clueless on what is the right amount. We said Rs. 50 and immediately one of them said ok fine. And there you go. We clearly made ourselves fools. It was hardly 3 kms to beach. It should not have been more than Rs. 25. Well we all learn. Park Guest House is on the beach and is run by Aurobindo Ashram it seems. We wanted to try a room there. Unfortunately they refused to do advanced reservation. And the reception office would not open before 7;00 a.m. So we decided to sit on the beach and watch the waves and wait for sun rise. The good thing was we could see the sun rise. We already had a booking done at French Villa but decided to try our luck. So when the Park Guest House office opened at 7:00 a.m, we went in and asked if there is room available. The person at reception said that we will have to wait till 10:00. Then we decided that there is no way we can wait for 3 more hours with bags on our back. So we went to French Villa.
And our dream to stay at Park Guest House on the beach remained unfulfilled.

Place of Stay in Pondicherry
There are several places to stay in Pondicherry. And all are pretty close to beach. All may not have beach view though. We stay at French Villa. But I would not recommend. Because it is very expensive and it does not deserve to be that expensive with the amenities it provides. The room rent was Rs. 1700 for a double bedded AC room. And I felt it should not be more than Rs. 500. Well, the only reason for its high price may be it location on a heritage walk street and proximity to beach. But so are other places. So it is worth checking prices of other places of stay. We couldnt since it was our first visit. May be in the next visit we will try some other place to stay. French Villa is 3 streets away from beach and neat street called Suffren Street. By the way, French Villa can give a 10% discount if you ask for it.

First Day Roming around
Sitting on the beach in the early morning and waiting for sun rise is a heavenly feeling. The roads are wide, clean and you can feel a fresh air. Thats how our stay at Pondicherry began. After freshening up at French Villa we decided to explore the city. But man, it is a hot city. At 8:00 a.m it was damn hot. Unimaginable. Good that we had our umbrella. Not to protect from rain but from sun. First, we went to Tourism office on Goubert Avenue. Gourbert Avenue is road adjoining the sea. The streets are so well planned that it is a fun walking on the streets of Pondicherry. From the tourism office, we got a map of the city and some information on landmark places. Then we decided to get some food since we were getting really hungry. The tourism office guy told us that there will be south india restaurant near Vinagar Kovil. So we decided to start our day by a visit to Shree Vinayagar kovil. Soon after the temple visit, as we came out, we saw Anand Adyar Bhavan right opposite the road. We enjoyed nice idli, dosa and coffee. But the restaurant was extremely crowded. And they take forever to serve your dish. But you cant help. Its a business at peak. It would be a great business to start another restraurant right there. :-) It was so hot outside that sitting inside the Anand Adyar Bhavan was bliss. After eating as we came out, we felt the furnace outside. Then we decided to go to Auroville and visit Matri Mandir. Auroville was around 10 km from Pondicherry beach area.

After waiting for bus and shared tempo services, we decided to take an auto. After a brief bargaining, we could get an auto for Rs. 110. But the journey to Auroville was like through a furnace. I almost felt roasted.

At Auroville
It took almost an hour to reach Auroville, while going through hot air. We asked for pass to visit Matri Mandir. Before getting a pass one has to watch a video. After watching the video we got the pass to visit Matri Mandir. But Matri Mandir can be viewed only from a distance of 200 meters. No one is allowed inside. One is allowed inside only to do meditation and one has to take permission couple of days in advance. After viewing from outside, we came back and had a simple meal at Auroville. There were exhibition shops etc. which were kind of expensive.



At Paradise Beach










From Auroville we went to paradise beach. The auto cost us around Rs. 220. They may charge higher but it could be bargained. At paradise beach, there were entry tickets and tickets as well if you want to use your camera. Once you are in, you have to purchase tickets for boats rides. Different kinds of boat rides are available. We took the "Beach Ride" that would take us via backwaters to the paradise beach where you see the sea. It was extremely hot there. After spending some time, we took a boat that would return back to where we boarded the boat.

Back to French Villa
The auto would charge around Rs. 150 but after bargaining it came at Rs. 120. It was time to take a small afternoon break from the hot sun.

Evening
After a short afternoon break, we spent the evening in walk around the beach. We sat for some time at Bharathi Park. In the evening it started drizzling. May be the rain gods got sympathetic to our condition of gettting roasted :-) In the night it rained heavily in Pondicherry. Since we were so tired by afternoon, we put the Aurobindo Ashram visit and museum visits to next morning.

Next Day
After a nice breakfast at Anand Adyar Bhavan, we first spent time at Aurobindo Ashram and then at Pondicherry Museum. It was a sunday. So, then we spent some time at market sicne sunday market is kind of special in Pondicherry. Then visited the Botanical Garden. But I was not impressed by Botanical garden. It did not seem to be maintained at all. Evening we spent time on the beach and visiting some handicrafts shops. The beach gets very crowded on sundays.

Pudumai
Pudumai is a beautiful and inexpensive handicrafts shop on the beach that is, on Goubert avenue. It is right next to Hotel Promenade. The stuff there seemed really reasonable. Other handicraft shops were closed since it was sunday. So that is another importan point. Surprisingly some shops in Pondicherry are closed on sundays. That is amusing to me.

Return to Bangalore
We were kind of tired and decided to find a bus directly to Bangalore rather that trying our original plan which was to come to Chennai via scenic East Coast Route and then try a bus from Chennai to Bangalore. There were no tickets available on KSRTC or PRTC (Pondicherry Road Transport Corporation). We tried some private travels as well. Finally we found 2 tickets on non-AC bus of S.R.S travels. It turned out that non-AC bus of S.R.S was much more spacious than the AC bus of KSRTC. I would not mind recommending S.R.S to people. But the only problem with these private travels is that you never where they will stop. But still the bus ride was fun enough. The S.R.S office is very close to the new bus stand of Pondicherry. The bus left at 10:30 p.m from S.R.S office and it reached Bangalore around 5:00 a.m.

Next time I visit Pondicherry, it will be not for tourism now but for Yoga or meditation.
Overall, a fun trip.

Key Points :

• Go with comfortable footwear. Otherwise your legs will hurt badly. Spongy and thick bathroom slippers are the best.
  
• Auto guys are notorious in the sense of overcharging. So keep bargaining.
  
• Most of the beautiful part of Pondicherry is walkable. The streets are beautiful and well planned so you know where exactly you are.
  
• Take sun screen with you.
  
• Take Odomos if you are going to sit on the Beach.
• There is a friday night train from Yeshwantpur to Pondicherry.
  
• There is a saturday night train from Pondicherry to Yeshwantpur.

Will add more if I remember anything.

Elections Verdict

Wrote it. Then got lazy. And then the delayed post.

What an election it was. I was glued to the TV sets for the whole weekend. All kinds of predictions were in the air.

At the end of the day, I was very happy. I was reassured. Happy that the people of this country unanimously voted for stability. Voted for securalism.

Can we say the electorate has matured? That is too far fetched. But whatever happened has has happened for good.

At least, the government now has a position where it cannot be blackmailed by every Tom Dick and Harry. And all those TDHs have been shown the real door.

And as I say, in a democracy one has to take a stand.

So people did take stand.

And hence went Vaiko out. People did not want an extremist who just does all kinds of talking. people had more important things to worry about at home.

And hence went TRS out. People must have thought that my children, my well being is much more important. And what KCR is doing is just his personal fight. Even he may not be sure if he wanted Telegana or not.

Out went Chiranjeevi. And with it went the caste based. And out went the caste based politics in Uttar Pradesh. And the SPs and BSPs with it.

Sooner the people of this country realize that caste, creed, religion have not gotten anyone anywhere, we will have better and better elections and the ones where we can be proud of each other.

Lok Raj Andolan

I saw the following from Arvind Kejriwal's blog on CNN IBN.

www.lokrajandolan.org

Fantastic Poem by Dushyant Kumar

This poem is in Hindi. Always inspires me. This is by the great poet named Dushyant Kumar.

हो गयी है पीर पर्वत सी पिघलनी चाहिए
इस हिमालय से कोई गंगा निकलनी चाहिए

आज यह दीवार परदों की तरह हिलने लगी
शर्त लेकिन थी की ये बुनियाद हिलनी चाहिए

हर सड़क पर हर गली में हर नगर हर गाँव में
हाथ लहराते हुए हर लाश चलनी चाहिए

सिर्फ़ हंगामा खड़ा करना मेरा मकसद नहीं
सारी कोशिश है की ये सूरत बदलनी चाहिए

मेरे सीने में नहीं तो तेरे सीने में सही
हो कहीं भी आग लेकिन आग जलनी चाहिए

-- By Dushyant Kumar

The Verdict

That's the title on CNN IBN by the way. Its all exit poll time, bookie time and speculation time. The world's largest elections are just over for the world's largest democracy. The elections that took a month to finish. Millions of people participated. Hats off to Election Commission for the fantastic hard work. Hats off to Police for their hard work in maintaining law and order.

As I kept on following the elections, I kept wondering if we are getting more and more divided. May be I am wrong. And I want to be wrong. But am I wrong? All discussions were very much based on divisions. All questions were centered around divisions. I could hear loud and clear, the following noises :

• Who are the Patels going to Vote for? Congress or Narendra Modi?
  
• How are the Dalits going to vote for Mayawati?
  
• How are muslim votes going to be shaped? For Congress? For Mulayam Singh?
• How is Congress doing among SC and STs?
  
• Who is more genuine in their Eelam support? Jayalalitha? Karunanidhi? Vaiko?
  
• Who will give Chandrasekhar Rao his separate state of Telangana?
  
• Who will help them in North Bengal to get a separate Gorkha Land?
  
• How will Chiranjeevi fair amongst Kapu community?
  

I shudder at the above questions. It makes me sad. It makes me nervous? Is this new? Or is it what that has defined India for centuries? Is it what the people want? What is more important for people? If the religion, caste, class is more important for people, then being a democracy, that is how the elections are going to be shaped.

I wish one party comes up and says "Thats it. Our agenda is united India where there is no division based on religion, class, caste. Our only agenda is clean society, honest society, equal opportunity for all". It is going to be a very difficult agenda. And I want to see people's responses.

I dream of the day where the agenda is only one thing : India and uplifting the masses of this country.

My dream is to see a political party that says : "I will support whoever comes to power if it helps stabilize the country".

Till then, the struggle continues. The horse trading continues. Several fronts will be formed. Several non-entities will be given unnecessary importance. The jokers in politicians will continue to amuse the people of this country. The people will cry within themselves while they externally laugh at the jokers.

But how can a change come if the people who complain give all kinds of excuses for not voting? Well, in a democracy, you have to take a stand.

And remember ! In a democracy, you get what you deserve. Unfortunate? But true.
You have the option to speak, fight, stand up, struggle, being ridiculed for wasting time and so on.

Atleast you can say : I tried.

On May 9, 2009 at Nanda Road : First hand account

On May 9, 2009, there was supposed to be a question and answer session with the Managing Director (MD) of BMRCL at Nanda Road. We woke up early in the morning and reached Nanda Road by 8:00 a.m. As we reached, we saw several enthusiastic people already there with several posters that read "Vote For Trees", "Save Trees" etc. with pictures of trees that were hand drawn.

There were also some posters that said "We Support Metro" with pictures of the faces of the presidents, secretary etc. of some organizations.

We all started chanting "Ulisi Ulisi Nand Road Ulisi", "Sarisi Sarisi Metro Saris", "Beke Beku Nyaaya Beku" etc. After a little while we came to know that the MD of BMRCL has arrived. So I was hoping that the interactive session would start. I was kind of excited about this. But pretty soon we realized that a group of people surrounded the MD and did not let him talk to us at all. Among these people, some faces that could be seen were the MLA, some office bearers of Federation of Jayanagar Residents Association etc. That was bizarre and insulting.

Why do you have avoid the bunch of peaceful protestors? Were they worried that they have no answers to difficult questions? Whatever the reason was, their gesture was demeaning, insulting and undemocratic. But we were also not willing to give up. We kept on speaking on the loudspeaker and kept urging the MD to address us. MLA was answerable to the public. MD of BMRCL was answerable to the public. Even police did not allow us to move closer to him. This clearly shows what can you expect from Police.

After 3 hours of relentless persistence, we heard the MD will address us. Did he have any other options? If he didnt, our next move was to go directly to MLA's house. People were fed up for being taken for granted.

Now started the most disappointing moment. Environmentalist Mr. Leo Saldanha first asked about the zig-zag nature of Metro for which MD gave some answers. After this, the MLA Vijay Kumar wanted to say something. When Leo was telling about how even Mr. Vijay Kumar supported us in the past, suddenly some bullies started shouting. Even Mr. Vijay Kumar started shouting. For a moment, I started thinking if I am in the middle of the hooligans who are with the MLA. One of the hooligans was shouting in a threating manner towards Leo.

The other person was Mr. Keshava Kumar. He is supposedly the secretary of the Federation of Jayanagar Residents Association. But the way he was behaving himself reminded me of some roadside hooligan. His gesture of showing his index finger towards a young lady was so shameful. And by the way, this is my first hand eye witness account.

And we call ourselves democratic where these kind of goondaism behaviors are acceptable?

Next disappointing moment was that the MD and his group spent hardly an hour with us. For such a huge project which is worth almost Rs. 9000 crores, dont the public have the right to ask questions? How long can we remain passive in this country?

The MD and his group hardly answered a question or two and left. Several questions remained unanswered.

Prof. B K Chandrasekhar, ex minister addressed the crowd as well.

Several questions remain unanswered.
In a democracy people have to take a stand. Based on an informed decision.

Otherwise, we will be a perennially complaining citizenry, complaining about how things are bad in our society. So we should rather step up and do whatever we can so that we can atleast say "I tried".

I was uninitiated to the campaign to Save Lalbagh and save the environment. But after I looked into certain stuff, I decide to take part in this campaign.

And I continue to learn more and more.

Save Nanda Road, Save Lalbagh

May 9 2009 : Save Bangalore Protest

Namma Bengalura a.k.a My Bangalore

The Bangalore temperatures have gone up. It has been extremely hot this summer for sure. By the way, Bangalore International Airport has come up. Bangalore Metro is being built.

We are getting modernized. We are developing. Hurray!!!

But in the middle of all these, someone is getting massacred. The ones which give life to us. But we refuse to acknowledge. The ones which give us peace. But we refuse to acknowledge. The ones that protect us from flooding. But we refuse to acknowledge.

And those are the precious and valuable trees of Bangalore. The tree that have been the heritage of this beautiful city. The trees that played a significant role in getting this city to be called beautiful. The tress that played a role in getting this city called air-conditioned city.

But here we are, human beings, once again back with our stupidity and our desire to not value what we have, our inability to respect and appreciate our wealth of environment, hell-bent to cut these trees, massacre them. Because, we need development. Development through destruction. Destruction of our live provider and the life provider for several other species.

Well, in such a case, here are the things we can do

• We sit idle and complain few years from now on how the city has become polluted and has become hotter and so on. And blame it on some dishonest folks. But who lost? We.
  
• Alternatively, we put in our effort without worrying whether we will succeed or we lose. But we know that we listened to our hearts and decided to act in a way that our future generations would look up to us and not as cheats
  

If we want to put in our efforts to stop blatant murder of our beautiful environment in the garb of development, start participating. Join the folks who are spearheading this effort to save Namma Bengaluru.

http://www.hasiruusiru.org

Let us put small efforts so we can, at the least, tell our souls that I tried.

Save Lalbagh, Save Bangalore

Please read it and if you agree, please go ahead and sign it :

http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/savelalbaghfrommetro/index.html

The above is about the impact on Lalbagh, the heritage of Bangalore and India, by the metro.

More coming on this blog in the coming few days.

After a Long Time

Posting after a long time. It has been quite boring few months. Well, I hurt my back while trying to do some exercise. And pretty much have been very busy with work. Or so am I trying to show.

Life been centered quite around work. Will need a break.

Have also been thinking about in whose hands is this country going to be after a elections. I pity ourselves, the poor Indians who have so awful options when it comes to vote.

Isnt it such an irony that our manifestos sound like the following :
1. Rice, Dal free
2. Color TV free
3. Temple will be built
4. Need to have Maharashtrian PM

We think that people become mature with age. But definitely our old politicians are becoming senile. They just do not have a vision. PERIOD.

Well, I am thoroughly enjoying watching NDTV and CNN IBN and TimesNOW these days. The debates are hilarious. You feel like, oh my god, this guy or woman is going to rule this country?

And I almost give up.

Voter Facilitation Center

Election Commission website information on Voter Facilitation Center is not that helpful. Here is a Deccan Herald Article that might be useful

http://www.deccanherald.com/content/Feb122009/city20090212118009.asp

Report on Say I am

Say I Am , the silent and performative protest walk that I talked about two days back, happened this afternoon. This was organized by the students of Shristi School of Art, Design and Technology. The walk started from the Rest House Park. The crowd expected was not much. But to a pleasant surprise of everyone, it was almost around 200. We too joined in the protest march. There is something that has started giving every citizen of this country an uncomfortable feeling about the state of affairs. Well, that is for another day. We started walking from the Rest House Road park towards the brigade. We all put couple of placards on our shoulders and chests. The placards said, "I am an India Man", "This is my culture" etc. As we moved on, the crowd started taking notice of the group. And the onlookers were also encouraged to join. We took same stops at certain locations like Barton center etc. to express our freedo
m in whatever way we wanted.

As we moved, suddenly we saw police. People must have started thinking, "oh there you go". But the police seemed to be very cooperative and they did not harass the silent walkers. But they did not let us enter the cubbon park. So we had to park at the signal there.

The beauty of today's world is, media is everywhere. And it is purely because of media that bigger segment of people come to know about activities like these. There were folks from TV9, Kasturi, TimesNow, Hindu etc.

Khadi India 2009

On saturday we went to Khadi India 2009. Khadi India 2009 is happening at Gayathri Vihar at the Palace Grounds. Pretty neat event. It is happening from Feb 4, 2009 to March 5, 2009. So catch a glimpse if you can and get some nice khadi goodies.

Catch a bus from Majestic towards Mekhri Circle and get down at Palace grounds bus stop. It is right opposite to Gayathri Vihar entrance.

It seems there will be cultural events in the evenings too.

Say I Am

Got this from a mailing list.



Say, I am – a performative walk.

In light of the recent violence that took place against women in Mangalore and the statements that were made thereafter, its time to say, I am. Indian culture is being defined, strained and subverted by many elements other than ourselves. In an attempt to induce the spirit of freedom, choice and non-violence we invite people from all spheres to join us on a walk on Sunday, the 8^th of February, 4 pm onwards. "I am an Indian, this is my culture" is the initial adopted slogan that we hope people will wear in the form of tags or banners. The walk will start from Rest House Road Park, through brigade road, MG road and end at Cubbon Park. There will be two stops on the way, one at Levis Square on brigade road and the other at Barton centre on MG road. During these pauses (that will last about 5 to 10 minutes) and at the end of the walk at Cubbon Park every participant will get into any position that they feel most free in (sit/stand/lean/crouch/lie etc.) as a symbol of disapproval of the occurrence of violence and curbing the freedom of expression. We speak of development and progress, but the struggle for basic freedom and acts of appalling violence, raise the question- Where is India headed? Join us to collectively declare our diverse culture.

Please forward this email along with the attachment to as many people who you think might be interested.

Voter Registration

I got this SMS yesterday from Jaagore.

"Dear user, please note that voter registration forms will be accepted from Feb 10 instead of Feb 2 at your ERO's office."

By the way, go ahead and get help on voter registration etc. at http://www.jaagore.com

It seems that we all really have to register and vote so that we ensure that the completely misguided groups like Shri Ram Sene etc. and their supporters like BJP (sorry Advani ji. I like you but I think BJP may not be anymore of what you stand for) are made aware about where they will stand if they try to weaken the cultural fabric of this country with their blatant hypocrisy and their religious bigotry.

Lok Sabha elections are near. There already has been an increase in registrations. I hope many more youth will register in an effort to save the country and make it an ever secular and kind country.

http://www.jaagore.com
http://ceokarnataka.kar.nic.in/

To the Chief Minister of Karnataka

Dear Chief Minister of Karnataka,

I am scared and worried writing this letter to you. I am worried that, after this letter is received, if I will be beaten up or harassed by the custodians of Hindu culture. I am worried if BJP/Shree Ram Sena/Bajrang Dal/MNS or any other "messengers" of god will harass me or my family.

But nevertheless, I will write believing Shakespeare who said " A coward dies many times before his death. The valiant never taste of death but once".

As a responsible citizen of India, I am disturbed by what has happened in Mangalore recently. I am horrified to see the violence on women who were peacefully having a good time. The so called custodians of Hindu culture not only proved they are uncultured rowdies, they also brought a despicable reputation to this country in front of the whole world showing how narrowminded they are. The world will think how narrow minded India is. Fortunately, Hindu religion has faced several brutalities throughout history and came out triumphant purely because of its all emcompassing kindness and love. I am proud to have embraced hinduism that teaches love and kindness. And these hoodlums cannot taint it.

But, as a responsible citizen and an incumbent of the government, it becomes your responsibility to ensure safety to your citizens and and deliver justice to the victims. You cannot wash your hands off by making token arrests. The onus is on your government to prove to your citizens that your government and your party are indeed different.

The hoodlums of Shree Ram Sena have broken the law and it becomes the responsibility of your government to ensure that they are quickly tried according to law book. If they had organizational support, it becomes your reponsibility to ensure that their organization is tried according to law book.

You may be happy that you came to power. Please do keep in mind that you did not come to power because it was your prerogative. It was because people were tired of hopelessness from the previous government. They wanted a change that would give them hope.

It is your actions that are going to define who you are , what your party is and what your government stands for. If no action is taken, it will be construed as pure incapability and connivance and people will be justified in considering BJP as nothing but a rowdy party. Even if BJP has nothing to do with Shree Ram Sena, if history is anything to believe in, then people are justified in associating any violence happening in the name of Shree Ram with BJP's role in it. And the onus is on your government to disprove it.

If you think you have done whatever is possible and give up without concretely ensuring that we bring closure on this issue, please be sure that people of this country will have no other option but to think that BJP is an endangered party and will ensure that they will never vote for BJP. That will have impact on the national scene as well. The whole country is watching. And Indians are not fools. As for me, I am pretty sure that I am never going to vote for the party, which, until a few years back was a refreshing change for me. And that is BJP. Just imagine how many like me you might be creating who are just fed up with narrowminded religious banality.

I will finish this note with a quote from Swami Vivekananda :

"All nations have attained greatness by paying proper respect to women. That country and that nation which do not respect women have never become great, nor will ever be in future."

And then they came for me

And then they came for me

Last Thursday, Lasantha Wickramatunga, who was fifty-two-years-old and the editor of a Sri Lankan newspaper called the Sunday Leader, was assassinated on his way to work by two gunmen riding motorcycles. The Leader's investigative reporting had been fiercely critical of the government and of the conduct of its war against Tamil separatists; Wickramatunga had been attacked before.

Cellular Silence Day

This is a very valuable petition on petiononline.

http://www.petitiononline.com/30JAN09/petition.html

I would definitely support this petition.

If you do, then read the petition, support it, and turn your cell phone off.

I still cannot believe how a country can so carelessly let go of a carnage ? Was it any less than a genocide?